Monday, Sept. 29 the Carroll County Board of Supervisors held their regular end of the month meeting. Much business was discussed over the nearly hour and a half duration of the meeting. The highlights of the meeting are as follows.
The first major topic of discussion was brought before the Board by the county’s Emergency Management Director and North Carrollton’s Mayor Ken Strachan. In a previous meeting on Aug. 25, the Board had approved a memorandum of understanding with the school district to utilize the J.Z. George Gymnasium as a disaster recovery center for the county. However, during the Sep. 11 meeting of the Carroll County School District Board of Education, the item was tabled by the school district in favor of reexamining the contract material. Emergency Management Director Strachan explained that due to there being a strict deadline with the Mississippi Emergency Management Agency on declaring a county disaster recovery center, he had looked into other available facilities which met the requirements. He explained that he met with Carrollton Mayor Pam Lee and came to an agreement to utilize the Carrollton Community House as the disaster recovery center for the county. The Board expressed their gratitude to Mayor Lee and the Town of Carrollton for their support in the matter.
The next matter of business was regarding the recent vacancy of the Carrollton Clinic building. This issue was brought before the Board by Board Clerk Casey Carpenter. Clerk Carpenter explained that there was some interest in having the Superintendent’s office moved into the recently vacated building, however he was unsure if the Board would prefer to go a different direction with the building. At this time Beat 1 Supervisor Jim Neill stated that he had constituents approach him to express their concerns regarding the need for a clinic in Carrollton or North Carrollton.
“The county already has a contract with UMMC, why don’t we contact UMMC and see if they’d be interested in that building,” Beat 2 Supervisor Josh Hurst proposed.
Supervisor Hurst explained that he would be in support of contacting UMMC to see if they could open a clinic in Carrollton similar to the one they have in Vaiden, where they are only open select days of the week. Throughout the discourse, the Board discussed various options for the building but remained with the general consensus of wanting to have a clinic there. Ultimately, the Board agreed to contact UMMC among other providers to see if anyone would be interested in reopening the clinic.
The final majorly discussed matter of business for the meeting was regarding the recent stall in the Carrollton courthouse revitalization project. During this meeting the Board would once again need to discuss and vote on a color scheme for the courthouse. The recently approved color scheme was ultimately vetoed by the Mississippi Department of Archives and History for not meeting a certain criteria.
“I think what happened after the Board meeting the other day is, the Board approved [the color scheme], then it has to go back to MDAH and they have the final say,” Board Clerk Carpenter began his explanation.
He continued, “I don’t know if they [the contractors] took that and started painting trying to get ahead of the Pilgrimage - and MDAH came back after they presented them this one and they did not like the full windows.”
“They approved the colors but they didn’t approve the way it was laid out on the windows,” Carpenter stated.
Clerk Carpenter explained that the Board would now have to re-vote on the color scheme and layout and resubmit the chosen layout to MDAH for approval. In addition he explained that due to the miscommunication between the contracted agencies and MDAH, any facade paint work done would need to be redone to meet the new parameters set by MDAH. Carpenter explained to the Board that he would inform the contractors that all work needs to be approved prior to being implemented and that the Board would not incur additional costs for unapproved work. Ultimately the Board approved the color scheme titled “1887 Paint Scheme” which includes white and green paint reminiscent of the color scheme of the courthouse in the 1800’s. This reworked painting scheme will be resubmitted to MDAH for approval before painting can resume.
