The Jefferson Davis County Board of Supervisors met for the first meeting of the year Monday morning at the board room in Prentiss. The meeting opened with prayer by Rev. Jessie Holloway before the minutes were approved.  

The South Pleasant Hill Road bridge has been closed by the state due to bad timber pilings found after a recent inspection. The board approved accepting the lowest bid for emergency repair of the pilings. The total cost to completely replace that bridge would be 2 million dollars.

During county engineer Les Dungan’s report, he gave a list of bridges in the county that remain on timber pilings and in need of repair.

Five of the 20 bridges on the list are currently in a state aid program for replacement. The remaining 15 do not have a plan for repair or replacement at this time. According to Dungan, as those 15 bridges continue to deteriorate, there will come a day when the state could order those bridges closed as happened to South Pleasant Hill.

Since the timber piling crisis began 10 years ago, the county has replaced a total of 15 bridges with the help of state aid.

Only bridges that are 20 feet long or more are on the state inventory and available for possible state aid.

County Fire Coordinator Jennifer Meredith gave her yearly report and informed the board of the county fire banquet on Jan. 25 at 6 p.m. at the Rosenwald Building. 

She also announced that Jacob Henderson is the new fire chief of the Oakvale Fire Department.

Meredith will begin distributing 2800 smoke detectors in the county starting in February.

Due to the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday on Jan. 20, the garbage route for District 5 that usually runs on Monday, will run on Tuesday, Jan. 21.

Board Attorney Wes Daughdrill gave his bi-monthly report.

In other board news, the board approved the following without opposition before recessing until Tuesday morning to open bids:

• Approved minutes.

• Approved reappointment of Rose Tate Bourne as the Jefferson Davis County Red Cross Representative for calendar year 2025.

• Approved Board President signing Notification of Intent to apply for federal assistance available for public or private non-profit organizations to provide transportation services to the general public in non-urbanized area for Five County Child Development Program.

• Approved Board President signing Notification of Intent to apply for federal assistance available for public or private non-profit organizations to provide transportation services to the general public in non-urbanized area and letter of support for DJ Transit.

• Approved school bus turnaround in District 3 at 62 Carl Griffith Road.

• Approved purchase price of gravel for calendar year 2025.

• Approved quote for tires with mount and balance in District 5 for $1500.

• Approved transfer of 2009 Dodge Durango from Emergency Management to District 4.

• Approved employees and officials attending conventions and meetings

• Approved spreading into the minutes Employee Action Forms in District 4.

• Approved adopting new mileage reimbursement policy to the IRS mileage rate at $0.70.

• Approved payment of invoice without a purchase order in District 5 to Crain for $2,493.01.

• Approved overage on purchase order 250116 in District 2 to CR Fuels for $6.26.

• Approved destruction of records.

• Approved membership to MS Heritage Trust.

• Approved second quarter budget appropriations for the Tax Assessor and Sheriff: Sheriff $302,399.28, custody of prisoners $182,329.84 and Tax Assessor $92,181.16.

• Approved payment of credit card report and payment of same.

• Approved spreading into the minutes the meal log for the jail for December.

• Approved claims.

The meeting reconvened at 8 a.m. Tuesday morning after prayer was offered by Board President Michael Evans.

Annual bids for commodities used by the supervisors were opened.

Dampeer Family Restaurant of Bassfield was awarded the prisoner meals contract. Dampe

er will be paid $13 per prisoner, per day for meals to include breakfast, a sandwich lunch and dinner. Prisoners are served meals seven days a week.

Other bids were submitted by Williams Good Ole Days Buffet, Vez-Licious Daiquiris and Wings in Prentiss and Maggie’s Grill in Covington County. Dampeer was the lowest bid submitted. The prisoner bid runs from Feb. 1 through Jan. 31. Vez-Licious is currently serving the JDC prisoners.

APAC Mississippi, Dunn Roadbuilders and Warren Paving all submitted bids for hot mix and cold mix asphalt. APAC Mississippi was awarded the bid for hot mix with Dunn Roadbuilders receiving the bid for cold mix.

Hunt Southland was awarded the liquid asphalt bid. The limestone and rip rap bids were awarded to Vulcan Materials Company. The bid for metal culverts was awarded to Dial, Inc. with G & O Supply being awarded the bid for plastic culverts.