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Rankin County board approves $1 million budget amendment, authorizes two crews for deadfall tree removal
Summary
After county staff described thousands of dead trees across county rights-of-way and sought federal hazard-mitigation aid, the Rankin County Board of Supervisors approved a $1 million budget amendment funded from the general fund to accelerate deadfall clearing and authorized two crews to clear roads.
The Rankin County Board of Supervisors on April 3 approved a budget amendment to provide $1 million from the county general fund to accelerate removal of deadfall trees along county rights-of-way and authorized crews to increase removal work.
County staff said crews have removed roughly 3,000 dead trees since the effort began last April and estimated that the current work has covered approximately 40% of priority areas when combined with utility-company trimming. Staff described an expanding problem: crews reported seeing hardwoods and pines losing needles and dying across multiple roads and said they expect additional mortality in the coming one to several years.
Board members discussed pursuing federal pre-disaster mitigation funding (staff said a representative of U.S. Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith previously sought a specific FY25 appropriation on the county's behalf, a request that died in a continuing resolution) and reported staff is pursuing renewed federal assistance for FY26. Staff cautioned that such federal grant programs commonly require a local match (staff estimated around 25% local match on similar programs) and that retroactive reimbursement of previously spent county funds is unlikely, though staff said they would inquire.
Because of the immediate safety issue of dead and falling trees along roads, the board approved an interim budget action. The board recorded a motion to increase available funding to cover deadfall removal; staff indicated the intent to deploy two crews to accelerate clearing while continuing to seek federal assistance to offset costs.
Votes at a glance - Motion to increase spending/adjust budget to provide $1,000,000 (to be funded from general fund reserves) for accelerated deadfall removal and to authorize work crews: motion made and seconded; carried on voice vote.
Staff said they are documenting removals (locations, addresses) to support potential future grant applications and audits. The board also directed staff to prepare a budget amendment reflecting the transfer of funds and to return with details on contracting and crew deployment.
The board scheduled executive session items later in the meeting covering property acquisition, personnel and pending litigation, but those items were not discussed publicly.
