BROOKHAVEN — Lincoln County Supervisors appointed District 4 Supervisor Eli Ferguson and Brookhaven-Lincoln County Chamber of Commerce’s Katie Nations to serve on the Keep Brookhaven-Lincoln County Beautiful Board. The move seeks to revive the board. 

Nations visited the board of supervisors during a regularly scheduled docket meeting Wednesday. She explained the Brookhaven-Lincoln County chapter is an affiliate of the Keep Mississippi Beautiful but did not have an active board. As a result, they were leaving funding and resources on the table which could help combat a county wide litter problem. 

“There is so much offered through Keep Mississippi Beautiful we could be taking advantage of,” Nations said. “We could receive benefits but we need to ask for them. We could get funds for litter getters and trash bags. Bob Knight does a great job cleaning up dumping sites. We could use more signage in the county. The trailer Bob uses we put in an application for. We could do scholarships for students for community service hours. We just have to have a working board to receive those benefits.”

Individuals at the Keep Mississippi Beautiful have offered to come to Brookhaven for a Board of Directors training day. Nations said her hope is to have a board put together from a list of those interested in serving. 

Ideally, the board would need to have a County supervisor, a county resident, a City alderman, a city resident, a business representative, community college representative, extension service representative and a civic organization representative. Nations said she would like to have a board formed in March. 

Additionally, Nations has a list of individuals who are interested in volunteering with the Keep Brookhaven-Lincoln County Beautiful. She said they can really put Brookhaven and Lincoln County on the map for litter control.

Ferguson supported the idea and was appointed by the Supervisors along with Nations to serve on the Keep Brookhaven-Lincoln County Beautiful Board. 

“I’m disappointed and ashamed how much trash is on the roads when I drive around the district,” Ferguson said. “I would be happy. I’ve been griping about it all week. We have to use our resources to do the best we can do.”

Knight, who serves as the Coordinator of Litter and Solid Waste Control, said education of students would be huge in the fight against littering. He said on average the crew working under Theresa Lawrence, a road crew supervisor,  picks up 90 to 95 30-gallon bags of litter each day.  Lawrence picked up 14 bags of trash in a one mile stretch of Auburn Road this week. 

Lincoln County Sheriff Steve Rushing said they picked up 90 bags of litter between mile markers 38 and 40 on one side of I-55. 

“We have to get the community involved,” Knight said.