OKTIBBEHA COUNTY – A decision not to open the Oktibbeha County Community Safe Room during a weekend of below-freezing temperatures has prompted questions about how and when the county-owned facility can be used.
In an open letter published to Facebook on Tuesday, Brandi Herrington, executive director for Starkville Strong, addressed county supervisors and emergency management agency employees, questioning why the safe room was not opened as a warming shelter Jan. 30 and 31 when it was opened just the weekend before during Winter Storm Fern.
The safe room, located at 985 Lynn Lane, across from McKee Park, can hold roughly 1,500 in an emergency.
Herrington wrote that extreme cold can be “life threatening” for residents experiencing homelessness, unstable housing, power outages or inefficient heating.
“When a warming shelter opens one weekend and not the next under similar conditions without explanation, it creates confusion for service providers, volunteers, and … for people whose survival depends on consistency,” she wrote. “Even if there was only one person to take advantage of it, that’s one person who was safe from the extreme cold.”
In her letter, Herrington called for clear, pre-established criteria for when the facility opens, transparent public communication and coordination with nonprofits already working with vulnerable residents.
Jarvis Boyd, director of Oktibbeha County EMA, said the safe room is not intended to serve as a warming shelter but is designed for severe weather events that threaten infrastructure and public safety.
“The Safe Room is activated specifically for severe weather that can threaten local infrastructure, consistent with FEMA design standards,” he wrote in an email to The Dispatch on Thursday. “It is not intended to serve as a general emergency shelter.”
The facility was opened during Winter Storm Fern after Gov. Tate Reeves declared a state of emergency.
“The Safe Room was opened during the ice storm due to the immediate life-safety threat created by hazardous road conditions, falling trees, power outages, and dangerous travel conditions,” he said. “The combination of freezing precipitation and infrastructure impacts created a situation where individuals could become stranded or exposed to unsafe conditions.
“The weekend that followed, while temperatures were below freezing, did not present the same level of immediate or compounding hazards,” he added. “Roadways were passable, utilities were largely restored, and there was no widespread infrastructure displacing citizens.”
In the event of an emergency, Boyd monitors conditions through the National Weather Service and initiates activation of the facility with approval from the Oktibbeha County Board of Supervisors.
The building is available to rent for short-term multi-use purposes, such as events and large social gatherings. The county has also used the facility to host public meetings, such as town halls regarding the county lake.
“It is not a walk-in, continuously open facility,” Boyd said. “If someone is experiencing an emergency outside of activation criteria, they should contact E-911 or local authorities so they can be connected with appropriate assistance.”
Emergency versus social services
County Administrator Wayne Carpenter said the debate on whether the facility should be opened to the public as a temporary warming station centers on statutory authority.
Carpenter said under Title 43 of Mississippi Code, welfare functions are assigned to state agencies such as the Department of Human Service. The code does not grant counties independent authority to operate social service programs, he said
“We’re not a charitable organization,” Carpenter told The Dispatch on Thursday. “We take in taxpayer money to do certain statutorily authoritative things … and social services is not one of those.
“When you start talking about cold weather, all we’re really talking about is winter,” he added. “… We’re not talking about some hurricane or some tornado or something that’s threatening the community’s infrastructure. … When you’re talking about providing warming centers for the homeless, you’re talking about social services. You’re not talking about emergency services.”
Mississippi law authorizes counties to perform emergency management functions and defines a local emergency as conditions of “disaster or extreme peril to the safety of persons and property.”
Carpenter said using the safe room as a warming station outside severe weather events would require the board to proclaim a local state of emergency.
“Could the county have declared a local state of emergency and opened up the safe room?” he said. “The answer to that question is yes. ‘Should they have?’ becomes the bigger question, and depending on your own personal opinion, you might could go either way.”
The safe room has been opened as a temporary warming station in the past, with the help of Starkville Strong and First Baptist Church. Carpenter said in those instances, the board should have proclaimed a local state of emergency to empower EMA to use the shelter for those purposes.
“The question becomes, where does emergency and disaster end and social services begin, and different people have different ideas about where that line is?” he said.
Carpenter said if the county were to provide services that do not fall under the purview of what Mississippi law allows, the county would be held liable.
“Regardless of who’s renting it, Oktibbeha County is responsible for the safety, health and welfare of everybody in that building,” he said. “If somebody trips and falls and breaks their neck, or somebody, heaven forbid, kills somebody in that shelter … we are liable.”
Future policy
Carpenter said a memorandum of understanding with Starkville Strong could potentially allow the safe room to be used as a temporary warming center, though several factors would need to be considered.
“We haven’t considered it, and I don’t fully understand all the liabilities and necessaries associated with it,” he said. “… (With) an overnight shelter, there’s laws that dictate what you have to have. … There would have to be a lot of research. Does our insurance cover it? Given the nature of the facility and its single-use purpose, would we be violating the federal grant … we used to build it? … If we did decide to move in that direction, we’d have to be extremely careful.”
Herrington said she would be in support of anything that could “make forward progress happen” and “alleviate the questions around when and what and where.”
District 2 Supervisor Orlando Trainer said he would support implementing a policy allowing for additional uses of the safe room.
“I think that the board’s going to have to have some conversation so everybody can get some understanding and determine what we can do, what we can’t do and get on the same page,” Trainer told The Dispatch on Thursday. “… Any way we can make the building more functional, more usable, I’d be in support of that.”
Board President and District 3 Supervisor Marvell Howard suggested collaborating with volunteer groups to assist with transportation and staffing if the building were opened during future cold weather events.
“Maybe the volunteer groups can get together and have a list of those unhomed people and leading up to any incumbent weather … ensure that these people have a ride to the storm shelter,” he told The Dispatch. “… That would be something great, that we could collaborate on, the county, along with the volunteer groups and staffing, they could step up and volunteer to offer some staffing hours to ensure that it’s open.”
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