Several grants have been helping support operations in Pearl River County, and the Board of Supervisors approved a motion to apply for more.

Nuria Arias said that for 2021, she secured a DUI grant worth $44,000, which will help pay for a DUI officer in the Sheriff’s Department. She applied for the same grant again for next year to keep that funding coming in.

She also applied for and received a grant for $21,000 to help pay for overtime for law enforcement officers.

Additionally she said the county was awarded $5,000 to help purchase four tasers and almost $40,000 to help purchase body cameras.

Two grants that have a July 6, deadline were suggested by Arias, one to help people who are overcoming opioid addiction and another one to help with law enforcement officer recruitment and retention.  Sheriff David Allison said during a previous meeting that he has been having trouble finding enough deputies to cover all of the shifts.

The Board approved a motion for Arias to apply for those grants.

In other business, the Board approved a bid from Huey Stocktill Inc. for hot mix asphalt at $88.50 per ton and ultra thin asphalt at $91.50 per ton.

A bid from Warren Paving for the same materials came in at $112.40 and $110 per ton respectively.

Les Dungan with Dungan Engineering said part of the reason the cost of the asphalt was so low is because county employees are doing some of the prep work as part of the county-wide paving project. Of the 17 miles of road the county crews need to conduct prep work on, 4.8 miles are complete.

Paving along Burnt Bridge Road is nearing completion. Dungan said that crews need to complete about 150 tons of tie in work before the project is complete, but recent rains have delayed efforts to complete the work.

Road Department Manager Charlie Schielder said that the delivery of three pieces of equipment recently ordered should be complete by the end of next month. A single axle truck was expected to arrive on Thursday, while a skid steer is expected to arrive on July 7 from North Carolina. A third piece of equipment, a distributor truck, will arrive by the end of July.