Supervisors discussed tax exemption requests Monday morning for three local industries. Pinebelt Processing in Stonewall was approved by all five members unanimously. Progressive Pipeline had four supervisors voting in favor and one voting against; BTH Quitman Hickory’s request was tabled with no action taken.
Darrick Marshall (District One) voted against the tax exemption for Progressive Pipeline because of the low number of county residents who are employed at Progressive Pipeline. “I don’t have a problem approving a tax exemption, but I’m against it with only 14 people employed from our county.”
Supervisor Mickey Long voted in favor of the request but stated some concerns. “We are giving them a tax break but with only 14 hired from Clarke County, I just think we need to sit down and express our concerns about it,” Long said. All the board members were in favor of meeting with Progressive.
Paul Mosley voted in favor of the tax exemption because of the amount of taxes received by Enterprise School District. Progressive Pipeline is located in the Enterprise School District and paid $106,000 in 2015 taxes to the district from Progressive. President Troy Smith and District Two Lorenzo Carter also voted in favor of the exemption. Industries are not tax exempt from paying school taxes.
The board stated that Progressive Pipeline employs close to 900 employees company-wide with only 14 people from Clarke County and 38 from Lauderdale County employed.
The board tabled a $45 million tax exempt of valued personal property request from BTH because of recent layoffs at the plant.
Two private citizens approached the board to give an update on a petition drive to allow the public to vote whether to stay dry or go wet in Clarke County for the sale of beer and wine and/or hard liquor.
Lawrence Buckley and Patricia Arrington updated the board members that 2,541 signatures are needed on the petition for beer and light wine. Currently, they have obtained 803 certified signatures and are still moving forward to collect the remaining signatures. A total number of signatures certified for the petition for hard liquor were not available Monday morning. 1500 signatures are needed for the petition for hard liquor.
“We are hoping to get on the November ballot so that a special election will not have to be called which will cost the county more,” said Buckley. Arrington and Buckley stated if anyone is interested in signing the petition, you can visit one of the following businesses and ask to sign the petition: Mimmo’s Italian Restaurant, El Jacalito, Nelson Tire Center, Faye and Buddy’s, Creekside and Coffee Pot Café.
In other business, the board stated they are still waiting for a written opinion from the Attorney General’s office regarding the county leasing land to a private organization that has requested land on Highway 145 to build a horse arena for equine activities.
The board was presented the annual 2017 budget request from the Airport board member John Brown. There was no additional request for county funds because of a rollover of funds of $150,000 of federal money for airport improvements.
“We have been able to roll over funds and we have $300,000 in a kitty fund,” said Brown. “That means there is not a 5% increase request from the county this year.”
In other business, the board;
• approved the purchase clerk to have 150 gallons of butane replaced in a tank at Carmichael VFD for the loss after a county employee accidently busted a line while cutting grass
• approved a check in the amount of $1,261 to the Department of Revenue for a rubbish fee
• approved a resolution for the application of a grant in the with a county match of $70,000 for a re – roofing project of the north warehouse where CREDOS is located behind the Quitman Knitting Mills
• approved a motion in agreement for a $133,000 loan through Trustmark for the financing of new vehicles for the sheriff’s department at a cost of $3,888 per month for three years
• approved a revised state aid project removing County Road 290 from a slurry seal project
• approved an estimate for a state aid bridge project of $288,775 to replace the bridge at the entrance of Clarkco State Park
• approved the hiring of Timothy Gates for the road department as a grass cutter
Board meetings are held the first and third Monday of each month in the courthouse annex board room. All meetings are open to the public.
