The Lowndes County Board of Supervisors held their regular board meeting Friday. All five supervisors were present, but just three voted.
An otherwise light agenda that seemed to feature little debate nevertheless proved contentious as District 4 Supervisor Jeff Smith and District 5 Supervisors Leroy Brooks abstained on all votes, although it took a while for Board President Harry Sanders to notice.
After standard votes — to adopt the meeting agenda, approve the minutes of the previous meeting, approve the claims docket — the decision to abstain from voting by Smith and Brooks came to Sanders’ attention after a group of proposals from County Engineer Bob Calvert came to a vote. Sanders, District 2 Supervisor Bill Brigham and District 3 Supervisor John Holliman voted to accept proposals.
Noticing that Brooks had not voted, Sanders asked, “Leroy, can I put you do as a yea vote on that?”
“No. Put me down as abstaining on everything,” Brooks said, looking up from a copy of the USA Today newspaper he had been reading since the start of the meeting. “I”m just going to sit back and learn how the pros do it. If you want to run everything and don’t want to listen to what we (Brooks and Smith) have to say, go ahead. If you three (Sanders, Brigham and Holliman) want to run everything, go ahead.”
Asked if he, too, was abstaining from all votes, Smith answered, “Yes.”
The meeting resumed as Brooks returned his attention to the newspaper.
Debris removal discussed
The board heard from Road Manager Ronnie Burns, who had been asked at an earlier board meeting to investigate options for the wood/vegetation debris removal for the county.
Currently, the board disposes of that debris through GoBox, which charges a flat monthly fee of $1,250.
Burns said other options including taking that debris to the city of Columbus landfill or Golden Triangle Solid Waste Management in West Point, both of which charge by the ton, rather than by flat rate.
Columbus charges $20 per ton while Golden Triangle Solid Waste charges $27 per ton.
“How many tons of debris do we haul off every month?” Sanders asked.
“It’s hard to say,” Burns said. “It varies from month to month.”
County Attorney Tim Hudson noted that at $20 per ton, the count could send 60 tons a month to the city for the price GoBox was charging.
“We probably do that much, if not more,” Burns said. “The other thing is that we have two locations we can send (debris) to, one each side of the (Tombigbee) River. My recommendation is that we continue with GoBox.”
Sanders made the motion, seconded by Holliman and the board voted 3-0 in favor.
Board appointments
The Board made one new appointment and re-appointed two others to open board positions.
Angela Ferraez, director of major gifts for the MUW Foundation, was appointed to the Columbus Main Street Board. Brock Reynolds was re-appointed to the Columbus Lowndes Convention & Visitors Bureau board. Carl Williams was re-appointed to the Lowndes County Industrial Development Authority board.
After a motion and a second to adjourn, Sanders addressed Brooks.
“Anything in the paper we need to know about?” Sanders asked, referring to the USA Today that Brooks was reading.
“It’s better to leave well enough alone,” Brooks said. “There’s a lot I could say, but this is Martin Luther King weekend. Let’s have some peace.”
Smith left immediately following adjournment while Brooks paused briefly to answer questions.
“It’s just frustrating for Jeff and me,” he said. “When we have some ideas, they don’t want to hear them. Well, I’ve been doing this for 32 years and I have some ideas about how county government works, too. It’s also hard to believe that (Sanders, Brigham and Holliman) all vote together on everything and agree on everything. I guess that’s the way 2016 is going to start.”
If there was a specific issue that prompted the two supervisors to abstain from voting, Brooks did not divulge it.
“There is a story there,” Brooks said as he left the courthouse. “But it’s not a story for today.”
Slim Smith is a columnist and feature writer for The Dispatch. His email address is [email protected].
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