The Lincoln County Board of Supervisors elected new officers during its Jan. 3 meeting, but not without dissension among members.

District 1 Supervisor Jerry Wilson nominated current president District 4 Supervisor Eddie Brown to serve another term as president of the board, but failed to receive a majority vote as District 2 Supervisor Jerry McGehee, District 3 Supervisor Nolan Williamson and District 5 Supervisor Doug Falvey voted no. McGehee then nominated Falvey for the post, with Williamson joining in for a yes vote against Wilson and Brown’s no votes. Majority ruled and Falvey became president.

For the vice president position, Williamson nominated McGehee. Wilson and Brown voted no, but the yes votes from McGehee, Williamson and Falvey pushed McGehee into the VP seat.

“I appreciate that you have elected me president and I will try to be the best president we’ve ever had,” Falvey told those in the room. He then offered several suggestions about how he felt board meetings should be conducted, including no voting should occur when a supervisor is not in the room and side conversations — from audience members to supervisors — during proceedings should not occur in order for everyone to be able to hear what supervisors are doing.

Fields asked board members to attend a short meeting in person or via phone next week to approve county payroll.

In other issues, the board awarded the lowest bids for two projects dealing with debris removal stemming from recent severe weather.

County administrator Daniel Calcote reported the winning bid for debris disposal came from Looks Great Service of Columbia with a bid of $1.8 million, which was a million less than the one other bid. The dollar amount of the project left supervisors opened-mouthed and shaken by the cost. The project also required bids for monitoring, which was awarded to low bidder Debris Tech for $33.10 an hour.

Supervisors also approved the return to inventory of two cell phones — one for being defective and the other due to a retirement.

In other business, supervisors approved the yearly appointments for the same people serving as county attorney, engineer, administrator, purchase clerk, receiving clerk, human resource/payroll clerk, assistant receiving clerk, inventory control clerk/911 coordinator and accounts payable clerk. They also approved the current appointments for Area on Aging board members; Lincoln County Alliance board members; all county deputy clerks, sheriff deputies and all other county employees (along with the same salaries); assistant receiving clerks for District 1-5; the Emergency Management director; Homeland Security director; the fire coordinator; and the safety coordinator.

The board also approved Civic Center commissioners — District 1’s McNair Smith, District 2’s Brett Smith, District 3’s Pat McCullough, District 4’s Dr. William Kimble and District 5’s Casey Britt. The board also authorized the board president to execute a $25,000 FY21 Homeland Security Grant the county received to be used to secure elections.

Supervisors acknowledged the contents of an email that circulated Dec. 27 about updated COVID-19 guidance points for the county.