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Drew County Judge Jessie Griffin called the March meeting of the Drew County Quorum Court to order at 6 p.m. on Monday, March 10. Justice of the Peace Orlando Jones gave the opening invocation and the Pledge of Allegiance was recited by all present. The roll was called and all of the Justices of the Peace were found to be present except for Ben Higginbotham. The court voted to approve the agenda for this month’s meeting, and the minutes from February’s meeting were approved.
“We have a lot of good things going on in our county,” Judge Griffin said. “We are blessed. I am happy with all of our Quorum Court members. None of them that I can think of come in here with any kind of personal agenda. They work towards what is best for Drew County. I look forward to working with all of you for the rest of this year, and making things run smoothly in this county.”
County Treasurer Charlie Searcy reported that at the end of February 2025, net funds in County General were negative $431,151.83 compared to negative $269,031.22 at the same time in 2024. The reason the difference is so great is that in January 2025, there was an extra pay period to account for, the county purchased an automobile, and the county made a payment toward insurance premiums. Searcy added that the Quarter Cent Sales Tax account has a balance of $6.5 million, and the General Excess account currently has $1.3 million.
“No big changes,” Searcy said. “We had no additional or large expenditures this month.”
Justice Jones introduced Keon Rhodan, the new owner of Monticello Chevrolet/GMC, formerly Lucky’s Chevrolet. Rhodan expressed excitement about being in Monticello and offered his assistance, if needed, to the Quorum Court.
Judge Griffin reported that county crews are in the process of replacing road signs and stop signs.
“Y’all can tell all of the area hunters that every stop sign doesn’t have to be shot,” Judge Griffin said. “I’ve got holes in every stop sign out there. Bullets cost too much money for everyone to just be out shooting signs. We also have people marking them up and stealing them. Please stop stealing them, this creates safety issues.”
Judge Griffin also reported that the Sanitation Department will begin hand delivering letters to customers who have accounts over 121 days delinquent. 347 letters have been delivered.
“We’re through with this. We’ve called, mailed letters, sent certified letters, and now we are hand delivering letters to these people,” Judge Griffin added. “We can’t do anything else. We’re through with this. Pay your sanitation bill or the delinquent fees will be added to your county tax bill.”
Justice Sheila Maxwell spoke on behalf of the Drew County Historical Society regarding Rough and Ready Cemetery. This is the oldest cemetery in the county and is located at the sight of the original county seat. A lot of work needs to be done to the cemetery and it was requested that the county assist with the efforts.
Sheriff Tim Nichols reported that the Drew County Detention Facility passed an inspection recently. He stated that the facility performed well in all areas that were inspected.
Sheriff Nichols also stated that the county needs to prepare to start the process of constructing a new jail. The current facility is over capacity and needs many upgrades to help modernize the facility. Sheriff Nichols noted that the upgrades could be done for $400,000, but within a year or two other things would need to be upgraded, and none of these upgrades will do anything to address the facility’s lack of available beds.
Sheriff Nichols said that the county needs a new facility with 75-100 beds. He added that some counties in the state have recently built jails of a similar size for roughly $4 million.
“None of us want a new jail,” Sheriff Nichols said. “The reality is that we need it. Crime isn’t slowing down and we can’t house everyone as it is.”
Representatives from 2nd Chance Fur Dogs appeared before the court to discuss what they have been up to recently, and to discuss their plans for finding a suitable location to shelter animals. Since January 1, the group has picked up 167 dogs and puppies in the county. All have had to be fostered by members since county dogs can’t be placed in the city’s shelter.
They are currently working to find grants and additional funding to build their own facility. Three separate individuals have offered the group land parcels where a shelter could be built if funding were secured. They estimate that it would take $100,000 to cover construction and building materials.
2nd Chance said that they are willing to continue operating as a foster-only operation until they find a suitable location. They stated that the group is working hard to regain the community’s trust after the actions of former members broke that trust.
Judge Griffin revisited the topic of Options, Inc. being added to county tax bills as a voluntary donation recipient. The court expressed fears that adding Options would create a snowball effect and organizations would come out of the woodwork expecting the same treatment.
The court agreed to not add Options to the tax bills but to continue supporting them financially. Judge Griffin added that the county will do whatever it can to provide additional help.
On that same note, the decision was made to draft an ordinance to repeal the decision to add animal control to the tax bills. This will go into effect January 1, 2026. The court decided to enter into an agreement with 2nd Chance, similar to the agreement that is in place with Options, to provide a set amount of funding each year. All parties concerned agreed that budgeting would be easier with a predetermined amount of money each year rather than the fluctuations of voluntary donations.
The court passed a resolution pertaining to the Weyerhaeuser project. The resolution states that the county supports the $6 million dollar block grant the project received, and that the citizens of Drew County would have the opportunity to attend public meetings to give feedback on how the grant funds should be used.
With no further business, the Drew County Quorum Court adjourned until next month’s meeting.
