Tuesday evening the Poplarville Board of Aldermen postponed a budget hearing, heard from the public regarding a lack of plots at Forest Lawn Cemetery and discussed a commercial and residential zoning matter.

Owner of Creative Kingdom Daycare Terrisa Shedd said she realized her daycare had been rezoned in 2010 as residential. Shedd requested the Mississippi Planning Commission to change it to commercial, which was accepted. Shedd pleaded with the Board to have the city’s side of the process sped up so she can add her children to her roster who are currently on a wait list. After a long discussion, Code Enforcement Kolby Davis and city attorney Gregory Holcomb informed Shedd that zoning involves a lengthy process where steps can’t be skipped.

The Board will look into replacing the solar powered flashing school zone sign located at the Poplarville High School with either the same model or a regular non-flashing sign. The previous sign was damaged in a vehicle collision last year. The cost to replace the sign with a similar solar powered model is $3,598 and can be covered under Board’s insurance. The Board did put the original sign there but they are not obligated to put a flashing sign there. Police Chief Daniel Collier informed the Board a sign including verbiage of the school’s times would be just as effective as a flashing sign. The Board tabled this matter to get more information from the Mississippi Department of Transportation concerning the price of a non-flashing sign and to gather the appropriate times and verbiage for the sign.

The Board was supposed to approve the coming fiscal year’s budget but City Clerk Marnie Ready said, “I’ve run into a little snag on the budget so we can’t approve it tonight.”

As a result, a special call meeting was set for  Sept. 12, 2022 at 6 p.m. to approve the budget for the fiscal year ending Sept. 30, 2023.

After a long discussion about zoning and privilege license applications for medical marijuana dispensaries, the Board is going to focus on assigning a privilege license fee. The Board has yet to set zoning ordinances for the dispensaries.

Fire Chief Jason Bannister informed the Board that his department still has free smoke detectors and residents can still request for the devices to be installed by the fire department personnel.

The Board also accepted the resignation of public defender Jansen Owen.

The Board approved a request from Pearl River Community College to ignite fireworks on Oct. 13 at their homecoming football game.

The Board also approved two-event requests. On Sept. 22 from 5 – 8 p.m. Poplarville will host a football pep rally and homecoming festivities at the Town Green. On Sept. 10 Nov. 12 and Dec. 10 from 4 – 8 p.m. the Poplarville Chamber of Commerce will host “Second Sunday” events. There will be merchants, music, pop up art galleries, a sidewalk sale and food trucks.

In other business, the Board approved the claims docket in the amount of $151,387.

The Board went into executive session in regard to personnel in the court, fire department and public works.