The Pearl River County Board of Supervisors met Wednesday to discuss numerous topics, such as E-911 addressing, Hobolochitto Creek Wetland Conservation Park changes and an annual report from the Pearl River Basin Development District.

The first of those topics covered the importance of having address numbers on both the mailbox and home or building.

Without proper identification on mailboxes and houses, firefighters, EMS, and police officers cannot find citizens in a time of emergency.

“Everybody needs an address on mailboxes and houses. That way E-911 can find everyone easily. Sometimes the fire department and EMS are riding around trying to find the home they are suppose to go to, but can’t because the building does not have an address number on it,” county resident, Russell Foster said.

The board of supervisors agreed that the matter is a priority for the safety of residents.

Another topic discussed was a Hobolochito Creek Wetland Conservation Park change order. The project involves construction of a public park at the creek’s bridge on Liberty Road.

Les Dungan, county engineer, proposed a change in the development of the park.

“An alteration to the project involved a savings of about $2,000 from substituting, or replacing, some of the basic material placed underneath the asphalt parking with clay gravel,” said Dungan.

Dungan added that initially the plan was to put limestone under the asphalt, however after reviewing the project, he thought clay gravel was more appropriate, saying the material is very sandy and would be a better binder underneath the asphalt.

He plans on using the leftover money to implement security at the park.

“When school ended we noticed that a lot of 4 wheelers and 4-wheel drive trucks were going through the park, tearing everything up,” said Dungan.

The security features would include pipe fencing in front of the parking lot, as well as motion-sensor cameras, proposed by District 3 Supervisor, Hudson Holliday.

“We need something to secure or shut down the park at times,” said Sandy Kane Smith, president of the board of supervisors.

Dungan agreed, and added that the main concern is to make sure vehicles stay in the parking lot.

“Whatever we can do to keep vehicles where they need to be, I think we should do it,” said Farron Moeller, district 4 supervisor.

The cameras can also be useful to make sure nothing happens to children at the park, said Dungan.

 

In other action:

• Sheriff David Allison was approved to travel to the National Conference in Minneapolis, MN on June 24-30, 2016.
• The DEQ discharge monitoring report for the county complex at Millard was approved. It modifies ownership of the wastewater treatment facility from the county to the Pearl River County Utility Authority, said Dungan.
• Approved advertising for asphalt and related material bids.

“Hauling is a big part of the price of the material when we are getting it delivered, so we calculate where the ‘break-even’ point is in the county. Meaning if you are buying asphalt from somewhere like Hillsdale it might be cheaper, rather than going all the way to Hattiesburg and also cheaper than just buying it in Picayune at their prices,” said Dungan.

• The Pearl River Basin Development District presented its annual report to the board, discussing the joint water management program. According to information presented by Jimmy Baldwin, manager of ground water management, the main purpose of the program is to establish and maintain a more complete integrated database relating to water supply in member counties.

“We do not have to worry about running low on ground water here in Pearl River County. Even though aquifers have shown very low long-term decline rates, we still would have enough water in these wells for up to 500 years,” said Baldwin.

Little was mentioned about the lake project, however it will be discussed in further detail at the next meeting on Monday, June 6.