Harrison County board moves to authorize diversion-center contract; funding sources and operations remain under discussion

Harrison County board members discussed authorizing a contract with JW Puckett Company for a diversion center and debated how the county will fund and operate the facility.

A board member said on the record that the board should “authorize before president to sign the contract with JW Puckett Company on the diversion center.” A motion to approve that authorization was moved during the meeting and discussed; the transcript does not record a final roll-call vote or tally.

The contract timeline discussed was 300 days. Board members asked how long the contract work would take and were told, “300 days.”

Funding and operations dominated the discussion after the motion. One board member said opioid-settlement funds had been released—“125,000,000 or so to the AD’s office”—and that the county was pursuing a grant application: “We are submitting for 10,000,000. That’s the 1,900,000.0 shortfall.” The same speaker characterized the county’s existing state allocation as “1.2” and said combined it “takes about 3.1”; those numeric descriptions were presented in the discussion as shorthand and were not documented by a budget document in the transcript.

Board members described Pine Belt (referred to consistently in the meeting as the party responsible for operation and maintenance) as the entity that would operate the facility while Harrison County would provide the physical building. One participant said, “The Pine Belt is the responsible party for the operation and maintenance. We only are providing the facility.”

Speakers also discussed American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) restrictions. A board member explained that using ARPA funds to buy a building could require repaying funds to the state if the building were later used for purposes other than those specified in the ARPA award. The board said it had instead used interest income—“we leveraged the interest income instead of using the actual, I guess, nominal, like, ARPA money to purchase the building”—so the building “is not on it” and would not be subject to ARPA repayment conditions under the approach described in the meeting.

County commitment levels and timelines were discussed. One board member said Harrison County is “committed to $8,000,000, basically, for that diversion,” and questioned how state-level mental-health funding would interact with local commitments. Participants referenced an existing mental-health building on Broad and said the county was seeking ARPA or other funds to cover operation-and-maintenance shortfalls when ARPA eligibility or availability ends.

Board members raised the need for clearer payment standards for stays that extend beyond a 12-day period when private insurance exists. One speaker said the county should not continue paying a full $800 a day rate in those cases and proposed aligning payments closer to Medicaid reimbursement—“go from $800, which was the Medicaid rate, to really 500 and something dollars”—and to formalize agreements with service providers named in the discussion (referred to in the transcript as “Oceans” and “GBH”). The transcript records that staff and the county’s deputy were asked to coordinate with judges and finalize wording for related agreements.

The meeting record indicates ongoing discussion and direction to staff rather than completed contractual or funding commitments. The motion to authorize signature of the JW Puckett Company contract was moved and discussed during the session; the transcript does not include a recorded final vote or documented next steps with dates.