By John Howell Sr.

Panola County Solid Waste submitted the apparent low bid for Batesville’s garbage collection.

Panola County Administrator Kelley Magee and Solid Waste Department representative Jennifer Jackson attended the April 17 meeting Batesville’s mayor and aldermen along with representatives of Republic Services/Allied of Flowood and Waste Management of Jackson.

Panola Solid Waste submitted a bid of $8.75 per month per household for the weekly residential collections; Waste Management bid $11.92 per household and Republic bid $13.64. Each company also included prices for roll-off dumpsters placed at specified locations.

Panola County’s bid included picking up recyclables at no charge to the city. Waste Management’s bid for recycling was $200 per haul. Republic submitted no recycling bid.
Aldermen voted to take the bids under advisement.

In other city business:

•Motorists traveling on East Street found a new three-way stop at its intersection with Allen Street following a unanimous vote by Batesville aldermen last Tuesday.  The city officials created the stop in response to a petition from residents of the street.

“Park’s too close,” Alderman Eddie Nabors said, referring to the street that intersects East, west of Allen Street.

“This kind of breaks the street in half,” Alderman Stan Harrison said.

Alderman Bill Dugger asked Police Chief Tony Jones to make a recommendation for a speed bump or a “Slow, Children at Play” near 129 Oak Leaf in the Keating Grove subdivision.

“And Hays, would you look at Hays, too?” Alderman Nabors asked the police chief;

•Aldermen voted to take under advisement proposals for engineering and legal services for a proposed sewer treatment work. Buckhart Horn Engineering and Mendrop Wages submitted proposals to provide the engineering services to bring the plant into compliance with pending environmental guidelines. The Smith Phillips firm submitted a proposal for legal services;

•Panola County Emergency Management Agency Coordinator Daniel Cole requested that the city update a hazard mitigation plan. The plan identifies “anything that’s essential for the government to function,” Cole told the mayor and aldermen.

“You have to have that plan to be eligible for mitigation grants, to be eligible for federal funding during disaster,” Cole said. “It doesn’t obligate you to a single thing, and it doesn’t cost you a dime,” Cole said.

Aldermen adopted the plan by unanimous vote;

•Aldermen also unanimously approved a resolution that is a step toward selling eight acres of city-owned land to Tri-Lakes Medical Center. Hospital officials have been negotiating with the city to buy land for medical offices between the Tri-Lakes building and the Batesville Civic Center.