By Rupert Howell

Supervisors tentatively agreed to raise rural garbage fees one dollar per month and municipal residential pickup fees 50 cents per month during a budget meeting held Thursday morning at the courthouse in Batesville. The fee in the county is presently $11 per month.

The board will reconvene this morning, Tuesday, at 8:30 when they discuss individual budgets for the sheriff, jail, E-911 and dispatch.

Thursday’s meeting included individual budgets of the road department, sanitation department and Panola County Tax Assessor/Collector’s office.

Road Department manager Lygunnah Bean advised supervisors that his department would be in maintenance mode with the budget he presented.

“We don’t have enough money to do big projects,” he said adding, “It’s tighten your belt time—maintenance, patch and repair.”

Panola County Administrator Kelley Magee joined Bean with explaining that debts of the past would make it illogical to borrow more for major road projects until the current debt was repaid in “a couple of years.”

Bean then advised supervisors to look at the State Aid road projects and federal funded proposals stating, “If you want activity in your area, this is where it has to come from.”

The Road Department’s budget request totaled $4,088,168 which includes road bonds, notes and interest in excess of $600,000.

Although the Solid Waste Department is making money, supervisors voted to increase fees as equipment and facilities are being upgraded. That department has increased services with the addition of the municipality of Sardis during the past fiscal year.

With Sardis in a new three-year contract, that municipality will not be subject to the proposed 50 cent increase other municipalities are facing.

That department requested $2,186,734 for operations. Magee noted that Solid Waste is now paying back a $300,000 loan from the General Fund made when Solid Waste was established, $30,000 per year.

That department was represented by Jennifer Jackson who listed total budget of $2,186,734. That department continues to add equipment to the fleet as well as compactors at the transfer station located in Courtland.

 Jackson also submitted detailed information concerning increased income through business and industrial accounts. She and Magee indicated the department is gradually moving to trucks with mechanical arms for residential pickup instead of the manual loaders currently operated by state inmates from Panola County Jail.

Tax Assessor/Collector David Garner was joined by deputy collector Rhonda Fox and requested an additional slot to deal with bankruptcies, mortgage companies and mobile homes. Some of the expense of the requested slot would be covered by another position being vacated in the assessor’s department, they explained.

The proposed budget for Tax Assessor/ Collector’s  was $713,247.