WINONA – The Montgomery County Board of Supervisors voted to make some much needed improvements to the Montgomery County Coliseum at Monday’s regular meeting.
The board voted to repair the handicapped elevator at the Montgomery County Coliseum instead of building a concrete or wooden ramp from the coliseum floor into the stands. It was decided that constructing a ramp would be costly and absorb a large area of arena space.
In addition, sewer improvements are in the future, with the City of Winona providing the labor for the job and the county providing the materials, Chancery Clerk Ryan Wood announced.
In other county business:
• Wood presented an updated Montgomery County Employee Handbook to the board for members to look over before adopting. Wood asked the board to consider allowing employees to carry over sick days, five allocated each year, to allow for long-term medical issues like maternity leave. Wood said any sick days accrued should not be paid if the employee leaves the position.
Currently, the county does not offer any kind of paid leave for maternity, other than the opportunity to purchase short-term disability insurance.
No vote was taken on the matter.
• Dr. Teresa Jackson, superintendent of the Winona-Montgomery Consolidated School District, gave the board an update of what is happening around the school district.
• Charlie Parkerson, now the director of operations for the Winona-Montgomery Consolidated School District, spoke to the board about repairing the driveway of a school bus driver. The driver had been parking the bus at his home while running an alternate route usually driven by another driver, and with the recent heavy rains, the bus caused damage to his drive.
Because the county cannot do work on private property, Parkerson said the school would designate the area a school bus turnaround, as the driver will be running the route on and off throughout the school year. The county can make repairs to official school bus turnarounds.
• Simeon Townsend from the Youngs Chapel community asked the board to pave the road beyond the church. He said the dust is harmful to the health of those living in the community.
• The board voted for Montgomery County Emergency Operations Director Allan Pratt and Deputy Director Marilyn Knight to attend the MEMA conference in Biloxi in November.
• The board voted to advertise for bids to sell one of the county’s used motor graders.
• The board authorized Justice Court Clerk Karen Carter to attend the Justice Court Clerk’s fall conference in Jackson in November.
• The board authorized Joseph Heath, Veterans Affairs officer, to county service officer training in Columbus later this month.
• The board approved an interlocal agreement with Grenada County to provide on paving Greensboro Road at a cost of $50,000, to be paid by Grenada County.
