By John Howell Sr.

Steelmatic Wire will soon be producing its zinc-coated wire products in a Sardis industrial building constructed in 1997 to allow for expansion of Air Kontrol.

The good news that Steelmatic had selected the site for a new manufacturing facility is compounded for Sardis taxpayers. Via city government, they have been making payments on the facility – $70,000 a year – since Air Kontrol’s demise shortly after the building was completed.

The facility is located just off Highway 51 across from the North Panola School District Office.

"A lot of our business is in the U.S.," said Steelmatic Wire’s Paul Orlando. The Mississippi move places them "close to one of our largest customers," he added. Steelmatic was founded four years ago in Toronto, Ontario, he said.

"I’d like to express my appreciation to Sonny Simmons and his group," Sardis Mayor Alvis "Rusty" Dye said, referring to the Panola Partnership and its director. "Sonny was a lot of help on this project."

"It’s been a cooperative effort," Simmons said.

A section of the large metal building’s north wall had been removed and a gravel ramp constructed to allow large truck trailers access to offload the manufacturing equipment used in the firm’s production. The zinc-coated wire has many applications, including nails, staples and coat hangers, Orlando said.

Steelmatic also uses a galfan coating process to coat steel that is eventually shaped into automobile windshield wipers, he added.

The representative of the Canadian-based business said that he located the Sardis site first through a Tennessee Valley Authority Web site. He had visited sites in Tennessee, Alabama and Iuka before selecting the Sardis site. The location places him near the river ports at Rosedale and Memphis, through which the company will receive its raw material, and also less than two hours from its biggest customer, Orlando continued.

The manufacturing process used recirculates its liquid with very little discharge, Orlando said. "It’s not conventional galvanizing; there’s no acid, no zinc tanks. It’s green friendly," he added.

Steelmatic hopes to begin production in early spring. Initially 15 workers will be hired through Batesville’s WIN Job Center and trained through a Northwest Mississippi Community College program.
The location to Sardis was facilitated through a $150,000 grant from the Mississippi Development Authority’s Rural Impact Authority. The grant money will be used for infrastructure modification in the building, Simmons said.
 

Panola County voters will return to the polls today to elect a new sheriff.

Voters will choose from two sheriff’s department employees, jail administrator Hugh "Shot" Bright and Chief Deputy Craig Sheley.

The polls will be open from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m.

The runoff between Bright and Sheley comes two weeks after about 9,000 voters narrowed an 11-man field to the final two candidates.

Throughout the sheriff’s race Sheley, 37, has defended the department against accusations that deputies are slow to respond to calls.

The average response time is 20 minutes, he has said in recent weeks.

"I feel like the sheriff’s department provides the county with quality law enforcement," Sheley said in an interview last week, "and I feel like I have provided the county with quality law enforcement, too."

Bright, meanwhile, has been critical of the department’s patrol division while defending the jail. He oversaw jail operations until he was suspended in August amid an investigation by the state attorney general’s office and the Miss. Department of Corrections.

"We had the best jail in the state of Mississippi and we’ll have the best sheriff’s department in the state of Mississippi if I’m elected sheriff," Bright said in an interview last Friday.

If elected sheriff, Bright, 46, has said he will improve the deputies’ patrolling and lead a friendlier staff.

The crowded field of candidates helped jumpstart debate in the race, and a laundry list of ideas for the department – starting a rank structure for deputies, hiring part-time deputies and a reserve force, introducing a substation – became common topics on the campaign trial.

Bright and Sheley spent little time discussing specific ideas, however, instead sticking to general themes such as leadership and experience.
 

On Monday, November 28, a 10 a.m. meeting will take place at the Batesville Public Library followed by a 1:30 p.m. meeting in Sardis in the county courthouse courtroom.

Batesville resident and state Rep. Leonard Morris announced the meetings last week, responding to inquiries from the public about the "part B" drug coverage of the federal program.

Morris is chairman of the state House Medicaid Committee.

"All of us are getting hit with a lot of questions even though this is a federal program," Morris said Friday. "We’re fielding a lot of questions that we just can’t answer."

The "part B" program is part of a new drug prescription benefit that allows participants in Medicare and Medicaid access to a variety of prescription drug plans.

The event speakers will be Linda Caffey, a representative from the Area Agency on Aging, and a representative from the American Association of Retired Persons (AARP).

The representatives will speak on the topic and take questions from the audience, Morris said.
 

"The picture is not total gloom and doom for Batesville," Utility Management Corporation’s Beverly Comeaux said last week about the cost of natural gas to city customers.

Through Utility Management, the city has placed pre-purchased gas in storage, Comeaux said. Much of the gas was purchased at pre-Katrina prices or at other times when prices fell.

Batesville residents who purchase natural gas through the city should expect a 60 to 70 percent increase in their bills during winter months, she said. Earlier estimates which had projected greater increases in Batesville gas customers’ utility bills were based on what the price would be if purchased at price levels reached during the post-Katrina peak.

The natural gas consultant said that bills Batesville customers receive for November usage should reflect the price which will be applied through the winter months. However, price could still be affected by an unusual variation in supply and demand that might be triggered by unusual cold or unstable conditions in the Middle East.

"It’ always a moving target," Comeaux said.

Comeaux said that her firm is contracted by sellers of natural gas, including the City of Batesville, to secure reliable sources of the fuel and purchase it when prices drop.