“We dodged another bullet ... ”

Alabama survives Gustav with minimal damage

By Tommy Campbell

Sun-Advocate Publisher

BUTLER – J.W. “Jimmy” Cowan, Jr., the Acting Director of the Choctaw Co. Emergency Management Agency, told the County Commission on Tuesday that he hates to sound like a broken record on one hand, but is extremely grateful that the area did not receive a direct hit from Hurricane Gustav.

“Again, we dodged another bullet,” Cowan said, but admitted that, “there will come a time when that bullet comes a little closer to home.”

The next threat to the U.S. appears to be from Hurricane Hanna, whose exact path was unknown at presstime. Officials with the National Weather Service said Tuesday that Hanna “could hit anywhere from Miami to the Outer Banks of North Carolina” by later in the week. There was also a possibility that Hanna could skip across Florida, enter the Gulf of Mexico, and become yet another major threat to the northern Gulf Coast.

And, following behind Hanna are Tropical Storms Ike and Josephine, both of which could become hurricanes in the next day or two.

Gustav roared to a Category 4 storm late last week and at one point was forecast to make landfall anywhere between Pensacola and the mouth of the Mississippi River southeast of New Orleans.

The storm lost some of its punch, making landfall as a Category 2 hurricane in southwest Louisiana on Labor Day.

Gustav’s presence was felt in Choctaw County with rainfall ranging from an inch in the southern part of the county to only four-tenths of an inch in Butler at the EMA office. Cowan said the highest official winds from Gustav were clocked at 16 MPH in Butler, although some higher gusts may have been felt farther to the south.

“I would remind all of us that we are now in the peak of hurricane season and to just be prepared,” Cowan said.

A briefing held Friday morning at the Courthouse was well-attended by local officials, Cowan said. Represented at the meeting were elected officials, business leaders, the Chamber of Commerce, fire departments, many churches, school officials, Health Department and Dept. of Human Resources representatives, the Extension Service, the local news media, and others.

“The attendance shows we have great coordination at all levels of government, and I believe we were as ready as we could have been,” Cowan said.

A decision was made on Sunday to not open local shelters when it appeared that Gustav would not force local residents from their homes.

Beginning Friday, there was a steady stream of traffic through Choctaw County as thousands of refugees from the storm, mainly from Louisiana and coastal areas of Mississippi, poured out of the affected region.

On Sunday afternoon during one 15-minute period, more than 200 east-bound vehicles with Mississippi and Louisiana tags — were counted going through the four way stop on U.S. 84 at Silas.

Most of the convenience stores and gas stations that were open Sunday and Monday did a booming business.

Members of the Commission thanked everyone who helped during the storm, and during Tropical Storm Fay a couple of weeks ago.

Commissioner Dandy Brown said it is a tremendous help to have citizen volunteers, elected officials and others cooperating to get trees out of the roads.

He thanked members of the Sheriff’s Department, Pennington Police Department, Pennington Utilities Department, Commissioner-elect Tony Cherry, the Choctaw Co. Rescue Squad, power crews with Black Warrior EMC, and EMA Director Cowan.

“I’m just thankful that we didn’t have the bad weather we thought we would have,” Commissioner Clyde Dixon said.

Commissioner Henry Lovette said he especially wanted to thank Cowan, who is serving as Acting EMA Director without pay.

“According to my estimates, this man has saved Choctaw County about $90,000 in the last 11 months,” Lovette said. “We’ve also got a lot of good people, citizens, who volunteer to do whatever they can to help, and it’s all appreciated.”

In other business Tuesday, Cowan said that a demonstration of the computerized telephone calling alert system known as “Code Red” will be demonstrated at next Monday’s meeting of the Commission.

This software allows the 911 dispatch center to automatically place a telephone call to every phone in Choctaw County within a window of about 17 minutes to notify residents of approaching severe weather or other emergency.

Cowan said that, in other areas, the system has been proven to be much more effective and cost efficient than providing public sirens, many of which are outside of earshot for much of rural Choctaw County’s population.

In regard to the six new warning sirens, Cowan said that all have now been wired and that Collins Communications will be coming to test those new units as well as the 13 existing warning sirens.

“I would just like to again caution everyone to not get complacent, to be prepared and not wait until the last minute to buy non-perishable supplies and to plan where you will go during a storm,” Cowan said.

BOE asks for Commission’s help with site-prep work for new bus shop

By Tommy Campbell

Sun-Advocate Publisher

BUTLER – Superintendent of Education Sue Moore, School Board Chairman Darry “Turk” Phillips, and Facility Manager Randy Boggs on Tuesday asked the Choctaw Co. Commission for help in doing site preparation work at the location where the BOE intends to build it’s new bus shop.

“When we started getting bids, we found out that the cost was going to be a lot more than we had in our budget,” Moore said, asking for assistance with doing the rough grading, hauling compacting soil and gravel for the project.

Moore said the BOE will pay for all materials and fuel if the county would provide the personnel and equipment.

“We felt like you would help us with this since I know you have the best interest of the children at heart,” she said.

The county is allowed by state law to help public schools with such projects, and Probate Judge D’Wayne May said he would get a copy of the BOE’s “specs” to Co. Engineer Garry Grantham who will look at the paperwork and make a recommendation at the Sept. 8th meeting. The Commission met Tuesday of this week instead of Monday because of the Labor Day holiday.

Boggs said that the work that needs to be done basically involves digging down to a depth of about four feet on the 75x200-foot space where the building will be, removing that soil and replacing it with an approved sand-clay mixture, removing about one foot of topsoil which was brought in years ago to create the old football field and pushing it down an embankment on the back side of the property, and hauling in rock/gravel as a surface for the new bus parking lot.

The site is the former CCHS football stadium on East Pushmataha Street in
Butler.

Boggs said that the BOE is in the process of re-bidding the project and that if the county could do the work within the next four to six weeks it would work well within their time frame.

In other matters on Tuesday, the Commission:

- Voted to employ Joseph C. Patterson as a member of the District Four road crew at a pay rate of $8.25 per hour.
- Opened bids for various materials used in maintaining roads and bridges.

Solid Waste payments hit new low

By Tommy Campbell

Sun-Advocate Publisher

BUTLER – Customers of Choctaw County’s Solid Waste Program fell far behind in their payments during the month of August, prompting officials to file dozens of new claims in Circuit Court.

During the month, a grand total of $16,307 was collected. Of that amount, $9,240 was paid on delinquent accounts while $7,067 was received on current, up-to-date accounts.

That amount is far short of the approximately $70,000 per month that it costs the county to provide the house-to-house pickup service, prompting Probate Judge D’Wayne May to warn that the county may have to take more drastic measures to ensure compliance with the mandatory program.

“Collections are not good,” said CPA Deborah Hutchinson, who provides bookkeeping/billing services for the county program. “I don’t know that we’ve ever collected that little.”

According to Hutchinson’s figures, cumulative totals are just as bleak: $524,506.55 is owed on delinquent accounts, and $394,967.50 on current accounts, for a total of $919,474.05.

Four new accounts were opened and three formerly “inactive” accounts were re-activated, Hutchinson said.

Twenty-five new cases were filed last month in Circuit Court, 29 “no shows” were re-set for trial, and at least 25 new cases will be filed this week against people who simply will not do what is right and pay their bills, officials said. If those “no shows” fail to appear in court for a second time, warrants will be issued for their arrests.

“We intend to vigorously pursue this,” May said. “The County Commission cannot afford to continue to provide this service out of the general fund.”

In August alone, he said, the county had to transfer $50,000 from the already cash-strapped general fund to cover the deficit in the garbage program. In the month of September, that deficit will be even greater.

“If people expect any services at all, they need to pay their solid waste bill,” May said. “If we cannot find a way to get everybody to pay, then everybody will be on their on and have to provide their own transportation to take their trash to landfill.”

Within the next few weeks, the county will again run a list of names in the Choctaw Sun-Advocate of all delinquent solid waste accounts.

“I think we need to reprint their names in the paper every 60 or 90 days
if necessary,” Commissioner Henry Lovette said.

A proposed countywide sales tax referendum will appear on the Nov. 4th ballot which will ask local residents to approve up to a two-percent fee that would be earmarked strictly for the solid waste program only.

With a sales tax, officials said, most people in the county would actually pay less than they pay now at the current rate of $15 per month, and the fee would be automatically collected at the point of sale and remitted to the county.

An alternative being considered is to take the delinquent cases to Civil Court rather than Criminal Court, said. By doing so, if a “guilty” verdict is returned, the county could take liens on cars and even real property until such time as the past-due bill is paid in full.