Supervisors gearing up for reopening of county offices

Published 7:00 am Thursday, June 18, 2020

County buildings will have to be open as normal by July 1 due to an order from Governor Tate Reeves, County Administrator Adrain Lumpkin told the Board of Supervisors during Wednesday’s regular meeting.

But how to sanitize all of the county buildings every day once they are reopened to the public is a problem the Board does not have a solution for yet.

Currently only two trusties and one county employee are being relied on to clean county buildings. The Board plans to meet again Wednesday to determine how buildings will be sanitized before reopening.

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In a separate matter, the Board approved bids for renovation work on the Poplarville County Courthouse. The renovations will cost an estimated $2.5 million. The county received $350,000 from the state last year to put toward renovations and may receive another $350,000 in the current year. When the county borrowed money for the Pearl River County Courthouse Annex, some additional funds were set aside for renovation of the historic courthouse, said Lumpkin.

Since the Courthouse is a historic building, original materials have to be maintained and the kind of renovations allowed to the building are limited, said Lumpkin.

The renovations will include repairing windows, adding heating and cooling and dividing some spaces into additional offices.

In other business the Board:

—Approved a $5,000 payment to Southern Contractors and Builders for completing a metal building at the county jail for evidence storage and a $4,400 payment to Alison Spray Foam Insulation for insulating the building.

—Approved appointing Margaret Smith to the Poplarville School Board to represent District 2 to replace Clelly Farmer.

—Approved a payment of $16,767 to Pearl River Paving Co., LLC for work on McNeill McHenry Road. The roadwork is part of an ERBR project. The total contract is for $389,644.

—Approved a payment of $9,139 to Mago, Inc. for work on Progress Silver Run Road. The work is part of an ERBR project. The total contract is for $1.1 million.