OKTIBBEHA COUNTY — Two late Oktibbeha County residents have been chosen as the 2022 Unity Park honorees.
Monica W. Banks and Clarence Taylor are the ninth and 10th individuals selected as honorees of the park. This is the fifth year of honoring two people from Oktibbeha County who have fought for civil rights and unity in the community.
The honorees were announced Monday at the Oktibbeha County Board of Supervisors meeting.
After receiving several nominations, Jeanne Marszalek, chair for the Unity Park Committee, said the committee felt these two individuals best represented what unity means in Oktibbeha County.
Banks lived from April 11, 1958, to Sept. 30, 2016 and served as the county’s first African American chancery clerk, a position she held for more than 20 years. Nominated by her daughter, Angie Banks Tillman, she sought justice for those who were treated unjustly, and she spoke out to bring change.
“When she was elected, I was chair of the Oktibbeha County Democratic Executive Committee, and I knew how hard she worked to get elected,” Marszalek said. “I think she was successful because she was involved in Oktibbeha County through several organizations, both Black and white and was well-known and deeply respected.”
Marszalek quoted Tillman, who said her mother’s life mission was to be a voice of those who had no voice. Banks was a member of first Unity Park Committee and was present to see the unveiling of those the community chose to honor on Martin Luther King Jr. Day in 2016.
Taylor lived from May 12, 1921 to April 11, 1999. He served in the United States Army during World War II in the Philippines from 1941-45 and returned home to earn his high school diploma from Oktibbeha County Training School.
Nominated by Estella Taylor Boyd, he spent much of his life serving others, Marszalek said, by becoming a member of the American Legion, Griffin Chapel United Methodist Church, the OCH Regional Medical Center board of trustees and the Oktibbeha County NAACP, where he served as chairman of the legal redress committee.
“Many days, his front yard would become standing room only with people of all walks of life coming and asking for help to find a job, to help a child who had been expelled from school, to help pay for medical treatment because they did not have health insurance and other needs,” Marszalek said “Mrs. Boyd said that he advised, marched, protested and donated to all who needed his help. In closing, she said that his heart was truly big and he wanted a better life for those that served in the community.”
Banks and Taylor will be honored at Unity Park’s fifth honoree celebration on Martin Luther King Day 2022.
Road department waste management
The county road department will now have a new process when deciding to dispose of waste dirt in the county.
At Monday’s meeting, District 4 Supervisor Bricklee Miller confronted road manager Hal Baggett on an issue regarding giving away county-owned dirt for free, taken by county vehicles with county gas, which she was informed had been done by a road department employee who was paid by a private company.
“Why would you think it’s okay to use county equipment and county gas to load dirt into a private company?” Miller asked Baggett.
Baggett said he was not aware of the situation, or he would have taken care of the matter, but in some instances, it is cheaper to drop the dirt off at a close location to a project site than to take it all the way back to Baggett’s shop.
Board Attorney Rob Roberson said while typically this dirt is of no importance to the county, Baggett must still take the proper steps if the department wants to give it away. He must first approach the board where it will decide if the dirt is of any value or importance, and if not the board can put the dirt out for bid, someone can buy it and then Baggett can take the dirt to someone else.
“As big of a headache this sounds like it is, every time that we have a situation where we’re trying to figure out what to do, we need to first of all, determine if there is any value in this property,” Roberson said. “If there is no value in this property, we need to spread it upon our minutes about what we are doing, to cover (Baggett), to cover this board.”
District 5 Supervisor Joe Williams said he did not like the plan of charging individuals for dirt because “individuals who really need the dirt probably cannot pay for it.” District 1 Supervisor John Montgomery identified the law set forth by the Mississippi State Attorney General’s Office that prohibits the board from giving the dirt away, but Williams disagreed.
“The law is what the board votes on for approval,” Williams said. “That’s what the law is.”
Montgomery rebutted saying board orders are irrelevant when upholding the Mississippi Constitution.
“I can’t decide who can and can’t get it,” Montgomery said. “I decide if it has value.”
Fire department modification
Supervisors voted to dissolve the county fire department’s training officer position held by Austin Check.
After advice from several fire chiefs from the department, by a 3-2 vote, the position will no longer exist, with duties now falling under the fire coordinator. The board said they do not know what the fire department will do about the status of Check’s employment.
Check declined to comment on the matter.
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