House speaker Philip Gunn speaks as representatives prepare to make a decision on Gov. Tate Reeves’ spending authority over $1.25 billion in federal coronavirus stimulus money, at the statehouse in Jackson, Miss., Friday, May 1, 2020.
As legislative leaders continue to spar with Gov. Tate Reeves over who has control over coronavirus stimulus funds, lawmakers will return to the Capitol Thursday to begin allocating them.
The Legislature was scheduled to return on May 18 to resume the 2020 session, but on Tuesday afternoon leaders announced they would return on Thursday at 1 p.m., according to a release sent out from the offices of House Speaker Philip Gunn, R-Clinton and Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann.
The two leaders are working together on legislation to help small businesses affected by COVID-19. Details were not immediately available, but the legislation would “set parameters and allocated funds to a state agency to administer,” according to the release.
“The backbone of our economy in Mississippi is our small businesses, and now they need our support,” Speaker of the House Philip Gunn said. “The two chambers will act together to provide relief as quickly as possible this week.”
The announcement comes amid a disagreement between the Legislature and Gov. Tate Reeves concerning the governor’s spending authority of $1.25 billion in Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act funds.
The Legislature returned to the Capitol last Friday to pass a bill that strips Reeves of sole spending authority. The bill moved to $1.15 billion of the federal funds to the budget contingency fund where the federal money could not be spent without legislative action. Another $100 million was put into a separate fund that could be accessed by state agencies if they had immediate needs related to COVID-19.
The governor has until midnight Thursday to veto the bill, which means the Legislature could potentially be in session on Friday as well. A two-thirds vote in both the Senate and House is necessary to override his veto, which would be a historic feat: the last time lawmakers overrode a Mississippi governor’s veto was in 2002.
Both Gunn and Hosemann’s office said they are working to establish protocol for visiting and working inside the Capitol.
Mississippi Today is pleased to announce Kayleigh Skinner as deputy managing editor.
Skinner joined the Mississippi Today staff in January 2017 as an education reporter and has advanced to a senior staff member in her three years with the company. Skinner will serve as the organization’s first female editor.
“Kayleigh has been vital to the growth of Mississippi Today over the years,” said Adam Ganucheau, Mississippi Today’s interim editor-in-chief. “A natural leader who has earned the respect of her colleagues and readers alike, Kayleigh’s voice and perspective are essential for our newsroom and for our state. I couldn’t be prouder to serve alongside her as we continue working to inform and engage Mississippians.”
Skinner, a native of Canada, earned her bachelor’s in journalism from the University of Mississippi and has covered education in the South for six years. At Mississippi Today, she has focused on education, government, politics and how they intersect and impact the lives of people in Mississippi.
Before joining Mississippi Today, she worked as a staff reporter at The Commercial Appeal and Chalkbeat, both in Memphis, and The Hechinger Report in Jackson. She has been recognized as a member of the 2018 class of the ProPublica and Ida B. Wells Society Data Institute and was a member of the 2016 Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights Journalism Award-winning team.
“It’s an honor to step into this role. Now more than ever, it’s crucial for Mississippians to have access to news that both informs them and holds state leadership accountable, and I’m proud to work in a newsroom that does just that,” Skinner said. “It’s so important to have a variety of voices at the table to help shape our coverage, and I look forward to working with Adam and Harvey as our newsroom’s first female editor.”
Skinner will manage Mississippi Today’s Delta Bureau and lead the site’s education coverage while working with Ganucheau and Managing Editor Harvey Parson to craft broader editorial strategy.
“Kayleigh’s strong news judgement helped her become one of the top reporters in the state,” said Parson. “Since I joined the newsroom, I’ve enjoyed witnessing firsthand her dedication to accuracy and balance in the work she produces and I’m excited to work with Kayleigh as she steps into this key leadership role.”
You get the feeling that the next civil war in the United States is going to be between the church folks that are ready to get back to normal church and packing the pews and those that want to shelter in place a little longer? It sure feels like we could see pastors going into the squared circle to wrestle it out to find out who wins. It was the same argument when all of this began was it not? I remember saying early on – according to your faith do whatever you want to do. That feels like a million years ago and it was only last month. This whole virus lifestyle we are adapting to seems to be evolving each day depending on the numbers. Now, I can almost see the argument that the church folks have that if going to Walmart is safe then going to church should be. I would almost agree but there again I have some: “have you ever(s)” to explore that might help or hurt – I don’t know. That’s coming up later in the podcast. Also, I want to invite you to take part in the podcast. Anchor.fm on my landing page has a link that you can leave a message. I want to start including you in the upcoming podcast. So – go to my page on anchor.fm and leave your message. I will upload it and will make you part of the upcoming podcast. Also, later in the podcast my wife Michi is going to sit in with me to just have a heart to heart and see what matters to us both. I really hope you join in with us and I really hope it will bring a laugh or two that might brighten your day. So, hang on to your mask Lone Ranger – here we go!
Transition
I have a friend of mine that is a Pastor and he’s a working/traveling comedian. He’s been featured and has done openings for the Huckaby show in Nashville and also has been involved with the Loretta Lynn festival. I am not going to name him on my podcast because I didn’t ask permission. He went on facebook like a few weeks ago and basically went OFF on the governor of his state because churches has not been deemed essential yet. His argument, like many others, was why was it okay to gather in mass at places like Walmart, Home Depot and Lowes and not be able to have church. As someone that enjoys meeting at church I had to agree for the most part. Then, I have also been following the news from Louisiana where a pastor defied orders to not hold services and was arrested – albeit for other charges, not just for holding services – and was released. On the day he was released he went and held services that night. He was asked to stop holding services again and then was placed on house arrest. During his facebook live broadcast he showed everyone his ankle bracelet and after service he was arrested again. It doesn’t take long to ruffle the feathers of the church and at the same token it ruffles the feathers of those hinging on the shelter in place being effective. The interesting turn of events with the pastor in LA is that his own attorney has been diagnosed with the virus. The guy that has been getting him out of jail contracted the virus. Before I potentially lose the few listeners I have I wanted to say that I saw a touching video of a pastor doing facebook live posts from his sanctuary where the members had sent pictures of themselves and they had been placed in the pews to give him faces to look at. He was touched by the kindness of the congregation. There are also pastors that are doing a great job with the drive in churches – where I assume that a honk is an amen and if they do donuts in the parking lot that’s akin to a praise break.
I want to go back to talk about the pastors that are getting on social media and they are demanding services be allowed to resume. So – hopefully in a lighthearted gesture I want to see if we can understand what is best here and calm down for a second. Here are my “have you ever.”
1. Churches have greeters at the door and so does Walmart, but have you ever been greeted at Walmart with a handshake and a hug? It’s hard not to do that in church.
2. Churches have ushers and volunteers to help you find your way around. Walmart has associates that do the same, but they don’t take your coat or hold an umbrella for you; and they most certainly don’t put their arms around you because they are so glad you came to see them.
3. Churches have secret assigned seating. If you don’t believe that get there early and sit somewhere different and notice how nice the person is that normally sits there. However, during service if you feel the hair on the back of your neck start burning – it’s the nice little lady that normally sits there. Walmart doesn’t have that.
4. Churches will start their services by singing a song and then they will walk around and shake hands and greet one another again. Still, you don’t constantly walk through Walmart like a politician on patrol. No one is giving you the right hand of fellowship there.
5. Some churches have pastors that spit when they preach – as the spirit moves on them. You may get wet at Walmart but it’s if you are standing too close to the produce when the misting system is activated.
6. People in church love to pass babies around from person to person – at Walmart they usually stay in the buggy.
7. At the end of the service, more handshakes and hugs at the church – still haven’t seen this at Walmart.
Now I realize you can have precautions to keep yourself from touching one another, but not all churches can house every member and keep the 6 feet apart difference. Some small churches only have about 6 feet from the pulpit to the first pew. The one problem I do have is nature of a lot of church leaders to push folks to come to church. They mean well but they sometimes put emotional pressure on people so there is a crowd. Now, if you are pastor and all you are wanting to see is a crowd then I can’t agree with you. If you are concerned about the tithing, again, I can’t agree with you. So, for all of you that have figured out a way to reach your churchgoers without putting them in some sort of harms way, I commend you. This is God’s way of getting you out from behind the pulpit and up and down the road. How long has it been since you stepped on someone’s porch just to see how they were doing and offer to pray for them right through the screen door? Find a way to keep doing what you already have the freedom to do. Have you ever stopped to think of how life would be if this didn’t go away for a while? Let’s stop all the bickering about the law stripping us of our rights and move within the parameters of what helps keep people safe AND what will bring honor to whom you worship. At the end of the day going beyond what you can do to maintain will be what matters.
Transition So during our quarantine my wife and I have become gardeners, pressure washers, and most recently carpenters. We have been doing Facebook live with music and homeschooling. So I’ve asked her to help me out today and we are going to just talk about the good, the bad and the ugly of quarantine 2020 – would you help me welcome Ms. Michi!
Good Tuesday morning and Happy Cinco de Mayo everyone! It will be a warm & muggy day with gradual clearing and a high near 79 in North Mississippi! Winds are southwest this morning and will become northwest in the afternoon at around 10 mph. A front will come through in the afternoon with an isolated thunderstorm or showers. Chance of precipitation is 20%. Tonight will be mostly clear with a low near 50. Have an awesome Tuesday, friends!!
Families First for Mississippi’s former west Jackson office, inside a now shuttered grocery store and run by Mississippi Community Education Center, sat empty one morning in October of 2018. The office was decorated with cobwebs and orange tape for Halloween.
John Davis worked his way up to executive director of the Mississippi Department of Human Services after nearly thirty years with the welfare agency and had begun publicly crafting a new vision for how the state helps the poor.
But by the time he took the helm of an agency that administers over $1 billion in public assistance program in 2016, “he saw it as an opportunity to build a kingdom over there,” State Auditor Shad White said Monday just before releasing a 104-page letter outlining the ways the agency misspent millions.
MDHS Twitter
John Davis, former director of the Mississippi Department of Human Services, was arrested in February within the largest alleged public embezzlement case in state history.
Under the Davis administration, federal funds intended to serve the poor instead enriched his family and friends and paid for lobbyists, luxury vehicles, religious concerts, expensive getaways, publicity events with famous athletes and even a speeding ticket, the state audit published on Monday reveals.
“Once you talk yourself into ignoring the laws and the regs around how to spend the money, it’s easy to talk yourself into increasingly absurd expenditures over time,” White said.
The new report covering fiscal year 2019 officially questions $94 million in Human Services spending, some from previous years. The state auditor’s single audit, conducted every year on behalf of the federal government, sheds new light on the misspending that led to six arrests in early February.
Human Services recently announced it has revised its internal policies and will require welfare subgrantees to submit more comprehensive financial records moving forward. The new executive director Bob Anderson — whom Gov. Tate Reeves appointed earlier this year to replace interim director Jacob Black, Davis’ former deputy — is overseeing an internal investigation to determine if any current employees were involved in the alleged scheme and make any necessary personnel changes. The agency also plans to hire an accounting firm to conduct a forensic audit of the department.
But the agency could still face consequences from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, which has the option to cut the state’s grant funding in future years, impose hefty fines or require the state to increase its match to make up for the misspent funds.
When Davis, who is now awaiting trial in the largest public embezzlement case in state history, became director in 2016, the agency was serving a record low number of families through the cash assistance program. The welfare caseload continued to plummet as the state reported spending more money on programming, such as parenting classes and skills training, than on direct payments to poor families. But the department didn’t keep track of who these programs served, and in many cases did not require that the recipients meet income requirements.
“No one ever took the time to see if any of the people were actually eligible or needed the money,” said Stephanie Palmertree, financial and compliance audit director for the state auditor’s office. “And that’s the biggest concern here is, when you’re funding things like baseball fields for select softball teams, obviously that money is going to people who don’t need the money and individuals who actually need that assistance … they’re missing out because you’re choosing to fund services for people who aren’t eligible.”
After taking charge, Davis first dismantled the agency’s competitive bid process for contracts, the auditor said. He directed the agency to make upfront, multi-million dollar payments to Mississippi Community Education Center and Family Resource Center of North Mississippi to run a program they called Families First of Mississippi.
Over less than four years, the Human Services gave the nonprofits about $65 million and $45 million, respectively, according to a review of state expenditures.
Typically, subgrantees for the welfare program submit claims for reimbursement as opposed to receiving upfront payments, several subgrantees told Mississippi Today, making the arrangement with the two nonprofits all the more unusual.
Davis encouraged the nonprofits to pay large sums to retired professional wrestlers Ted Dibiase, Ted Dibiase, Jr., and Brett Dibiase for work they didn’t do or that didn’t help the needy, the auditor said.
Davis was close to the DiBiase family; his agency awarded more than $2 millions in grants to Heart of David Ministry owned by the patriarch, Ted DiBiase Sr., dubbed the “Million Dollar Man.” The director heavily involved both DiBiase brothers Brett and Ted in official department matters and taxpayer funded, out-of-state trips.
“Fear is INEVITABLE,” reads screenshot from a power point former Mississippi Department of Human Services Director John Davis and wrestler Ted DiBiase Jr. used during their leadership training program called Law of 16.
Emails suggest Davis and Ted DiBiase Jr. had gone into business together, developing a motivational training program called Law of 16 that they delivered to public agencies on the nonprofit’s dime. Ted DiBiase Jr.’s companies Priceless Ventures LLC and Familiae Orientem received more than $3 million from the nonprofits between 2017 and 2019, but the audit does not show that Davis financially benefited. Davis was even trying to help the wrestler with an autobiography.
A Hinds County grand jury indicted Davis and Brett DiBiase in February for allegedly using welfare funds to pay for Brett’s drug treatment at a Malibu facility. They’ve pleaded not guilty. Davis’ attorney Merrida Coxwell did not return calls to Mississippi Today Monday.
The grand jury also indicted Mississippi Community Education Center’s founder Nancy New and her son Zach New for allegedly embezzling over $4 million for their personal use. They’ve pleaded not guilty. The New nonprofit represents the most egregious misspending, according to the audit: It transferred over $6 million to private schools owned by Nancy New, such as New Summit School, bought luxury vehicles for New family members and paid expensive rents on property owned by the News, only for them to sit empty. Zach New used welfare funds to pay back a loan on his retirement account, the audit says.
The auditor discovered many millions in misspent funds, but he did not specify a dollar amount out of the $94 million that rose to the level of misspending. Many more questioned costs resulted from a lack of documentation showing where the money went.
The money in question came from Temporary Assistance for Needy Families, a federal block grant that states have wide latitude to use to help lower income families, including through cash assistance for very poor families formerly known as the “welfare check.”
Mississippi receives about $86.5 million in TANF from U.S. Department of Health and Human Services each year and must match the grant with state funds. But in any given year, the state is usually also spending federal grant money from previous years, complicating the accounting. The agency had caught heat for failing to spend millions in TANF funds, carrying over a large unobligated balance from year to year, and it began spending down the fund in 2017.
In 2018, the most recent year in which federal reports are available, Mississippi spent about 5 percent of $135 million TANF dollars on direct assistance for families. The state reported spending most of the rest on programming categorized as education and training, supportive services, child welfare and “Fatherhood and Two Parent Family Formation,” on which it spent about $40 million.
While the federal government requires states to provide documentation about the families that receive cash assistance — such as the number of families that meet work requirements — it does not require states to report what it buys with the rest of the money, only how much it used on vague categories.
The department was often cited in previous audits for failing to properly monitor the spending of federal funds. In the single audit released last year, shortly after the auditor’s office began its investigation into Human Services’ TANF spending, the agency was among the most cited, responsible for 10 of the 63 total findings identified in fiscal year 2018. They found management errors associated with $30 million in human services spending, but identified within TANF just over $3,100 in actual questioned costs, which were payments to low-income families that may not have met all requirements to receive benefits.
These annual audits, which focus on an agency’s internal controls, are not effective at identifying fraud, White explained Monday; that kind of revelation usually requires a tip from the inside. The auditor’s office said it began investigating the TANF scheme in June of 2019 after agency employees took information about misspending to then-Gov. Phil Bryant, who turned the information over to White.
When auditor agents arrested the six defendants in early February before the investigation had concluded, White explained that his office moved forward in obtaining the initial indictments in order to prevent any more misspending or theft.
Anna Wolfe
Mississippi Community Education Center’s downtown Jackson office, branded as Families First, was funded with millions of welfare dollars but filled its food pantry with donated food and on the day of the nonprofit founder’s arrest, the shelves were lined almost exclusively with canned corn and green beans.
Mississippi Today first reported that the New nonprofit paid $5 million for the construction of a new volleyball stadium at University of Southern Mississippi; covered the $9,500-a-month mortgage on former football star Marcus Dupree’s ranch in a gated Flora community; and funded a high-profile boot camp-style fitness program offered by former linebacker Paul Lacoste. The audit included each of these purchases as a finding.
The nonprofit paid for the volleyball center through a lease agreement that it utilized one time for a Healthy Teens Rally in 2018. The auditor found that in substance, the payment was a donation, not a lease.
Dupree, who declined to talk to Mississippi Today when visited at the ranch in March, was on payroll at both Mississippi Community Education Center and Family Resource Center of North Mississippi, where he earned hundreds of thousands to travel the state and lecture school children.
The nonprofit funded the Lacoste boot camp with TANF money through a contract with his company Victory Sports Foundation, but the program was not geared toward the poor, the audit says; many professionals and state lawmakers participated free of charge. While Lacoste did not return several phone calls from Mississippi Today, and publicly threatened the publication with legal action, he told Clarion Ledger he did not know he had been paid with welfare funds. The nonprofit paid Victory Sports $1.3 million of its $1.4 million contract and Clarion Ledger reported some of the money paid for expensive dinners at steakhouses.
While the volleyball center, the Dupree ranch and the Lacoste boot camp are questioned in the audit, none of these expenditures are the subject of criminal charges.
The largest fraudulent purchase outlined in the indictments is a $2.15 personal investment the News allegedly made using welfare funds into a medical device company called Prevacus, which is developing a treatment for concussions.
The audit explains that the New nonprofit entered a $1.7 million contract with Prevacus in 2019. Mississippi Today also first reported that football legend Brett Favre had promoted, and discussed with then-Gov. Bryant, according to emails Mississippi Today obtained, two of the projects funded by welfare money: the investment in Prevacus, a company the athlete endorsed, and the new center at Southern Miss where his daughter played volleyball.
The audit reveals more about Favre’s relationship with the News: The nonprofit also paid Favre Enterprises, his business, $1.1 million between 2017 and 2018 “to appear at several events, record promotions, and provide autographs for marketing materials.”
“MCEC provided a list of dates and events that fulfilled the contract terms; however, upon a cursory review of those dates, auditors were able to determine that the individual contracted did not speak nor was he present for those events,” the audit said.
Favre did not return calls or text messages Monday afternoon.
Mississippi Community Education Center also paid Davis’ brother-in-law $150,000 to serve as the department’s “Leadership Outreach Coordinator” and $365,050 through a business lease on a piece of property in Brookhaven. It paid Davis’ nephew $140,809 to develop a coding academy and website design program and $67,769 in salary. Family Resource Center also paid the Davis family members.
Meanwhile, the Families First for Mississippi nonprofits, which received over $100 million since 2017, would not provide any cash assistance to people living in poverty.
“As an agency head, it’s not like I’m sitting back saying, ‘Oh, I don’t want to help these people,’” Davis told Mississippi Today in 2019 just a few months before the investigation began. “My job is to help people. I don’t get paid any more not to help people.”
Eric J. Shelton/Mississippi Today, Report For America
Gov. Tate Reeves answers questions during a press conference concerning the coronavirus pandemic.
Despite two of the last four days showing the highest daily COVID-19 case counts to date, Gov. Tate Reeves announced Monday he is further reopening the Mississippi economy.
Restaurants can begin Thursday serving in-house meals under strict guidelines, Reeves announced Monday afternoon during his daily news conference. The governor also is re-opening state and local parks.
The governor said Friday that he had planned to announce further reopenings that day, but opted not to after the Department of Health reported 397 coronavirus cases and 20 deaths on Friday. Those numbers represent the most cases on a single day since the coronavirus arrived in the state.
Then on Saturday and Sunday the number of new cases reported were significantly lower. On Monday, though, the Department of Health reported 327 new cases – the second most ever on a single day – and seven deaths.
Just before the Reeves news conference on Monday, on social media LouAnn Wodward, vice chancellor for the University of Mississippi and head of the University of Mississippi Medical Center, said, “The number of COVID-19 positive patients, hospitalizations and deaths are increasing. We have not hit our peak. We are not on the other side of this. Stay safe Mississippi.”
State Health Officer Thomas Dobbs, who participated in the news conference with Reeves, said looking at data over a period of time it appears the state’s cases and hospitalization rates are no longer increasing and that a plateau had been reached. The daily reports are impacted in part by the number of tests performed and when those test results are reported, Reeves said.
But while some metrics, like ICU and ventilator use have been stable, overall hospitalizations have been steadily growing, both daily and when looked at it on a rolling weekly average.
Dobbs and Reeves stressed that Mississippians still must practice social distancing, wear a mask in public, stay six feet apart and avoid groups of more than 10.
Reeves said he is trying to balance the safety of the state’s citizens with the state’s economy. He said the closure of businesses also is having a devastating impact on the state.
“I don’t want to wait if there are steps that we believe we can safely take now to ease the burden on Mississippians fighting this virus,” Reeves said. “There are thousands around the state that are set to close their doors for good. They cannot hold on much longer. I hope that this will not only be some much-needed relief for those restaurant employees but also provide for some joy for the people of Mississippi.”
Under the new order, which goes into effect Thursday, Reeves said he unfortunately could not reopen barbershops and hair salons because he said health care experts could not find a safe way to do so. While Reeves did not address the issue at the news conference, it appears the order also does not allow for the reopening of gyms, theaters, other entertainment venues and some other activities like nail salons.
The order Reeves announced Monday amends an April 24 “safer-at-home order” that opened most retail establishments within the restraints of social distancing and other limitations, but did not reopen in-house dining at restaurants. Under the amendment Reeves announced Monday, restaurant capacity will be limited to 50 percent of maximum capacity and employees must wear masks and undergo safety training.
The safer-at-home order is set to expire at 8 a.m. Monday. Prior to the safer- at-home order, the state was under a much stricter shelter-in-place order for three weeks.
Minerva Clemon, 70, lives on the outskirts of Schlater, where she has been without running water since July.
SCHLATER — In November, reports of Minerva Clemon’s struggle to get safe drinking water awakened Mississippians to a water crisis that many communities around the state share: the lack of access to clean, running water.
“At this time in life, I’m too old to be trying to repair a pump every six months and I feel like we should be entitled to water like everyone else,” the 70-year-old Schlater resident told Mississippi Today in November.
Once news coverage of the families’ plight spread, government officials — local, state, and federal — worked in tandem to fix the problem, and families can finally get what they’ve been waiting nearly a year for: a new water well system.
Late last week, the Mississippi Department of Human Services announced receipt of a $63,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to build a new well.
“It’s hard to imagine communities being without basic necessities, especially during the (coronavirus) pandemic we’re facing,” said Robert G. “Bob” Anderson, executive director of the state Department of Human Services in the release. “Hygiene is critical for the health and welfare of everyone right now.”
Mississippi Today reached out to Clemon after the news of well funding was released. What was once Clemon’s biggest concern — funding — is now trumped by a new obstacle: an ownership issue with the land. Clemon’s home is considered heirs’ property, or property passed down without a will.
“The problem is the land needs to be in my name,” Clemon told Mississippi Today. “The property was my grandfather’s and went to my mother. Basically, all of her siblings are gone and all of their children have a piece in this land. Black people don’t do wills and end up with heirs’ property.”
Joyce Chiles, of Mississippi Delta-based Chiles Law Firm PLLC, said to move the process forward on a case like this, the court would need to partition the land. This means notifying all parties who may be property owners.
“Let’s assume you have five siblings and your parents leave without doing a will. According to the law of intestate and distribution, each sibling will take an equal share but will own the whole thing together,” Chiles said. “The property has not been divided. It means you and your siblings own the home. No one person owns one particular portion.”
So far, 17 states have passed the Uniform Partition of Heirs Property Act, which “helps preserve family wealth in the form of real property.” Mississippi is one of the states that has not passed this legislation. However, Senate Bill 2553, which would establish procedures to partition heirs’ property, was passed by the Senate in the 2020 legislative session before it recessed due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Central Mississippi, Inc., a community action agency in Leflore County along with the Greenwood Fire Department provided thousands of gallons of water by a water tank and bottled water to residents, said Pam Gary, director of Central Mississippi. They also went to the state Department of Human Services to apply for the grant.
The cost of the water pump is between $45,000 and $50,000. The rest of the funds will be used to make residents “more sustainable in the future,” by assisting with utility bills, rent and mortgage, Gary said.
“I’m just glad we were able to get this (grant),” Gary said. “… I’ll feel better once the property rights are resolved, get the grant completed and running water in homes.”
This effort in Leflore County served as a catalyst to spearhead similar efforts in other rural communities across the state, Presley said. In Tishomingo County, for instance, three families have been without water, but the Northeast Mississippi Community Action Agency, in conjunction with Presley’s office and other officials were able to solidify nearly $6,000 for those residents.
“We had folks who were 70-plus-years-old toting water (to their homes),” Presley told Mississippi Today in a phone call. “I think this is a great example of where the press highlighted this need and state government, federal government, local government, and nonprofits responded.”
Nailing down which communities are without water remains a challenge, but Presley said his office is working with the Mississippi Rural Water Association to do so. The PSC created an ongoing database to ask residents if they’re lacking water.
“We’re taking the playbook we used in this Leflore County case to meet a need more widespread. This particular case has given us the opportunity to put everyone in the room,” Presley added. “That is exactly what we did in Tishomingo County with your reporting, in a very short period.”
With the coronavirus still spreading across the county and throughout the state, construction and completion dates for the water well projects are up in the air. In spite of continuous roadblocks to get basic necessities like water, rural Mississippians like Clemon remain hopeful.
“Right now, I’m still saying my prayers and waiting because at this point it’s a waiting game to see,” Clemon said.
