OKTIBBEHA COUNTY — Supervisors voted 3-2 Tuesday for a measure to potentially foot half the bill for about $8 million of construction at the county lake dam — “the most pressing issue in Oktibbeha County,” District 3 Supervisor Marvell Howard said.
The board also voted to hold a public hearing at the chancery courthouse on Feb. 24 to hear people’s concerns about the state of the levee, which showed early signs of breaching last week. A breach would have forced about 250 people to evacuate at least 130 households and flooded 17,500 acres of nearby land, from the area immediately around the lake northwest of Starkville all the way to parts of southwest Clay County.
The water level in the dam and the pressure on the levee continue to lower thanks to four pipes installed Jan. 14 and six diesel-fueled pumps installed Friday night. The county issued a warning at the time and reduced it to a watch Monday after the water level had gone down four feet.
Howard, who lives just behind the levee, said he appreciated the county’s “swift and direct action” to remedy the problem but hoped the board would consider preventing the problem from recurring its top priority.
The project would involve completely removing the existing dam and building a new one with larger control valves so the county can control the water level more easily. It would also involve building a new emergency spillway and a temporary detour road below the levee, Howard said.
“This is a big-ticket item,” he said. “There’s nobody that’s going to say, ‘OK, we’re going to write you a check for the entire thing.'”
The U.S. Department of Agriculture has a funding source with a low interest rate “that can be stretched out over 40 years,” Howard said, and the consultant who lobbies the federal government on behalf of Oktibbeha County wanted the board to pass a resolution to pay for half the project so the chances of a positive response would “increase tremendously.”
Supervisor Bricklee Miller of District 4 and Board President John Montgomery of District 1 said they were hesitant to dedicate $4 million in taxpayer dollars without public input and with other multimillion-dollar projects on the horizon for the next few years, including a new building for the county health department. Both voted in the minority against Howard’s proposal, with supervisors Orlando Trainer of District 2 and Joe Williams of District 5 voting with Howard in favor.
“I would like to know for sure that we have to do this,” Montgomery said. “I’m with Supervisor Howard, I’m for safety issues when it comes to the lake, I’m right there with you. I will say, however, that I’m somewhere in the middle (since there are) other projects out there.”
Both Miller and Montgomery said they were under the impression that the danger would be over as soon as the pumps reduced the water level by the county Emergency Management Agency’s goal of five feet and engineers could cut off the dam’s primary outlet valve. Howard said the solution would not suffice if heavy rains filled up all the lake’s tributaries, like the ones that preceded last week’s breach warning.
Some residents of the area around the lake evacuated at the county’s recommendation last week, and several called Howard to express their concerns, he said.
“Nobody (else) sitting around this table had to go home and wonder if they’d be safe overnight,” he said. “I’m not giving you this sob story, but what I’m trying to tell you is that you’ve got people’s lives at stake.”
Miller suggested waiting until the next meeting to pass the resolution, but Howard said the only way he would wait was if the motion was voted down. U.S. Rep. Trent Kelly (R-1st District) and Rep. Michael Guest (R-3rd District) sent local staff to the meeting in support of the search for funding to replace the levee.
“I’d hate to be them and listen to a conversation coming from this board (saying) we don’t know if we think this is important enough,” Howard said. “If they’re sitting here listening to that and saying, ‘You want us to beg for some money and you’re not even willing to put skin in the game,’ that doesn’t bode well. That doesn’t speak well to this board.”
Howard, District 2 Supervisor Orlando Trainer and District 5 Supervisor Joe Williams voted in favor of the resolution to fund half of a future dam project, and Miller and Montgomery voted against it. Miller suggested holding a public hearing, and the board unanimously agreed.
The fire coordinator search
The board also agreed to interview applicants for a part-time county fire services coordinator at its next meeting on Feb. 3.
The chiefs of six of the seven fire departments in the county, not including Starkville and Mississippi State University, want to keep the position as a part-time contract position for the next year or two before considering changing it to a full-time salaried job, East Oktibbeha Chief Greg Ball said.
Current coordinator Kirk Rosenhan announced his retirement in December and is serving as interim coordinator until the board chooses his successor. The fire services coordinator is responsible for “planning, directing, and coordinating all operational duties involving direct supervision of fire departments responding outside municipal boundaries,” according to the official job description provided by Rosenhan to The Dispatch.
The job pays $600 per month, and Ball said the board should consider raising the pay.
The chiefs have already interviewed three applicants, and the board asked the chiefs to share their opinions on the applicants with them individually outside of meetings.
“The important things are getting the right candidate that’s qualified and able to work with our fire chiefs and volunteer firefighters, and compensating them enough to the point where we’re not going to be doing this again in a year or two or three,” Howard said.
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