Water management district director discusses creek issues with supes

The Oktibbeha County Board of Supervisors heard from the executive director of the Tombigbee River Valley Water Management District at its meeting Monday, after voting to join earlier in the year.

Executive Director David Kennard came to the meeting to discuss the board’s next steps for working with the district to clean out its creeks. Creeks throughout the county are backing up and creating flooding issues in times of heavy rain. Kennard’s visit also came after two Oktibbeha County residents brought more

concerns about creeks near their property to the board at its previous meeting.

Kennard addressed concerns about the amount of time the district’s response would take by saying that it was largely in the county’s hands.

“The reason they go back five or six years is that the county cannot get all the paperwork,” Kennard said. “It’s not because, we’re not going to do the work, it’s because they have easements, and they have one or two people. They may not agree that we can put our material on their place. If they want something else done, then we don’t do that.”

When the board initially voted to join, District 1 Supervisor John Montgomery and District 4 Supervisor Bricklee Miller booth expressed concerns about the timeliness of the work and the money the county would pay to join.

“”Sometimes they will, sometimes they won’t talk that person into changing their mind,” Kennard said. “That’s how they go. There’s a perception of how long it takes.”

He said weather has a lot to do with the promptness of project completion, as well.

“We’re always looking for high ground to work on,” Kennard said. “In the wintertime, a lot of those areas up there, we really just can’t get into.”

He said the district’s project manager, who is also a trained environmental scientist could soon visit the county and assess what the best course of action would be.

“You could just come in here as a board and adopt a resolution saying ‘we’re requesting that you clean out Hollis Creek from this point to this point,’ or before you do the resolution a supervisor could contact our office and say ‘y’all come look at Hollis Creek, and I’ll send my project manager down, who is also an environmental scientist,” Kennard said.

He also told the board that they would soon have to appoint someone from the county to serve on the district’s board. A second representative from the county will be appointed by Gov. Tate Reeves.