The county won’t go up on taxes, but they will see the cost of garbage collection climb dramatically.
Supervisors met with David Greene, of Republic Services, Tuesday and Republic’s bid currently has the county going to a $38.55 cost to collect garbage and rubbish, up from the previous price of $21.73.
The county will conduct a trash “can-count” of the homes with garbage carts this week and hopes a smaller count will prompt Republic to decrease it price.
The county has held the $21.73 fee for four years with Republic citing rising fuel prices, payroll and its cost to dispose of garbage at landfills as a reason for its price hike.
The City of Clarksdale will negotiate its garbage rates with Republic later this year.
Republic offered a price of $26.05 for garbage pickup only, with the county responsible for picking up limbs and debris classified at rubbish.
“Our citizens have become accustomed to rubbish pickup,” said Board President Johnny Newson. “What are we to do? We will pick it up.”
The county levies a 5 mill property tax for garbage collection and does not charge a fee to homeowners. That levy raises approximately $800,000.
Republic’s last can-count was 3,000 trash cans, and at the $38.55 rate would raise $115,650 a month or $1.3 million a year.
Coahoma County has seen a population decline of about 500 people a year over the last four years and projects the new home or can-count to be about 2,500 homes.
Greene said he was willing to negotiate with the county if the can-count was minor.
On a motion by Newson the board voted to acknowledge its intent to go with the $38.55 fee from Republic and carried the matter forward until its next meeting.
Supervisors also voted to set the millage rate at 108.35 per $1,000 of valuation which is the same as last year.
The county’s general fund budget will be $9,121,202 and its special revenue fund will be $14,049,470.
The county has projected total revenue of $23 million for 2023-24 compared to this past year’s budget of $21,522,933.
One mill raises about $170,000 with the county assessing 58.86 mills and the Coahoma County School District tax at 40.49 mills. An additional 2 mills will be levied for the Yazoo-Mississippi Delta Levee District, .75 mills for the Yazoo Water District, 5 mills for waste disposal and 1.25 for fire department.
Most department budgets remained the same.
And while they held the line on any department increases, that does not mean there were no cuts. The biggest cut was the Sheriff’s Department that saw its 2023 budget of 2,357,832, cut to $2,005,884 this coming year. Sheriff Charles Jones had requested a budget of $2,061,800.
The Coahoma County Sheriff’s department has 20 deputies, approximately seven part-time deputies, four administrators, three investigators, two chief deputies and the Sheriff on payroll.
A new revenue stream this year is money from the hospital’s lease agreement with CHS will bring in approximately $700,000. In year’s past that money went to the hospital reserve fund that currently has a balance of about $15 million. Supervisors allocated $13 million to revamping the hospital this summer when they took control of it from Delta Health System out of Greenville.
In other business:
• The county met in executive session the Chamber Executive Jon Levingston. When it returned to open session the county voted to return $25,950 to the Mississippi Development Authority for the failed Ilex/Yaupon Tea project. The county also voted to return money to the Delta Regional Authority for the project.
In November 2021 Clarksdale made its sixth economic development announcement in four years with Ilex Organics, a supplier of yaupon tea and Mississippi-grown catfish fillets, formally saying it was opening operations in Clarksdale.
The project was billed as a $2.612 million corporate investment that would create 60 jobs.
Coahoma County agreed to lease Ilex the 38,000-square-foot former Gator Mills/Strom building in the Leonard Pharr Industrial Park, but the cost to renovate that building saw bids come in over budget, twice.
Ilex was to be headquartered in the old Ellis & Hirsberg building on Second Street. That building – with the bug out front – was to house Yazoo Yaupon, a business that sold a variety of flavors of yaupon tea and herbal cosmetic products, that were to be produced, bagged and in Clarksdale.
Both the Mississippi Development Authority and the Delta Regional Authority have clauses in their economic development agreements that allow them to “claw-back” funds if projects do not produced the jobs promised.
• The county removed one of its new trucks 2022 trucks it bought recently from inventory after a tree fell on it.
• Supervisors were informed of seven lift assists at one home in Farrell. The person repeatedly fell could not get up and ambulance personnel required help from the county volunteer fire department.
• Jacorius Liner briefed supervisors on his long term plan for the county. Liner said he had conducted meetings with local stakeholders seeking direction for the county. He said his proposal is currently 5,732 words and has two more chapters to go. The county is paying Liner $70,000 for the work.
Liner also requested that he and ARPA Consultant Andrew Smith be allowed to seek a grant for an estimated $60,000 from the Delta Regional Authority to implement its long-range plan.
• County Engineer Ken Weiland told the board the state has Ok’d $2.6 million in state bridge repair funds to replace bridge on a state aid road at Moon Lake.
The wooden bridge was declared unsafe prompting a 14-mile detour for some seeking to go to work and get home.
“We have submitted this project three times and the state called me the other day out of the blue and said they had accepted the project,” said Weiland. If the county turned this project down, the road would have come off state-aid funding and maintenance list.
• ARPA Consultant Andrew Smith presented an agenda and board meeting policy to supervisors.
Under the new policy citizens will first contact the County Administrator with their concerns and those issues to be brought before the board will be put on the agenda.
Citizens must submit agenda items to the County Administrator seven business days prior to the next scheduled meeting.
Smith has been working on a policy and procedures manual for almost a year. Supervisor Pat Davis told Smith he needed to get that project finished. Smith said he was waiting on an organizational chart from the county.
Board Attorney Tom Ross once again urged the board to carefully review the manual and not to adopt any part they were not going to follow. Supervisors also asked for a hard copy of Smith’s current work.
The board is planning a work session to discuss the policy and procedure manual in depth.
• The board approved August payroll of $682,604.99.
• The board adjourned until 3 p.m. Sept. 13 at the Courthouse. All Coahoma County Board of Supervisor meetings are open to the public.
