Oktibbeha County resumed its requirement for protective face coverings, proven to curb the spread of the COVID-19 coronavirus, at county-owned buildings and social gatherings outside the Starkville city limits after a 3-2 vote from the board of supervisors Monday.
The board first implemented the mandate July 7 and renewed it at every meeting until Nov. 2, when District 3 Supervisor Marvell Howard left early and the motion to extend the mandate failed with a 2-2 vote.
Howard, Orlando Trainer of District 2 and Joe Williams of District 5 have voted for the mask mandate every time, and Bricklee Miller of District 4 and Board President John Montgomery of District 1 have voted against it.
Miller and Montgomery have said they believe wearing a mask should be an individual choice, while the other three supervisors have said public health and safety should be the priority.
Cases of COVID-19 have been rising sharply nationwide, statewide and locally over the past few weeks. Oktibbeha County saw a 150-case spike last week compared to 57 new cases the week before. The county has 2,266 confirmed cases as of 6 p.m. Sunday, according to the Mississippi State Department of Health website.
Masks have been proven to curb the transmission of the virus from the wearer to others, but the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said last week that masks protect the wearer as well.
The board voted unanimously to extend the county’s curfew, from midnight to 4 a.m., until the next meeting on Dec. 7.
Chief Deputy Chadd Garnett of Oktibbeha County Sheriff’s Office said the curfew, enacted in September at OCSO’s request, is still working to curb large gatherings in the early morning hours. He said this was clear when deputies were searching for a suspect in a fight before midnight on Nov. 10.
“Everybody said, ‘I promise we’re going home, we’ve got three minutes before the curfew hits,'” Garnett said.
Infrastructure issues
In other business, the supervisors have been debating since January whether to replace the Oktibbeha County Lake Dam or just repair parts of it after County Engineer Clyde Pritchard determined it was in danger of breaching and flooding the nearby residential area.
The board voted unanimously in August for Austin Barbour, a partner with the local Clearwater Consultants firm, to seek state funding for the potential replacement of the dam. He said Monday that he has not found any state funding yet.
Pritchard told the board later in the meeting that he has finished gathering geographic information system (GIS) data on the dam, which can hold more than 454 million cubic feet of water over 935 acres. Pritchard has been working on plans to potentially replace the dam since the board authorized it in March.
He encouraged the board to have emergency measures in place in case heavy rains fill the lake to the point where the dam posed a potential danger, as happened earlier this year. The county cut off the valve in April to allow water to flow more quickly out of the dam, and Pritchard said the move “is buying us time, but if that valve gets overwhelmed and the lake gets up to where it did before,” the dam could be dangerous again.
Barbour has also been seeking funding to repair Maben-Sturgis and Oktoc roads, which Pritchard said should be repaired as soon as possible to prevent further damage from winter weather. Both repair projects would cost more than $1 million.
Miller asked if the county could use its revenue from the state lottery and from the state’s internet sales tax to pay for road repairs in order not to raise taxes. County Administrator Emily Garrard said that money could replace the tax millage required for a general obligation bond for such projects.
Later, the board unanimously decided to set aside $10,000 to clean debris out of Skinner Creek just south of the city limits, a project in collaboration with Starkville.
The board voted in September to create an interlocal agreement between the county and the city for the project, and the Starkville board of aldermen are expected to approve the agreement at tonight’s regular meeting via the consent agenda with no debate.
The supervisors agreed that damage to roads should be the primary reason for fixing drainage problems.
“The original finding has to be that we’re going in and addressing issues that are causing problems with our roads,” Howard said.
The board voted in May to join the Tombigbee River Valley Water Management District, a Tupelo-based state agency that does flood control, cleanup and repair projects on waterways of all sizes in northeast Mississippi.
The supervisors plan to appoint a representative of Oktibbeha County to the water management district board at the Dec. 7 meeting.
Tess Vrbin was previously a reporter for The Dispatch.
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