The Duck Hill Board of Alderman meeting Monday evening began promptly as always. The first topic of the meeting was brought before the Board by the Vice President of the Montgomery County chapter of Men in Black and Blue Fighting Prostate Cancer, Benjamin Hemphill Sr. Hemphill explained to the Board that as September is Prostate Cancer Awareness Month, the organization had a series of events planned throughout the week of September 23 through September 27, 2024.
In addition, he informed the Board and those present that the Leflore County chapter would be hosting a Health Fair on Sept. 14 at the Civics Center from 8 a.m. to noon, and the Carroll County chapter would be hosting a Health Fair on Sept. 21 at the J.Z. George Gymnasium from 8 a.m. to noon.
Regarding the first item on his list, Vice President Hemphill requested the Board’s approval for the organization to place a ribbon fixture in an area where it would easily be seen by people throughout Duck Hill. Alderwoman Morgan
Eskridge suggested that the ribbon be placed on or around the Caboose, where it would be prominently displayed along Highway 51. The Board was in support of this, however no motion was necessary.
Next on the Agenda to speak was Preserving and Restoring Eagle Pride (PREP) Representative Nannette Laster. Laster explained to the Board that PREP has recently undergone reorganization and a new Board of Directors has been selected. In addition, the organization is undergoing the necessary procedure to gain charity status through the state, which Laster approximates completion sometime in October.
“The good news is, we asked for donations. We hoped to raise $5,000 to repair the roof issue that needs to be taken care of immediately.” Laster explained, “We raised that in about two weeks.”
She went on to say, “We have more than $5,000. So, I think that just shows that there is interest in this project.”
Representative Laster stated that they received donations ranging from ten dollars to one thousand dollars, most donations were local from the Duck Hill area, and some donations were from other states such as Florida and Tennessee. She then explained that the town would need to request approval of the work for repairing the roof from the Department of History and Archives.
“Are y’all proposing to buy the building?” Mayor Al White asked.
“No. We’re proposing to fix the roof.” Laster replied, “We’re buying time, is what we’re buying. To give y’all to decide how you want to handle the sale or whatever.”
After a small amount of discussion regarding the subject, the meeting moved on without any motions or decisions being made.
Later in the meeting, during the Public Work report given by Town Engineer Joe Sutherland, the issue of sectioning off the Binford School Property to sell was discussed. At this time, Engineer Sutherland gave each Board member a drawing regarding his suggestions of what to sell in addition to the building itself. He stated that if the Board agreed on the matter, he could have the surveys and legal descriptions done to assist in the sale.
Alderwoman Shernell Everett-Brown quickly disagreed with the sketches, stating that as the sketch was only including the Binford building and the Vo-tech building, with no land attached, she expected no one would want to buy it.
“No one’s going to want to buy the Binford building without any land attached to it.” Alderwoman Everett-Brown stated.
Engineer Sutherland clarified that the Binford building has 1.6 acres of land.
“This is what I’m saying - you have nothing over here. You have nowhere to park, you have nothing there. If they’re buying it, they can’t have a say or nothing.” She continued.
“All I can say - I disagree with it. Now, the Board can vote on what they want to vote on, but - The way that we got this chopped up… if you’re buying it to do something for the Binford building it’s nothing that you can do. Really, it’s nothing left.” She finished.
Mayor White explained that the Board was looking for a new place for city hall, and as the grounds are city property, the area was under consideration. The discussion continued, with Mayor White and Alderwoman Everett-Brown speaking about prospective buyers. Board Attorney Adam Kirk stated that he had been advised to hold off on filing any intent paperwork with the Department of History and Archives until a dedicated buyer was found, at which time the town and the buyer would have to file a notice of intent with the department. He explained that before anything else, the Board would need to decide what to sell. After a lengthy discussion, Mayor White suggested the issue be tabled for another time, suggesting that a Special Called meeting may be more appropriate for handling the topic. The topic was tabled by the Board on a motion made by Alderman Chirs Caldwell and seconded by Alderwoman Cynthia Brown-Kountz with all in favor.
The final topic of discussion was brought up by Alderwoman Everett-Brown concerning the town’s agreement with Atmos Energy to obtain Atmos’ excess gas. In an earlier discussion it was brought to the Board’s attention that this agreement, which was made in the late 80’s, would expire within the 2024 year. This means Atmos will no longer be supplying excess gas to the town. The town of Duck Hill will maintain their own source of gas, it would only be this excess from Atmos that is affected by the change.
Neither Engineer Sutherland nor Attorney Kirk seemed to believe there would be a major issue or shortage barring an unexpected extreme winter. Attorney Kirk stated that there would be no way to know if an issue would arise aside from being vigilant.
“We’re not losing our gas, we’re losing our excess gas that we don’t even know if we’re using, right?” Alderwoman Eskridge questioned.
Attorney Kirk then explained that it was excess gas that is of concern, and that the town would maintain their own gas source.
