COVID – 19 and the CARES Act have accelerated Dixie Electric Power Association’s plans to offer high-speed internet in rural areas. Randy Smith, Dixie EPA General Manager, and Jeremy McAndrew PE, System Engineer, presented Dixie EPA’s Pilot Project to the Jones County Board of Supervisors during the board’s first meeting in September held on Tuesday, September 8 at the Ellisville Court House.
When COVID – 19 hit and the need for high-speed internet became an apparent necessity for distance learning, telemedicine, and work from home opportunities, the Mississippi Legislature took notice. It approved $65 million in grant funding from the CARES stimulus funds. Fifteen electric cooperatives submitted grant applications for a portion of the funding, and the grants were awarded.
Dixie Electric will match dollar for dollar half of the $7.4 million allotted for the pilot project.
The grant funding is for the installation of fiber optic cable to facilitate the delivery of broadband service to one of the most unserved or underserved areas of the Dixie Electric service area.
McAndrews said stipulations of the grant funding require the money to be spent by the end of the year.
“We’re rushing. We’re jumping stumps to get it done,” exclaimed McAndrews.
McAndrews said on October 24 at the annual board meeting of the Dixie Electric Association, the members of the co-op will vote to allow Dixie EPA to change their Certificate of Incorporation to enable the co-op to offer broadband. McAndrews said they expect to get approval, and plans are to have the first home in the pilot project area receiving high-speed internet from DE Fastlink, Dixie’s established subsidiary, by December.
The pilot project will stretch over 206 miles and pass 1,400 homes and small businesses, averaging 6.8 homes and businesses per mile of cable. The fiber-optic cables will be placed along the existing overhead electric lines from Ovett southeast down Highway 15 South toward the Good Hope community and down Highway 29 through Runnelstown and east across Highway 42. It is a two-phase project.
The available internet service will provide network speeds of 100 megabits per second (Mbps) to 1,000 Mbps (gigabit service). It will be symmetrical, meaning the upload and download speeds will be the same.
In other business, the supervisors voted to keep Community Centers closed due to COVID – 19 until the first board meeting in October when the supervisors will revisit the situation.
Mona Gautier, executive director at Pine Belt Mental Health, gave an updated report to the supervisors who help fund the institution. Gautier said in FY 2019, they served 2,819 Jones County residents for 75,659 services and 403,000 service hours. In FY 2020, they served 2,004 individuals and just under 60,000 services and 304,000 service hours. Gautier contributed the decline in 2020 directly to COVID – 19.
“In March, we had to switch from doing face to face services to telehealth services in a matter of a couple of weeks,” explained Gautier. “We’ve been providing those services since then. It did require us not to provide some of our day programs, and that is where the decrease in services comes. We serve patients from three years old to the elderly.”
According to Gautier, Pine Belt Mental Health employs 187 fulltime employees.
The supervisors approved a $50 pay increase for the Election Commissioners and Poll Managers for the upcoming November election, bringing their pay to $175 per day. The request was made by Jones County Circuit Clerk Concetta Brooks, who explained that the money for the pay increase would be reimbursed from funds allotted in the CARES Act.
Brooks asked the supervisors to approve the temporary relocation of the Oak Park Voting Precinct because of the limited space to correctly social distance due to COVID - 19. Supervisor Traverse Comegys and Brooks will look at a location two blocks from the present precinct and determine if that location will suffice. The supervisors approved the relocation contingent upon the acceptance of the new site.
A Public Hearing was held in both Laurel and Ellisville for the Real and Personal Property Rolls with no one coming forward to object.
A Public Hearing was held for the 2020 – 2021 Budget, and after several amendments and accounting adjustments were made, the board voted to adopt the FY 2020 – 2021 Budget.
A discussion was had for the Sheriff to add the purchase of 20 new Tasers at the cost of approximately $32,000 to his budget. The present tasers are several years old and are beginning to fail. The decision was made to make the budget amendment at a later date once all the particulars for the purchase are finalized.
Mark Herring and Jerdon Welborn were approved as Shady Grove Utility District candidates for the Board of Commissioner.
Diane Shoemake, with Chas. N. Clark Assoc., LTD Consulting Engineers, distributed the 2020 Bridge Inventory Maintenance Report, an approximate two-inch-thick booklet.
At the close of the regular business session, the supervisors went into executive session to hear from the Jones County Economic Development Authority. According to Daniel Ashley, CAO, and Board Attorney, no action was taken.
The next board meeting will be Monday, September 21. The supervisors meet on the first and third Monday of every month at 9:30 am. Each meeting on even-numbered months and all third Monday meetings are held at the Laurel Courthouse. The first meeting on odd-numbered months is held at the Ellisville Courthouse.