BPD tickets four stores for beer sales to minors

By John Howell
Batesville police officers have recently written citations to four convenience stores for selling beer to minors. Police Chief Jimmy McCloud told the mayor and aldermen during their Tuesday meeting that officers had set up a sting operation after receiving complaints that minors were purchasing beer.
Nine stores had been checked, according to the police chief.
“We just write them a ticket and they have to show up in city court,” McCloud said. “We don’t go in and arrest anybody.”
In his report during Tuesday’s meeting, McCloud said that Batesville police have accepted three of four new patrol cars bought through the state contract system,
“One we had to decline because it didn’t have the proper equipment on it,” McCloud said.
McCloud said the three vehicles are Ford Interceptor SUVs, “basically a Ford Explorer with police package.”
Aldermen approved McCloud’s request to declare surplus a 2011 Ford Crown Victoria and sell it to Quitman County for $2,000.
Aldermen also approved the police chief’s request to purchase 10 new body armor vests to replace aging equipment. After the purchase, the city will be reimbursed half of the $6,980.40 price by a federal program that pays 50 percent of the cost of replacing out-of-warranty or near out-of-warranty vests.
In other business during Tuesday’s meeting, the mayor and aldermen instructed gas superintendent Todd Pittman to estimate the cost of extending natural gas service to two homes under construction outside city limits.
Ryan Cannon appeared before the board seeking the service for his home and the home of Joseph Adams. Cannon told city officials that the two men would bear the entire cost of the construction beyond city limits to reach their homes on Coleburn Drive.
In February, aldermen agreed to limit natural gas service to homes within one mile of city limits and to provide the service to out-of-city residents only if piping and infrastructure are already in place. City officials cited the regulatory authority of the Mississippi Public Service Commission for gas sold by municipal systems to customers more than one mile beyond city limits.
“We need to know more about what the implications are with the Public Service Commission,” Alderman Eddie Nabors said.
A decision on Cannon’s request was tabled until the next meeting on June 20 while Pittman calculates the cost of extending the service to the homes.