July 5 won’t be a holiday for county

Offices will be open ‘for the convenience of the taxpayers’

DeSoto offices will be open July 5, a discretionary state holiday, and county administrators hope workers who expected a four-day weekend understand it was a matter of putting the public’s needs first. State offices will be closed that day, according to the office of Secretary of State Delbert Hosemann.

While the county’s employees “are our greatest asset,” said County Administrator Vanessa Lynchard, “county constituents must be considered.”

“We decided to keep county offices open for the convenience of the taxpayers,” seeking such services as car tags, Supervisor Mark Gardner of Southaven, board president, said last week.

In response to employees’ request for the DeSoto Board of Supervisors to replace Confederate Memorial Day with Good Friday as a county holiday, the panel rescinded the previous board order that the county will take all state holidays.

“We should poll the employees to see what they say,” said Supervisor Bill Russell of Walls.

To ensure all workers get to voice their preference, Lynchard said she will send out a survey.

While looking into the county’s authority to change holidays, the supervisors also considered whether to close county offices on discretionary holidays as designated by the governor. Lynchard said these discretionary holidays some years can include the day after Thanksgiving, Christmas Eve, the day before New Year’s Day and — this year — Friday, July 5, the day after Independence Day.

“No decision has been made on any holiday except July 5,” said Lynchard. “All county offices will be open on July 5. All discretionary holidays will be considered separately.”

The action on July 5 has gen-

erated some grumbles among employees who had plans for a long holiday weekend.

“There are some considerations the board looked at and misconceptions that have been put out on the subject,” Lynchard said in a message sent to county workers.

She said the board has been and remains “very supportive and protective” of the county’s employees, “and the board must consider all aspects of an issue, and that includes their obligation to serve the public. Most county residents who use county services are not aware of discretionary holidays and they come to do business throughout those days only to find them closed.”

The county administrator also noted there are overtime costs the taxpayers must bear on holidays, and that the state holiday schedule already allows 10 holidays plus various discretionary days.

“Very few, if any, companies take July 5 as a holiday,” she said. “That is unique from other holidays.”

Gardner, a Realtor, said his wife works at a hospital and if she wants July 5, “she’ll do what others do, — use a personal day or schedule a day of vacation.”