DeSoto wants Corps offices to work together
Supervisors seek regional alliance on flooding
DeSoto County supervisors want the Corps of Engineers district offices in Memphis and Vicksburg to coordinate a unified floodprevention effort.
Letters from the board seek to get the districts in the same boat with DeSoto and its North Mississippi neighbors to identify “escalating flood problems” and to pinpoint solutions, including funding sources for priority projects.
“Part of the issue is that we’re served in DeSoto by two districts,” Supervisor Lee Caldwell of Nesbit said. “Our congressional delegation has asked that we all work together” to maximize resources.
“We realize that flooding is more than just DeSoto, it’s a regional problem, because water doesn’t stop at the county line. This will involve the cities, Tate, Tunica and Marshall counties — the whole region.”
At Monday’s board meeting, the five-member governing board of DeSoto approved a letter to the Vicksburg district office to authorize the corps — under the federal Water Resources Development Act of 1974 — to assist in preparing a comprehensive flood-mitigation plan. The request follows a meeting and county tour last Thursday involving district officials and the board’s infrastructure committee.
Caldwell said a survey and action is urgent. DeSoto flooding was widespread in the wake of a September 2014 storm, and “we have ongoing problems in Horn Lake and Nesbit in central and west DeSoto and on Holly Springs Road in east DeSoto” due to Coldwater River backup, said Caldwell. She envisions road elevations, bank stabilizations, recess pools and other corrective projects.
In other matters, County Administrator Vanessa Lynchard and Environmental Services manager Ray Laughter said an adjustment in the consumer price index, means more than 14,000 households in the unincorporated county will get a 22-cent decrease on their monthly garbage collection bill, from $8.69 to $8.47, starting in October.
A public hearing to receive protests of tax assessments brought no complaints.
“That’s great,” said Pieter Zee, commercial appraiser in the office of Tax Assessor Parker Pickle.
“We believe this reflects our honest values and readiness to meet anyone early on” who has a tax issue. “Hopefully, we’ll have a 2 to 3 percent increase in total assessed value in our final numbers,” said Zee.
In a preliminary report last month, Pickle listed total assessed value for public utilities, mobile homes, vehicles and personal and real property for 2015 at just under $1.7 billion, about $49.7 million above 2014.
In a continuing effort to draw industry and expand the tax base, supervisors approved a 10-year, real and personal property tax break for Belnick Inc., doing business as BizChair.com business furniture distributor in Olive Branch.
The expanding hub occupies 400,000 square feet at 8631 Polk Lane, with an annual payroll of $500,000. The county tallies the firm’s DeSoto investment at $10.8 million.
Supervisor Mark Gardner of Southaven noted that business investment incentive actions for three other firms — Cambium Business Group, Owens and Minor Distribution and Whitmor — were approved earlier and were on the day’s consent agenda.
A community donation drive at Eudora United Methodist Church on July 26 to benefit the DeSoto Animal Shelter “had a great turnout,” Monica Mock, the shelter director, said.
“We got four truckloads of cat and dog food, toys, dish soap for animal baths and drinking water for the staff, and one of the casinos in Tunica donated all their old towels.”