Page 7 - Rob Roberson News Today

Ignorance can be just as destructive as malice, which is why we are sorely disappointed by the reaction of our local legislative delegation to the Mississippi Ethics Commission’s final report that exempts the legislature from the state’s Open Meetings Act.

Area lawmakers seem split on a recent Mississippi Ethics Commission decision to uphold the right of political caucuses to meet in private. Their positions don’t necessarily fall along party lines.

The owner of an Oktibbeha County bar and his landlord claim the business’ revenues have dropped dramatically due to actions by the county, and one is threatening legal action if the board of supervisors moves forward with a plan to limit operating hours for all resort status establishments.

Four Oktibbeha County supervisors violated the Open Meetings Act in February when they met with engineers in a series of sub-quorum meetings, according to a preliminary ruling by the Mississippi Ethics Commission.

Supervisors on Monday reneged on part of its funding commitment to the East Oktibbeha Wastewater District, potentially jeopardizing a multi-million dollar sewer infrastructure expansion project.

In a flurry of split votes, the board of supervisors on Monday committed all $9.6 million of its American Rescue Plan Act funds to three projects.

The purported sure thing of the county receiving $13 million in federal funds to repair the lake dam has proven, at least for now, to be more of a definite maybe.

A fire Monday night in San Miguel has left more than 10 people currently looking for a new place to live.

Even as they awaited a final estimate on the cost to repair the Oktibbeha County Lake dam, county supervisors were relying on state matching ARPA funds to help cover those costs.

ABC57 News in South Bend, Ind. covers all of Michiana including St. Joseph, Elkhart, Kosciusko, LaPorte and Marshall counties in Indiana and Berrien, Cass, Van Buren and St. Joseph counties in Mich.