Unpaid residential fees contributed to a $225,060 deficit in the county sanitation department during Fiscal Year 2009 which ended last week.
Supervisors closed out the year during a special meeting last Wednesday, saying they had accomplished a lot despite the lean economic times.
All departments in the general fund stayed within budget for the year, supervisors said, except for sanitation.
A small portion of the shortfall in sanitation was also attributed to the lease purchase of two new trucks last year.
County residents are billed $10 quarterly for sanitation services while the elderly and handicapped are exempt.
Residents with delinquent sanitation fees will not be able to renew a tag until the fees are paid in the Tax Assessor's Office.
Also on Monday, supervisors turned over a number of delinquent checks and delinquent personal property and mobile home taxes to a collection agency under contract.
Tax Assessor Mike Lewis told supervisors that his office had $2,686.87 in returned checks.
Delinquent personal property totaled $282,790.65, while delinquent mobile home taxes totaled $104,090.91.
Board President, Obbie Riley, predicted that Fiscal Year 2010 could be just as challenging budget-wise.
"This is the first day we start learning to do more with less," he said.
In other action, supervisors:
•Accepted the resignation of jailer Gail Martin.
• Approved two out of order claims: $461.72 to Postmaster for tag renewal notices; and $66 to the chancery clerk for recording right-of-way deeds.
• Approved first quarter budget allocations to the jail, $210,530.25; sheriff's office, $207,203.25; and tax office, $65,421.25.
• Accepted the resignation of William Hanks Jolly as the law clerk for the Sixth Chancery Court District.
• Authorized the Tax Collector's Office to collect partial payments on ad valorem taxes again for FY 2010.
• Approved the September 2009 claims docket.
• Removed a destroyed Motorola radio from the fixed asset list of the House Volunteer Fire Protection District.
• Designated North Bend Volunteer Fire Protection District as the funding recipient in Round 9 of Rural Fire Truck Acquisition Assistance Program.
• Authorized the county to participate in the 2010 Census New Construction Program by to providing addresses of all new construction.
• Accepted a petition of the First Pentecostal Church of House requesting a road be accepted by the county.
District 2 Supervisor Kevin Cumberland and District 1 Supervisor Keith Lillis were appointed to a committee to review the conditions of the road, with consultation of the county engineer and report their findings back to the board.
• Approved a right-of-way agreement with the state Department of Transportation related to the four-laning of Mississippi 19 south.
• Approved a 25-cents-an-hour wage increase for county employee Kevin Bailey due to his successful completion of his six-months probationary period.
• Approved the First-Time Home Buyer Program grant applications for Allen Davis, Ashley Doolittle and Olivia Peebles.
• Passed a resolution in support of the four-lane expansion of Mississippi 16 west from the Pearl River Reservation to Interstate 55 with the stipulation that the Mississippi 19 south four-lane project from Mississippi 492 to the city of limits is completed first.
• Advertised for bids for the construction and implementation of LSBP 50(10) on County Road 145 pending approval by the Office of the State Aid Road Engineer.
• Advertised for bids for the construction and implementation of SAP 50(10) on County Roads 501 and 262 pending approval by the Office of the State Aid Road Engineer.
• Entered into an executive session to discuss a personnel matter in regards to a complaint on a sheriff's deputy.
