Lowndes County supervisors know from recent experience the folly of counting their chickens before they hatch. Even so, the county’s “nest egg” in its Hospital Trust Fund is considerably larger than it was at the start of the year.
The supervisors — who are also the Board of Trustees for the trust fund — were updated Tuesday on their investments by Renasant Wealth Management and Stephens Capitol Management, the two firms handling the county’s $30-million-plus trust fund.
Combined, the two portfolios have increased by more than $1.2 million since the beginning of the year. Each year, the county can withdraw up to 3 percent of the fund as long as the withdrawal does not dip below its corpus. If the county could make the maximum withdrawal today, it could pull out $1,061,825. The total value of the fund is $31,552,856.
There is a catch, however. The county can make no withdrawals until after Dec. 31 of each year and the outlook easily could change — for better or worse — over the course of the next seven months.
That’s precisely what happened last year. During the October 2015 Trust Fund board meeting, the two portfolios showed the county could withdraw almost a half-million dollars. In February, though, the board was able to withdraw just $73,000 from the fund.
With that in mind, District 2 Supervisor Bill Brigham, a retired banker, suggested the possibility the county could have some of the money converted to cash, which would ensure that amount would be available for withdrawal at the beginning of 2017. By law, the county could shift any amount of those investments up to 80 percent into cash holdings.
Currently, the two firms are holding $385,773 in cash, roughly 1.2 percent of the total fund.
“I’m not making a recommendation that we do that,” Brigham said. “I’m just saying it’s something we shouldn’t rule out. We have two major projects going on that we need to fund. Last year, we had hoped to fund them with the money from the trust fund, but you know how that turned out.”
While representatives of both firms said it was a reasonable option, both expressed confidence that the trust fund will continue to reap dividends.
Lowndes supervisors meeting
The Trust Fund board meeting was held after the supervisors held a regular meeting.
During that meeting, the supervisors unanimous approved a request from District Attorney Scott Colom to help fund a victim’s assistance coordinator. The state-funded program requires a 25-percent match from the county, which would be $9,255.
“This is something we’ve had before,” Colom told the supervisors. “It was discontinued under the previous district attorney and I don’ t know the reasons behind that. What I do know is that this the person that works most directly with victims, helping them get the information they need while our attorneys are busy working cases.”
The board approved contracts for the demolition of the Waters Building, which the county purchased last year and plans to use for additional courthouse parking. The building is located on the corner of Second Avenue North and Sixth Street, across from the courthouse. EAC Environmental will handle asbestos removal after turning in a low quote of $19,875 while Burns Dirt Construction Inc. will handle the demolition after submitting a low quote of $41,050.
The proposals passed by a 3-1, vote with District 4 Supervisor Leroy Brook voting no and District 5 Supervisors Jeff Smith abstaining. Both said they felt the county should wait until money was budgeted for the expenses for Fiscal Year 2017.
Supervisors also approved funding the road department’s summer jobs program. The program provides up to 10 jobs for county students at a pay-rate of $10 per hour for eight weeks. Road manager Ronnie Burns said he would provide the start and end dates for the program at the supervisors’ next meeting on June 6.
Slim Smith is a columnist and feature writer for The Dispatch. His email address is [email protected].
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