Poplarville’s City Hall will remained closed to in-person business as COVID-19 cases climb in Mississippi.

The Poplarville Board of Aldermen have been discussing how to reopen the interior of City Hall to the general public during the past couple of meetings. City business can still be conducted via drive-thru. Mayor Rossie Creel said that given the climbing COVID-19 cases, the city will wait until January to consider reopening City Hall for business in the lobby.

The city of Poplarville will continue to have a city election commission in 2021. The Poplarville Board of Aldermen have been considering eliminating the city’s election commission and hiring the county’s election commissioners to take on those duties. The city’s election commission already consults the county’s election commissioners concerning municipal elections.

City Attorney Manya Bryan discussed the matter with the county election commissioners, who said they do not want to take over the city’s election commissioner duties at the moment. The law allowing cities to dissolve their election commission and hire the county election commission is new, said Bryan, so the county election commissioners want to wait and see how the process works out for other jurisdictions before attempting it in Pearl River County. The county election commissioners want to continue to assist the city on a consultant basis, said Bryan.

Poplarville does have three municipal election commissioners currently and two people willing to serve if one of those commissioners does not want to continue next year.

The next Board meeting will be Tuesday, Jan. 5, at 5 p.m.