The Warren County Board of Supervisors conducted business Monday efficiently with little discussion.

The task of shoring up erosion on Haining Road was the biggest single ticket item on the board’s agenda. High water and recent heavy rains have delayed work on the port access road.

County engineer John McKee requested the board approve a revised $168,396.12 estimate from Pearl-based Unicon to rebuild sliding soil along the road where subsurface erosion is a constant issue. The board authorized board president Bill Lauderdale to request the funds from the Mississippi Development Authority.

“Soon as the water gets off of it and we have a little drying time the contractor will get out there as soon as he can,” McKee said.

He asked the board to approve two other items, one for Cairo Drive bridge replacement and the other for an underwater bridge inspection program for the Big Black River at Fisher Ferry Road through State Aid.

County purchasing agent Tonga Vinson followed McKee and requested approval to purchase tags for four new county vehicles, appointing an assistant receiving clerk for the extension service and one for the Department of Human Services.

Undersheriff Jeff Riggs requested approval to work with Vinson to advertise the sale of the Sheriff Department’s aging handguns.

District 3 supervisor Charles Selmon asked if the board needed to declare those handguns surplus before they could be advertised.

“They are still in use up to the time of the trade,” Riggs said. “We can do that another day.”

Barely 10 minutes into the meeting Tax Assessor Angela Brown requested approval for reduction of assessment of 2014 real property for two parcels. The board approved both.

Then Brown brought up another item she had not encountered before involving the former Red Cross building. The property had been a tax-exempt property, but was sold in 2014 to a private individual and not assessed on the land roll.

“Last month I submitted a board order and it was approved,” Brown said. “The customer’s complaint is that she’s been assessed the late penalty, which I have no control over, so I’m asking the board to excuse her from having to pay the $39.85 late penalty.”

Board president Bill Lauderdale asked if the woman had paid her taxes late and didn’t want to pay the penalty.

Brown said it wasn’t the lady’s fault that the building hadn’t been added to the land rolls in 2014.

Lauderdale pointed out that the county doesn’t have to send out bills for people to pay their taxes, they are supposed to pay their taxes because they know they own the property.

Brown said that during a tax assessor’s meeting in July a survey was conducted among the 82 assessors and that very few send out bills any more. Warren County does as a courtesy she said.

Ultimately the board approved the waiving of the penalty.

Board attorney Blake Teller then advised the board to sign the Vicksburg Tallulah Regional Airport agreement that was approved in 2009, but never signed.

Teller also requested the board order BancorpSouth to close a jury account opened by jailed former Circuit Clerk Shelly Ashley-Palmertree. The account contains $10,764.24, some of it juror pay that was never dispersed.

“Was this jury fees owed to people who served that were never paid,” District 1 Supervisor John Arnold asked.

“Some of that is true,” Teller said. “No. 1 let’s secure the funds and No. 2 there might possibly be some outstanding obligations to jurors that were never paid. Then it may be an overage that the county is entitled to.”

Teller also requested the board approve reissuance of bonds for an International Paper project, which the board approved along with his other requests.

Chancery Clerk Donna Hardy concluded the business end of the meeting by authorizing the board to sign a residential lease agreement between the Vicksburg Warren School District and the White family, pay approved invoices for the Haining Road project, accept reports from the constables and minutes from the bridge commission.