Curtis ditch draws look from Audit Dept. 8/20/2013
Published 12:00 am Tuesday, August 20, 2013
By Rupert Howell
Panola County Road manager Lygunnah Bean told supervisors that he may soon be cited by the state auditor’s office for not getting proper authorization before cleaning a drainage ditch on private property in the Curtis Community.
“What I did wrong was not getting a board order first,” Bean told supervisors at a meeting of supervisors Monday, August 12.
Several citizens had questioned the legality of the county equipment on private property. Another concern was that supervisor John Thomas’s recently cleared farm property drains into the cleared ditch.
Thomas matter-of-factly said last week that the property in question naturally drains through the particular ditch and always has, saying, “This all boils down to an unpaid garbage bill.”
Thomas was referring to local resident William Pride who lives in the area and has contested a garbage fee for services he contends were never received. Pride went through the hearing process and appealed to the board of supervisors. The board sided with the original ruling. Pride contends that changes were made to county records that would have proven his position.
The ditch in question is in the Curtis Community just west of the bluff running north from Curtis Road.
Pride later said that there was never a water problem in the particular area. The issue, he said, was about more than garbage or drainage; it was about the county doing things that were not legal.
Supervisor Board President Kelly Morris explained Thursday, “It’s a fine line concerning what is legal when dealing with maintenance.”
He later went on to say that digging out or cleaning a ditch will only create more problems if water has nowhere to drain and only creates a “mud hole”.
“He (Bean) was cleaning out a ditch where water will drain on out of there,” Morris said.
County Administrator Kelley Magee had no comment concerning an audit and press secretary Laney Grantham with the State Audit Department had no comment on the issue, saying yesterday her department did not confirm or deny reports of investigations.
