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The regular meeting of the Magee Board of Aldermen was held on Tuesday, December 17, 2024. The meeting was opened with prayer by Belinda Berry, Children’s Minister at First Baptist Church.
The prayer was followed by the Pledge of Allegiance. The board approved the agenda for the meeting, and Mayor Dale Berry reminded everyone there would be no garbage pickup on Tuesday, December 24, or Wednesday, December 26, 2024.
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Alderman Sammie Tebo interrupted the mayor’s report to express concerns over the handling of a recent water outage in the city of Magee. He said when he was called about the fact that Love’s Truck Stop had no water, he reached out to the mayor and received no response. Tebo said he later saw on the mayor’s personal Facebook page that the city had been put under a boil water notice, which had been lifted.
“Nobody at City Hall knew anything about the boil water notice,” Tebo said. “The emergency manager for the city of Magee knew nothing about it. The police department didn’t know anything about it, and it had not been put out for anybody.”
Tebo expressed concerns about the risk to the health of the city’s residents because they were unaware of the boil water notice.
Berry said Steve Womack of Clear Water Solutions, a representative from Clearpoint Engineers, and Public Works Superintendent Tim Bray had been present and working on the problem, which Womack said began around 7:30 p.m. on Tuesday, December 10.
Berry asked Alderman Sue Honea if he had called her about the problem for publication on MageeNews.com.
“You sent me a text, but I did not get it until later,” Honea said.
“I can pull it up on my phone,” Berry said. “I can prove that.”
He asked Womack to explain the situation. Steve Womack told the board that he decided a boil water notice should be given at about 1:30 in the morning, and work to fix the problem was completed around 4:00 a.m. Samples taken at that time “came back good” Thursday morning.
Bray explained that plant two had been down since about 4 p.m. that afternoon, and plant one had not been able to maintain pressure.
Womack said the boil water notice “came in Wednesday, and the sample results were back Thursday by lunch.”
Tebo said, “That’s fine. My problem is that we’ve got an app we spent piles of money on, and all you’ve gotta do is let the emergency manager know.”
“You want the answer?” Berry interrupted. “Tim called, and they didn’t answer.”
Tebo asked Bray, “Did you leave her a message? Did you walk down the hall and tell anybody?”
“At midnight, there ain’t nobody down the hall,” Bray responded.
He told the board he left work at 4:30 a.m. and returned turned later that morning.
Berry recommended training the police department’s dispatchers to work they city’s app for emergency situations.
“Elderly people don’t have an app,” said Alderman Lawana Thompson. “We need a push notification to go out, to call them and say the city of Magee has a boil water notice.”
“We used to get calls about things,” she said.
“We have to use every method we have,” Honea said.
“Penny should have been contacted,” said Alderman Mark Grubbs. “That’s where everything fell apart. If that had happened, we wouldn’t even be talking about this tonight.”
Steve Womack presented the board with the yearly state audit of the city’s water supply by the health department. The overall capacity rating for the city was 4.7 out of 5.0.
Forrest Dungan of Clearpoint Engineers update the board on the city’s ongoing projects.
The final inspection of the water treatment plant #1 project was set to be done on Wednesday, December 18.
The city’s water meter replacement project is 83% complete.
The Lamar Road Sewer Extension Project has been awarded, but easements are needed to begin work. A preconstruction meeting will be held in the new year.
The paving project is underway. Temperature restrictions with asphalt work will affect the progress in the coming weeks, and there have been some “inadequacies in some of the work that has been completed,” according to Dungan. He gave the board a copy of the letter he sent to the contractor about needed repairs and things that need to be different going forward.
The park project preconstruction meeting will be held in January.
The board approved the minutes, but Grubbs pointed out that the minutes said the city approved a donation of $7400 from Polk’s. He asked that the minutes of the current meeting reflect the fact that the city has not received a donation of $7400, only that the police chief had been authorized to accept such a donation.
The board approved the claims docket after a brief discussion of items relating to the painting of the police department. One contractor was painting the jail; the other was painting the police station.
“It was two different locations,” said City Attorney Wesla Sullivan.
Tiffany Kinslow of Main Street Magee appeared before the board to discuss the organization’s plan for Mardi Gras celebrations in February. The board had previously voted not to allow the use of the Community House for the event. She asked the board to approve changing the date of the parade from Tuesday, February 18, 2025, to Thursday, February 20. She told the board the organization wants to end the parade with a street dance on Choctaw Street near the Vault and use the other end of the street near the Community Housefor kids’ activities and inflatables. Kinslow explained plans to include local schools as well as the PriorityOne Senior Center in plans for the event.
The board approved changing the date of the parade.
Allyson Berch appeared before the board to express her concerns over the recent boil water notice for the city of Magee. She directed her comments directly to the mayor.
She asked, “What is the protocol when our water system is compromised and a boil water notice has to be issued?”
Berry said the boil water notice was issued based upon the advice of Steve Womack of Clear Water Solutions, LLC.
Berch said she had contacted the Smith Crossing Water office and was told they send push notifications and contact the health department.
“We had nothing in place,” she said. “This is unacceptable, totally unacceptable.”
“Somebody dropped the ball,” she said.
She told the board that Smith Crossing and the Highway 28 Water Association were listed on the health department’s website for boil water notices, but the city of Magee was not.
“Who was responsible for the public not being informed regarding the recent boil water notice?” Berch asked.
“I’ll take the blame,” Berry said. “I’ll be a big boy and take the blame.”
“Where is the accountability?” Berch asked.
Finally, Berch asked the board to consider removing the restriction of citizens being able to address the board at meetings without submitting a written request beforehand.
Berry told her, “The night it was passed that you have to be on the agenda, for that, I was in the hospital. I was not here at that board meeting. I think the minutes will show that.”
He said he communicates with his department heads.
“I’d rather Denis be out there patroling the streets instead of him coming up here for a thirty-minute meeting,” Berry said. “If I’ve got a problem, I’ll call or text him.”
“Bottom line is we’ve got a problem,” Berch said.
Brett Duncan of Prince C.P.A. said the city is at 24.28% of the budget.
“We’re just under one-quarter of our budget and just almost through one-quarter of the fiscal year that began October 1,” Dunan said.
“You’re getting fully staffed,” he said, “and the proof is in the overtime.”
He told the board November was “the lowest month we’ve ever had, even with a significant breakdown in the water system.”
He told the board that in the next six months, which is the last six months of the term, concerning non-emergency expenditures that are not budgeted, “the answer is no.”
“When the public hears the board say, ‘no,’ over the next six months, it’s kind of out of their hands,” he said.
“Everything that’s going on right now is 100% budgeted,” he said.
Public Works Superintendent Tim Bray told the board, “We’ve got eight tons of asphalt ordered.”
Thompson asked about a pothole near Millcreek, and Bray told her it was MDOT’s responsibility.
Tebo asked about a drain at 9th Street and 4th Avenue.
“It’s worse than ever,” Tebo said. “You can’t even see the culvert.”
Police Chief Denis Borges asked the board to approve $600 to reimburse the owner of a truck for damage caused during a recent search.
“For the record, I’ve spoken with the chief about this, and it does appear that they followed protocol. They had a search warrant. They did everything by the book. It just happened the door to that truck was damaged,” said Sullivan.
The board approved the payment.
Borges also asked the board for executive session about a volunteer chaplain for the police department.
He said the audit of the gun vault is complete, and 65 weapons are missing.
“There was no log from the previous administration so we don’t know what happened to those weapons. We don’t know if they were stolen or if they were ever even here,” Borges said.
He told the board they know some were sold, but they do not have records of the sale. The missing weapons go back to 1996.
The board entered the list of missing weapons into the minutes.
Michael Allan appeared before the board on behalf of the fire department and told the board that since November 1, they had received about 20 fire calls, including five vehicle fires and three house fires.
He said they are about 75% through cleaning up fire hydrants.
In addition, the new tower is up and running, he said.
Allan informed the board that the fire department would like to donate a new tool to the city. The tool cost $14,500. The board voted to accept the donation.
Zoning Administrator Penny Aguirre said, “If I had known about the boil water notice, I would have contacted Jack at the radio station to broadcast the news, contacted MageeNews to broadcast, put a message on the city’s app, published it on the city’s Facebook and website and had answers when residents called and texted me. It’s my hope going forward that the police chief, the fire chief, and I are looped into all potential emergencies so that we can be responsive to the residents of Magee.”
She said that from an emergency management standpoint, the city does have a protocol.
“But that hinges completely on communication and mutual respect for all the department heads and collaboration,” she said. “We can only do our best with the information we’re given.”
The zoning board recommended that conditional use be granted to Jessica Wood for a clinic, which the board approved.
Aguirre told the board that the city has submitted its annual report for the certified local government program which has been accepted.
The board approved the publication of three zoning hearings which will be held in January. The first is for conditional use for the Mims Mitchell building. It was approved.
The second hearing is for the rezoning of two different locations. The board approved.
Building Inspector Al Sullivan reported the following:
- 4 residential new construction permits (Penny Lane)
- 2 residential remodel permits
- 1 mechanical permit (HVAC)
- 1 electrical inspection for temporary service connect
- 2 electrical inspections for residential utility connection
- 1 electrical inspection for business service connect
- 3 residential framing and HVAC inspections
- 5 residential gas inspections for service connect
- 1 Certificate of Occupancy Inspection for a new business (nail salon by Dirt Cheap)
- 2 city contractor license renewals.
Jimmy Zila told the board, “We have got to get the lights fixed over at the park.”
He explained that the lights on the first four fields are 25 years old and have been damaged by a storm. He is looking into the cost of changing the first four fields to LED rights.
“Lights are pointed in every direction,” he said. “It may affect tournaments we do and may even affect our city ball.”
He also told the board he expects it will cost $1 million to replace the turf at the Sportsplex.
Ryegrass has been planted and cut twice.
Baseball and softball sign-up will begin January 2. The first tournament will be held February 17, 2025.
Painting of the Sportsplex has been postponed due to rain.
Mike Berry told the board that both fuel tanks at the airport have been cleaned and that 2000 gallons of gas was to arrive on Friday, December 20. Two new magnet gates have arrived and are working.
The new fence has been installed along the driveway.
Alderman Grubbs told Berry, “It’s looking good.”
The board entered an executive session to discuss personnel.
