Funding for fire trucks also set
State Rep. Ken Morgan delivered a little bit of good news to the Marion County Board of Supervisors this week: More state land near the former Columbia Training School Property has been turned over to the county and area volunteer fire departments may see grants to help with the purchase of trucks.
He said the state is going to split $4.5 million by buying 50 fire trucks at $90,000 each through a state contract price. Departments will take the hoses and equipment off existing trucks and put them on the new trucks, he said.
The Republican then spoke about a conference report, which included the details of the land deal.
“It goes into the land description of the property (a total of 610 acres), and then tells us that after harvesting the timber in a specified amount of time, the state will forfeit future rights to any timber remaining on or re-grown on the property,” he said. “Basically, that means we got the timber rights back. Regardless of what was there, we now have the timber rights. That wasn’t a standalone bill; it was in another one.”
Board members said they appreciated the actions on the properties, which have been in question for nearly a decade. The state has relinquished control of hundreds of acres once owned by the Department of Human Services. Morgan and the Marion County delegation have been working to get the land back since the Columbia Training School closed back in 2008.
The Marion County BusinessPlex has been developed on the land, and the additional land will be the property of the county and the Marion County Economic Development District. It is located north of Mississippi 44 in two parcels, one of which is 406 acres and the other is 204 acres.
According to the transaction, the use of the land “shall only be used to make improvements to the Marion County Airport and to construct an adjacent industrial park or other aviation-related facility.”
Under the terms of the deal, the Columbia-Marion County Airport Authority and the Marion County Economic District will give the Mississippi Department of Human Services six months to harvest and sell any timber on the property.
Morgan also thanked Sen. Angela Hill for the work done on the Senate side.
“We worked together on it,” he said. “She’s feisty, and she’s going to tell it like it is. It
takes everybody working together.”
Pictured Above: State Rep. Ken Morgan spent Tuesday morning updating the Marion County Board of Supervisors on happenings from the completed legislative session in Jackson. | Photo by Mark Rogers
