October 4 Dispatch reported that Miller opposes fixing the dam. That is a half-truth. Fact: Watching all of the videos of the BOS meetings you would know she wants a costing of decommissioning the lake vs. rehabilitating the lake and allowing the county residents to vote on the choice. Numerous times several of the others have said, they are the final say about what is best. The Dispatch should call them out for their authoritarian attitude.
The BOS attorney Rob Roberson was asked by Dispatch if grant application had issues, “he couldn’t find any issues with the county’s (grant) applications.” Roberson is a good guy, but he is the BOS attorney. A good attorney would never tell the Dispatch, “Yes my guy did try to rob the bank”.
There are two grant request letters dated February 21 and April 29 and anyone reading these can clearly determine the issue of them not being factual. Common to both, neither informs NRCS that the lake is under a private lease until 2060. So currently not a “public” lake. Miller refused to sign the February letter because it claims dam was constructed under PL-566 authority and the entire BOS were notified by MDEQ days before signing that claim wasn’t factual. The April letter claimed the $12 million Trainer was requesting was to repair damages from storms in January 2020. All the issues requiring rehabilitating have existed and been documented since 1979, really since construction. Each of these requests were made from two different money pots. The April letter was not “supplementary information”. Reading the April letter requesting funds from a different “Emergency” money pot, contained no supplementary information. Adding to this letter, there was “no board order.” Roberson points to the February 21st order authorizing the non-factual February request. The April Trainer request was secretly sent without all supervisors’ knowledge. It also contained items requiring county funds. Yep, no BOS vote, and us residents’ money is promised. I was completely surprised Mr. Roberson shut his eyes.
When Ms. Miller tried to discuss these letters during the meeting, numerous board members laughed at her and shut her questions down. Mr. Montgomery stopped laughing long enough to tell Trainer, if locked up, I’ll visit! I find her treatment embarrassing. Is this because she is the only woman and the rest see being a supervisor as a “man’s” job?
Mr. Roberson, personally doesn’t care if Mr. Trainer is locked up, but there are severe penalties for filing a false/misleading grant request. May lead to a ten-year ban on grant requests. If our county received this, this apparent laughable matter could have long-term consequences for our county.
George Sills, Starkville
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