City Council Meeting, Mayor looks to Appoint New CAO

Tuesday morning's city council meeting was business as usual, with the council tackling several issues, one of which was the hearing of a $97,000 Project Safe Grant the police department would use to update equipment. The city council approved the police department to apply for the grant.

"It's going to help the department because it helps us with our crime here in the city. It helps us with our investigations of the gangs. It helps the community feel safe where they can call and feel safe calling," said police Chief Deborah Young.

To be proactive the council also approved Utility Director, Jimmy Ekman, to move forward with one supplier bid in order to get chlorine to disinfect city water further.

"We've contacted all the chlorine suppliers in the Southeast and have only found one in the last several months because of the supply chain issues going on all over the country, and we're bound by purchasing law of the state of Mississippi. So, we had to get the council to enact measures so we can go ahead and buy chlorine to continue further disinfection of the water", explained Ekman.

Chirssie Walker, Interim CAO

Previous Chief Administrative Officer (CAO) Tim Miller resigned in June. Now, Mayor Jimmie Smith is hoping to soon have his interim CAO, Chrissie Walker, approved by the council.

"We're supposed to have 90 days for a temporary CAO, and I want to get her confirmed. She's about at the 90 days, and I'm ready to make her a permanent fixture in our office", stated Mayor Smith.

The next city council meeting will take place on Tuesday, September 20th at 5 p.m.