Hardy presses for meeting to clear air on EMS station funds

A newspaper ad purchased by commissioner Dwain Smith and chairman Tom Crow alleging that someone in county government is “hiding money being spent” angered fellow commissioner Chas Hardy and led him to call for a meeting with all of the information being presented instead of “misinformation and half-truths.”

The board of commissioners did not act on Hardy's suggestion.

Commissioner Bruce Yates agreed that a meeting should be held to discuss the issues addressed.

The main issue is a lawsuit filed by three county residents, with the support of Crow, on the EMS station in West Jackson and the use of special purpose local option sales tax. In last week’s issue of The Jackson Herald, Crow and Smith placed an ad with the headline, “Who is Hiding Money? And Why?”

The ad is being published on Page 6 in this week’s Commerce News as well.

The ad includes the following statement: “$453,881 is the amount being reported as spent on the West Jackson station. Over $1.3 million is the true amount spent found from the information the concerned employees and citizens (remember $400,000 budgeted for this station). This includes contracts signed. This is $846,119 more than reported. Why the difference? Someone does not want the public to know how much the commissioners are really spending?”

For the full story read The Commerce News