The Lincoln County Board of Supervisors on Monday gave county attorney Bob Allen approval to draft a new contract between the city of Brookhaven and Lincoln County, regarding inmate medical bills.

Allen said Lincoln County Sheriff Steve Rushing informed him that the city was slow to reimburse the county for its inmates’ medical bills and care.

“According to what he’s saying, they’re paying them, they’re just running late,” Allen said. “They are not taking care of their medical bills. The original contract between the city and county regarding the issue has one paragraph that states we are each responsible for our own medical bills. They’re slow doing it. We have a contract with them that says we have to take care of the inmates, but since they don’t have the ultimate responsibility, they’re not as in tune to getting the medical bills paid.”

Rushing is in the process of gathering statistics on how often it has happened, Allen said.

“We just need to make them aware,” Allen said. “The contract needs to be a little clearer.”

The new contract will specify which agency is responsible for which bills and inmates, and will be brought before the city upon Allen’s approval, he said.

Envision Payment Solutions 

Tax Collector Blake Pickering requested the board approve a contract for the county to begin using Envision Payment Solutions to collect non-sufficient fund charges, pending Allen’s approval.

“This is a company that would collect NSF fees for us,” Pickering said. “It’s free of charge to us. They are paid by keeping the NSF charges. We would never see the check. They get it straight from the bank and they collect it. Anything under $150, they will automatically deposit into our account. Anything over, they will deposit when it’s collected. If it goes more than two months and they haven’t collected it, they will return the check to us and we will seek whatever means we have to do deal with it.”

Allen said he made several revisions to the contract Envision Payment Solutions presented to the county, and if they accept, he recommends using the company.

“If they don’t agree to the terms that Mr. Bob has laid out and changed, we’ll shake hands and say we tried,” Pickering said.

The board approved the contract, pending Allen’s final revisions.

In other board business:

• Emergency Management Director Clifford Galey informed the board that MEMA is expected to inform the county of its storm damage funding status this week.

• County engineer Ryan Holmes said he has begun prioritizing each supervisor’s concerns after surveying the districts individually last week. Holmes said once he receives the dollar amount of state and federal funding for this year, he will discuss with the board what projects can be accomplished.

• The board approved that the Brookhaven-Lincoln County Government Complex will be closed May 30 to observe the Memorial Day holiday.