Review of January 4, 2011 Board Meeting

Last night was the first scheduled board meeting of 2011. For the most part, it was a routine meeting. Brad Touchstone introduced himself to the board. He was appointed to serve as the prosecuting attorney for Lamar County, the position that was vacated by Dawn Beam after she was elected to serve as Chancery Judge for District 10. Mayor Holder read Danny Davis' letter of resignation that was effective immediately, since he's starting his new job as Director/Manager of Little Black Creek today. He will continue to do two water sample checks per month to allow the City of Lumberton to keep their certification for one year or until the City of Lumberton can hire another certified Director of Public Works. It was announced that Jimmy Holder and Roy Easley will oversee other areas of the department until a new director is hired. The board hired Yves Owens on a 90 day probationary period to fill the position that was vacated by Justin Martin. The fire department stated that they have not been able to locate several items that are listed as "missing" from the fire department, including a pitot gauge, which measure the fluid flow velocity of the fire hydrants. (I will blog more about the fire department on another day.) The city clerk reported that the city accounts are down and suggested a spending freeze for the month of January. The police department will finally get a new door. Cora Rodgers, Executive Director of the Mississippi Tobacco Free Coalition of Lamar and Marion Counties, informed the board that they could use the Tobacco Grant funds to purchase the new door for the police department. There was some discussion about the Main Street Grant (will blog about it more on a later date) and after months of speculation, Timothy Johnson said that he will submit a letter detailing the reason for disbanding the Planning and Zoning Committee. For the most part, it was a pretty smooth meeting. But I would like to make a note of the fact that Paul Ockmond addressed the board about the demolition of the building on Main Street, but after presenting his concerns to the board, he had several comments about several agenda items. To my surprise, Bobby Gibson didn't rush to have the Chief of Police put him out of the meeting since he was commenting well after the allotted time for citizen comments. Just last month, Gibson was about to have a coronary because citizens were commenting on agenda items, but for some reason, he had no problem with Paul violating the guidelines that they want everyone else to adhere to. . . Interesting!