Supervisor Griffin says he's okay with Madison County incurring more debt for Emergency Sirens in his district.

BY: B. Keith Plunkett

District 5 Supervisor Paul Griffin was quoted in a weekend story as saying he would be willing to consider a bond issue for Madison County if he could get some emergency sirens in his rural district.

Now, only residents of Ridgeland, Madison, Canton and Flora are within earshot of emergency weather warning systems run by those municipalities. But, Griffin said he wants all other county residents to hear similar alarms sound when tornadoes or dangerous storms approach.

"It's for public safety. I want to get citizens as much notice as possible," said Griffin, who represents the rural northern end of the county. "Having sirens in the county has always been a thought of mine."

Let me say that I am not against properly managing emergencies. I am not against the people in Supervisor Griffin's district. I don't want to see their property destroyed by bad weather or a tornado. But, the idea that Madison County would even consider a bond issue right now is madness.

We have roads that have been engineered and re-engineered when the money isn't even there for construction. How much of these engineering fees that Mr. Griffin voted to approve could have gone to provide the safety he wants for his constituents?

Maybe Griffin wasn't looking that far ahead when he cast those votes. Maybe he doesn't care about budgets and taxes at all. After all, we know where the majority of the tax money comes from, and it ain't District 5!

But, let's just pretend that Griffin, Board President Tim Johnson, and Supervisor Karl Banks hadn't put the the taxpayers on the line 50 million dollars five years ago. Are the sirens a good investment?


District 5 is a very rural district. If, as the article says, to install a siren costs $20,000, it shouldn't cost over $40,000 to put one in Sharon and one in Camden. That should do it. Any more would be a waste and the money needed to cover those two communities can be found by cleaning up waste in other parts of the county budget. Attempts to cover the countryside with sirens to protect a few homes that, if they are like mine in Flora, already know the storm is coming before the sirens go off anyway, is a waste of resources.

Butch Hammack, the county's emergency management director, seemed to agree.

"There's always a lot of debate (about the effectiveness of sirens), but I'm putting together this study for the supervisors review," he said.

"It's not feasible to spend $20,000 for five houses and thousands of cattle," Hammack said.

MBJ: Kirby, Bryant prove to be anti-business; Dennis for personal responsibility

However, when Sen. Dean Kirby, R-Pearl, argues against a microbreweries beer bill, because he doesn’t want to put his committee members in an uncomfortable position during an election year, it is obvious that political gain is more important than business success.

Even Lt. Gov. Phil Bryant, a Republican candidate for governor, took the same position in a story in the Mississippi Business Journal this week. Bryant said he didn’t see a reasonable benefit to increasing the alcohol content in Mississippi.

If that is the case, Bryant and Kirby must be against more jobs and a better tax base for Mississippi.

In a conversation with the Mississippi Business Journal last week, Coast businessman Dave Dennis, a Republican candidate for governor, said he would be for such a bill and that any concerns about alcohol and morality is about personal responsibility, not politics.

So, if Dennis sees the financial and jobs benefit of the bill, why not Bryant and Kirby. I’m assuming they would rather see government impose its will on Mississippians instead of allowing for personal responsibility.

MBJ