During Thursday’s meeting of the Pearl River County Utility Authority, three members of the Board of Directors indicated they would be stepping down.

Thursday was Board President Dr. Sonny Sones’ last day. So, as the Board took nominations to fill his soon to be vacated seat, two members declined nominations, Fred Aubrey and Ike Lewis. Before another member on the Board could be nominated, Marcia Johnson told the Board that she intended to resign from the Board as well, effective next month.

Board member Mike Pind was then elected president of the Board for the next year.

When it came time to elect a vice president, current Vice President Ike Lewis indicated that he too intends to step down from the Board by the year’s end.

Board member Ernie Lovell was then nominated to the post.

Brenda DeArmas was chosen as the Board’s secretary for the next year.

The Board decided to wait until next month’s meeting to elect a treasurer, since Sones’ replacement, Tabitha Butler, would officially be on the Board at that time. She attended Thursday’s meeting as a member of the audience.

In other business, engineer Vernon Moore told the Board that he expects to have a plan in place for the installation of a water treatment system at Eagle Heights within the next two months, pending no wetland mitigation issues pop up.

Executive Director Ray Scott said he will meet with residents of the subdivision in October, who approached the Utility Authority about installing that system, to update them on a timeline for that work.

Concerns about flat rates for sewer services at Round Rock subdivision have prompted the Utility Authority to attempt to read the meters themselves. Scott said that effort is needed because several attempts to get that information from Pearl River Central, the water company serving that area, have been unsuccessful.

Scott said that the plan is to have Utility Authority staff read the estimated 100 meters by hand for three months and come up with an average to gather data that will be presented to residents in the subdivision. That data should be able to show whether the flat rate is indicative of a resident’s actual use.

At the end of the meeting, Sones took a moment to thank the staff and fellow Board members for their hard work to make the Pearl River County Utility Authority one of the best utility authorities in the state.

Sones and Lewis are the last two original members of the Board from when it was formed after Hurricane Katrina.

For more on Thursday’s meeting, see Saturday’s edition of the Item.