WAPT reported Byram is forced to purchase radios for its fire department as the Hinds County Board of Supervisors refuses to pay for them:
Byram city leaders said a communication problem is putting residents and firefighters in danger.
The city's new fire department has seven full-time firefighters and more than 24 volunteers or reserves on standby.
But most of them are without life-saving radios.
"This is not only an issue -- not only about getting responders notified -- but responders to be able to communicate and take care of people," Byram Fire Chief Marshall Robinson said.
Relaying critical information to dispatchers and other agencies is a problem Mayor Richard White said his firefighters have reported.
When a fire ignited inside a business in August, Byram fire officials said they couldn't communicate with one of their trucks.
"When you can't communicate, they don't know who all is coming," White said. "It's a communication breakdown."
Earlier in 2013, the Hinds County Board of Supervisors approved the purchase of radios out of E-911 funds, but that later hit a roadblock when the docket claim couldn't get enough votes.
That left Byram firefighters empty-handed.
"We are going to be doing some checking on the 911 money. People in Byram pay that money just like people in Clinton do, and we have not received our share of the money," White said. WAPT story
E911 funds are used to pay for such equipment for first responders in Hinds County. They are collected through taxes on phone bills. The county E911 votes on purchase requests from municipal and county agencies and forwards the decision to the Board of Supervisors. The board then votes whether or not to fund the purchase. The motion to pay for the radios died for lack of a second at a supervisors meeting in July. Former EOC Directors Mark Young and Jimmie Lewis alleged a $4.2 million contract with Airwave was draining the E911 fund. The supervisors fired each director shortly after they made such claims.
14 comments:
Bootstrappy town collects taxes to pay for things like these. If the county reneges in their contract, then sue the broke county.
Stacy Pickering stop being a p**sy and do your job! Hinds County Supervisors are crooks, what are you going to do about it besides take the easy way out? Are you that afraid of the supervisors association that you sacrifice your integrity for votes?
+1 @10:06.
Byram needs to make up its mind. Did it or did it not secede from Hinds County several years back? You can't take a dump in your dad's house shoes and then expect an allowance on Saturday.
@1:14 has introduced himself as somebody who understands neither E-911 funding nor secession while making clear his scatalogical interest. Please, sir, distinguish yourself with further comments.
September 23, 2013 at 1:14 PM = clueless
heck, I wouldn't want anything that those buffoons in Hinds County were involved in. Radios or anything else, including house shoes full of poo!
How do you think Jackson, Clinton, Raymond, Terry, Madison, Ridgeland, Pearl, Brandon, Hattiesburg, Gulfport, Tupelo, Biloxi et al pay for their radios?
1:14 here. You buffoons (chief among you, Kingfish) apparently don't recognize or appreciate tongue in cheek humor or sarcasm. Totally lost on you also is the fact that if you piss off this incompetent board of supervisors, they will vindictively make you sweat until a court requires them to act.
"When you can't communicate ... It's a communication breakdown."
Genius
1:14 We recognize sarcasm. You just aren't very good at it.
"We"? Are you two Kingfish or two of his apologists? Whichever, you've failed all attempts at intelligence.
September 24, 2013 at 9:23 AM = Applause!
There are more showing their monkey-ass here than at city council meetings, supervisors meetings or the Jacktown Zoo.
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