Supervisors consider new budget requests

By By Steve Gillespie / staff writer
Aug. 15, 2003
It's time for Lauderdale County supervisors to consider the county budget again.
During a work session Thursday, County Administrator Rex Hiatt told supervisors he has budget worksheets available for them.
Hiatt said his office is working on revenue forecasts and several county agencies plan to ask for increases for next year. Supervisors will begin scheduling meetings with them next week.
Clarence Butler is executive director of the Lauderdale Emergency Management Agency and county fire coordinator. He told supervisors Thursday that county residents who do not live within designated fire districts are beginning to receive notices that their fire insurance may be canceled.
Butler said county volunteer firefighters continue to respond to fires countywide, but unless homes are within 5 miles of a county fire station, they cannot be part of a county fire district.
Butler presented a petition to supervisors signed by residents in the area of Highway 45 and Russell Topton Road to be annexed into the Northeast Volunteer Fire Department District.
He will provide new and old legal descriptions of the fire district for supervisors to consider Monday. Butler also said he wants to expand the Lauderdale and Center Ridge volunteer fire districts.
Butler said there would still be areas south of Naval Air Station Meridian and in the southwestern part of the county, south of Meehan, that will not be in a volunteer fire department district because the homes in those areas are more than 5 miles from a station.
With manpower short throughout the county, Butler does not see additional volunteer fire departments being formed anytime soon.
Lauderdale County Engineer Neal Carson updated supervisors Thursday on road and bridge repairs, saying that he is hoping Allen Swamp Road will be open by Labor Day.
He said Savoy Meehan Road will have to be taken out of service so that a bridge can be repaired.
The next regular meeting of the Lauderdale County Board of Supervisors will be held Monday at 5 p.m. in the boardroom of the Raymond P. Davis Courthouse Annex.