By Jeremy Weldon

The Panola County Board of Supervisors took just 17 minutes to go through a short agenda Monday morning at the Sardis Courthouse before moving into executive session to hear an update on the future of the Panola Medical Center and discuss the proposed rubbish pit at the corner of I-55 and Hwy. 315.

In open meeting, board members took the following actions:

• ● Gave approval for new uniform funds for constables Raye Hawkins and Faye Pettus.
• ● Approved Emergency Operations Director Daniel Cole’s request to appoint Jimmy Ferguson to Bynum Fire District #9 to replace Diane Carlini with a term to run from Dec. 7, 2018 to Dec. 7, 2023.
• ● Approved the request of Road Manager Lygunnah Bean to move concrete and bricks from property at 404 Glenmary St. in Sardis.
• ● Approved salary adjustments in the road department for John H. Ford, Lewis Ford, Jerry Eads, A.D. Toliver, and Terry Danner.
• ● Approved travel request for Coroner Gracie Grant-Gulledge to attend the Mississippi Coroner’s Winter Conference in Flowood Jan. 9-11, 2019.
• ● Approved a budget amendment and transfer from General Fund to the 911 Fund.
• ● Approved requests by Sheriff Dennis Darby to sell a Tahoe to the Town of Crenshaw for $4,500, a Yukon to Quitman County for $1,500, and to donate a Crown Vic to the Town of Crowder.
• After the short regular meeting, the board recognized Dr. Michael Havens who asked to speak to the supervisors privately about the future of the hospital, currently owned by Curae Health, a Tennessee company that declared bankruptcy about two months ago.
• Since then, there has been relatively little news on the progress of a sale of the hospital, but informed sources say Panola Medical can be operated profitably, and that several serious investors and operators have looked at the property.
• Also on Monday, Bean told supervisors he would like to talk about the rubbish pit situation in executive session. The county is considering accepting the use of a 40-acre tract in Sardis previously operated as a gravel pit. The owners have offered the county the land, basically at no cost, to operate a rubbish pit.
• Proponents say the county can save considerable money each money by dumping rubbish locally rather than hauling it to landfills outside the county with the rest of the collected household garbage and trash.
• Opponents say the costs of establishing a rubbish pit – testing alone is expected to reach $100,000 – would outweigh the savings realized from less tons of waste being hauled by county owned trucks.
• Any decisions made in the executive session were not available at press time Monday afternoon.