Volunteer fire board all resign

The Board of Supervisors accepted the resignations of all five board members from the Fairview Volunteer Fire Protection District at their meeting on Tuesday.

The departing members, V. Wyatt Waddell, Denise Tingle, Paul Tingle, Becky Hall, and Kenneth J. Bates, Jr., submitted their resignations effective Aug. 26.

Emergency Management Director Josh Burt informed the supervisors that the resignations were due to personnel discrepancies.

“All of the firefighters and the fire chief are still intact, so there’s no disruptions to the fire services,” Burt said. “I think with this, depending on who takes over, the fire department will be able to move forward.”

District 1 Supervisor Mike Snow recommended Mike Dunn, Dewey Johnson, and Jamie Dees to serve as the new board members, filling the unexpired terms of those who resigned.

Supervisors approved the appointments unanimously, with Dunn set to serve for five years, Johnson for four years, and Dees for three years.

In other business, supervisors voted to:

• Accept a total of $4,500 in pre-trial intervention funds from the District Attorney for the Sheriff’s Department;

• Accept a total of $1,245 in forfeiture funds from Deana Ridgeway, of which $377.80 will be distributed to the District Attorney’s Office;

• Accept the resignation of Andreas Jim from the jail effective Aug. 31;

• Approve three separate FEMA reimbursements for Road Department in the amounts of $13,839, $11,795, and $21,453;

• Accept the resignation of Matthew Cumberland from the Road Department effective Aug. 30 and approved moving Dalton Bond to CDL driver at $15 an hour effective Sept. 2;

• Approve paying Dickerson & Bowen $414,747 for off-system leveling work and approve paying Crowder Engineering $33,179 for a leveling project;

• Approve a change order at a revised cost of $2,706 for the Road 448 soil cement project and approve paying Crowder Engineering $34,901 for engineering services on the Road 448 soil cement project;

• Approve contracts with Herring Appraisal and Computer Service for 2025-2028 real and personal property appraisal services;

• Approve entering a presidential election support agreement with Brusha Computer Works at the cost of $3,450;

• Approve hiring Kawneea Waldrop as a deputy justice court clerk at $14 an hour, effective Aug. 27;

• Approve a travel request for John Posey and Tammy Stephens to attend the NECI EMD Certification from Sept. 18-20 in Columbus and to pay a registration fee of $350 each;

• Approve a travel request for Edie Clay and Jerry Davidson to attend the MS 911 Conference in Biloxi from Oct. 28-31 and to pay a registration fee of $495 each;

• Approve giving Grace Everett a $0.50 an hour pay raise for telecommunicator certification;

• Approve a change order for the coliseum improvement project with a credit of $5,487;

• Approve paying J & J Contractors $8,119 for work completed on the coliseum improvement project;

• Approve issuing a substantial completion on the coliseum improvement project effective Aug. 22.

• Supervisors also held a public hearing at 10:30 a.m. for the fiscal year 2025 budget and tax levy and opened the floor for comments before officially adopting the 2024-2025 budget and levying taxes.