Jennifer Gentile/Daily Times Leader
The Clay County Board of Supervisors confers during its regular meeting Monday. 

By Jennifer Gentile
Daily Times Leader

The County Board of Supervisors approved contracts with two of its volunteer fire units during its regular meeting Monday.

At that time, the contract will automatically renew for another four-year term unless one of the parties notifies the other in writing.
Fire Coordinator Bill Blankenship noted that the contracts no longer require the volunteer firefighters to have a Mississippi commercial driver's license — although they are encouraged to have one and each driver must complete an emergency safety course.
“It all goes back to the point that everyone in those fire departments are volunteers,” Blankenship said. “You can't force a volunteer get a CDL license to drive a fire truck, and the state doesn't require it.”
The contract also states that the county will pay for comprehensive and liability insurance coverage on all county-owned vehicles, equipment and buildings “assigned to the use of the fire department.”
Chancery Clerk Robbie Robinson said the contracts include “some things we left out last year.”
“We had to refine the product,” he explained, based on input from the state.
One example is including in the contract the allocation of diesel fuel. For instance, Montpelier may use up to 400 gallons of diesel fuel during the calendar year, the contract states,
Funding coming to the county through state insurance rebate funds and the county fire protection levy will be “budgeted equally between all approved fire departments,” according to the contract.  
Robinson said contracts with two units are outstanding and should be approved by the board when they are returned.
Although he is running to be West Point's mayor, Harold Lathon told the board “I'm not here to talk politics.” He explained that in 2001, he had started a $10,000 scholarship in honor of his mother, Paulette Richmond Lathon. It is offered to children or grandchildren of his former classmates who are interested in going into education and planning to attend Rust College or Mississippi University for Women.
He proposed holding an event called “Clay in May,” which he said would “build upon the events already going on in May in Clay County.”
Lathon envisions an event featuring a barbecue contest, music festival and youth activities. Proceeds would help fund the scholarship further.   
“I'm only asking the board to consider the idea,” he said, explaining that he'd return at a later date.
Resident Larry Amos was present concerning drainage issues in Tibbee. District 2 Supervisor Luke Lummus referred particularly to the ditch that runs under Tibbee Road.
“(The ditch) has got to be dredged,” he said. “I can't remember it ever being done. It would really help our landowners in that area.”  
Clogged ditches are “a county-wide problem,” Lummus said.
“We have a lot of old ditches that need to be dredged and repiped,” he added. “In the past three months, we've had three five-inch rains back-to-back, and so much debris has washed into these ditches.”
The supervisor said work will begin “as soon as weather conditions permit.” In certain cases, like the ditch running under Tibbee Road, permission is required from the Tombigbee Water Management District.  
Resident Jesse Ivy asked the supervisors about several issues, including a 2004 purchase of equipment for We Gel, LLC. The board agreed to buy $250,000 worth of equipment  on behalf of the firm, he said, and he asked about the status of the equipment and “what happened to the taxpayers', voters' and citizens' money?”
According to Robinson, the county had received funding, which it calls TVA Bridge Bond money, that resulted from early payment of state-issued bonds. The funds were to be used for economic development, and projects must be approved by the Mississippi Development Authority.
“The board has used it very judiciously to create jobs,” Robinson said. Portions were used to pay for the Civic Center, as well as for the benefit of firms like Southern Ionics and Haas Outdoors.
“In this particular instance (with We Gel),” he said, “the board voted to assist them with the purchase of equipment.”
The firm went bankrupt, Robinson added, “and we were left holding the bag for about $200,000. The county still has the equipment, he said, “but to be perfectly frank, we'd be lucky to get 20 cents on the dollar.”
Looking to the board members for assent, he added, “no more equipment will ever be financed by this board.”
Ivy also asked about sewage connection issues on Industrial Access Road. County Attorney Lee Coleman explained that the city is responsible for providing basic services to all areas it has annexed.
District 1 Supervisor Lynn Horton said he had been in contact with West Point Ward 1 Selectman to work on that issue.
In other business, the board:
•deleted two calculators from the chancery clerk's inventory.
•approved travel request to send Justice Court Clerk Harriet Bragg to a justice court clerk's seminar in Tunica on May 6 and another request to send Judge Thomas Hampton, two county constables, Bragg and Robinson to a domestic violence conference in Choctaw.
Robinson said there is no registration fee for the domestic violence conference, which is sponsored by the Attorney General's office, and the Attorney General's Office will reimburse for all expenses excluding meals.
•approved payment of the last two construction bills for an elevated tank, which is part of a project to help the White Station Water Association improve its system. The county received a CDBG grant in 2007 for the project, said Phylis Benson of the Golden Triangle Planning and Development District.
The payments deplete the last of the CDBG grant funds, Benson said, but the Water Association had also received a U.S.D.A. rural development grant and loan for the project.