Published: July 09, 2009 01:13 pm      

Supervisors consider county-wide notification system

POPLARVILLE — Next time a hurricane passes through town knocking out power and closing roads, the county might have the technology in place to notify residents no matter where they are staying, when their power is restored and when the roads are opened.

“We have the reverse 911,” said Danny Manley, director of Emergency Management, at Tuesday’s Pearl River county Board of Supervisors meeting. “But reverse 911 has some downfalls.”

Manley said that reverse 911 depends on landlines to make the calls, but that more and more people are switching to using cell phones for telephone calls. Thus, he said, notifying people through the reverse 911 system was not always effective, especially if they had to evacuate or were taking up shelter at another location.

He has been researching notification systems, Manley said, and switching to one may not only help during a number of situations where residents may need notification of a crisis or other situation, but the system could be paid for by selling usage rights to other county entities. “It sends out emails, text messages, and phone calls,” Manley said, adding that the Pearl River County Water Authority, the school districts, and the city of Picayune were all considering such a system.

“My vision is the county purchases the system and we could seek additional users for it,” Manley said. “That would defray the costs of purchasing it.”

Utility authority engineer Brooks Wallace and that agency is actively considering such a system. “For the utility authority, it would cost us about $1,500 annually because it is based on the number of households,” he said, adding that the authority was willing to consider utilizing such a system run by the county.

Manley said that there were several programs available through a number of companies, each with pros and cons, but that each provides a number of options and an unlimited number of users. “My vision is that we get a system and add the users,” said Manley. “The schools want in, fire departments, water authority. Each would pay for the residences they want.”

Manley cautioned that for the purchase of the system to be offset, he needed to first determine “the level of participation,” each entity would be interested in, adding that the city of Picayune was signing a contract Tuesday night for $8,000 to participate in a notification system. “If we can add these users, it will defray the cost of the system,” said Manley.

In other business, the board:

— Approved travel for the Justice Court Clerk to the Judicial College in Oxford, MS, on July 14 and 15.

— Approved travel of the payroll clerk to PERS Employer Training in Hattiesburg, MS on July 16.

— Approved travel for three dispatchers to an APCO 16 hour state re-certification class in Ellisville on July 23 and 24.

— Approved travel for the chief deputy to the Mississippi Command College in Oxford, July 26 trough 31.

— Approved travel for an investigator from the sheriff’s department to a burglary and robbery seminar in Biloxi on August 5 and 6.

— Acknowledged receipt of $18,000 grant from Homeland Security, applied for through the department of Emergency Management for the sheriff’s department. The grant will be used for rapid intervention training and equipment.

— Approved release of irrevocable letters of credit for the Deerfield at Wildwood subdivision to Stuart Company. Planning & Development director Ed Pinero said the company has corrected everything on the county’s punch list and is in the process of having the roads renamed to reflect the posted street road signs.

— Supervisor Charles Culpepper appointed Lisa Graves to the Poplarville Board of Education.

— Discussed having some workshops to discuss the issue of temporary housing such as former FEMA trailers being purchased and used for housing, as well as a former school bus being used as a residence.

— Discussed a request from Sandy Kane Smith to consider the proposal to add an animal control officer within the next budget. Smith had responded to a call from a resident about the dead and dying dogs recently discovered behind an abandoned service station in McNeill. All but one of the surviving dogs were euthanized due to their extremely poor condition. Smith said that it took an entire day to obtain the seizure warrant. In the meantime, no one could even help the dogs. “I have not seen anything like it, there was death everywhere,” said Smith. “And it took all day to get a warrant. We need to do something.”

— Approved a motion to ban all dogs from county walking parks including McNeill and Carriere.

The next Board of Supervisor’s meeting is at 9 a.m. Monday, July 13, in the courthouse on Julia Street, Poplarville.