Work funds sought for polling places

The Marion County Board of Supervisors hope to receive federal grant money to improve three polling places on the Courthouse Square to make them comply with the Americans with Disabilities Act.

County Engineer Jeff Dungan told the Supervisors that he would prepare the paperwork and follow the work's progress to make improvements at the Circuit Clerk's Office, the Courthouse Annex and the Justice Court building. Dungan and Circuit Clerk Janette Nolan spoke with the Board during the group's Feb. 2 meeting in the Boardroom on Courthouse Square.

Dungan told the Supervisors about a grant program from the Mississippi Secretary of State's Office.

"It looks like a fairly simple, straightforward deal," he said. "The way it works is if you send the application in, within two weeks or so they say, 'Yeah, you can do that.' You go do the stuff and you submit to them your receipts where you did the adjustments and they pay you back, which is amazingly easy compared to what we go through with others."

Dungan then explained the details of the work to meet the federal ADA standards.

"What we have found, first at the Justice Court building, it's just a doorknob issue; it's not a big deal," he said. "It just needs to be the lever-type, ADA-compliant doorknob. Then at the Courthouse Annex, there's an access ramp and we need to put edge protection on there and we need to put a grab bar on that that is ADA-compliant. On the door, we need to have a lever-type doorknob."

The biggest project will be the Courthouse, Dungan said.

"The ramp going into the Courthouse needs edge protection and a grab bar on it," he said. "It has a really big slope to the door, but they make this big rubber mat that you can order customized now that you can put there that will solve that problem. It needs a doorknob. As you go in, there are two thresholds and they make rubber mats for them too. A cabinet needs to be moved."

Nolan added that the grant money is time-specific.

"This is the last year to be eligible to receive that grant money," she said. "Also, there is going to be legislation dropping to try to put in place early voting for a 21-day period, where you turn the Courthouse into a full-fledged precinct for 21 days with early voting. We are also in a federal election year, which also means federal poll watchers and such."

The unused money would go back to the federal government, Nolan said.

"It is all federal funds, and this year they go back to the federal government if we don't use them," she said. "Part of the application process is just the five of you signing saying that you do comply with federal regulations."

Dungan said the expense would not be monumental.

"It won't be a tremendous amount of money, but it's going to be a few thousand dollars because you are going to have to modify the rails and paint them back when you're done," he concluded, adding that he would handle the paperwork. "I'd be glad to do it, but I just wanted to make sure y'all wanted me to do it."

The next meeting of the Board of Supervisors will be at 9 a.m. on Feb. 16.

Pictured Above: Looking over documents are, from left, County Attorney Joe Shepard and Supervisors Tony Morgan, Calvin Newsome and Terry Broome. | Photo by Buster Wolfe