Yazoo County Tax Assessor Beverly Ladner announced to the Board of Supervisors on Monday that she will retire from her position on June 30.
"I have been thinking about this for a good while," she said. "I have prayed about it, and I have decided that I am going to have to leave my position on June 30."
District 3 Supervisor Willie Wright said that the board would have to appoint a new person to fill the vacancy until the upcoming election.
"We are gonna have to appoint somebody for the next few months after she leaves," he said.
Some of the supervisors were concerned with filling this vacancy while getting the tax rolls prepared for the summer.
"I am going to finish the rolls before I leave," Ladner said.
District 4 Supervisor Jayne Dew was concerned about finding a new appointee who could make adjustments after the tax rolls came out.
"One of the girls in your office is running for this position, so we can’t appoint her," Dew said. "You are going to have to help us because we are fixing to get into tax roll and you know yourself that when it comes in there are adjustments to be made."
Ladner said that she could not help the supervisors appoint a new person, but the appraisers in her office were doing a good job and plan to finish out the year.
"They are wanting to stay on if the new assessor allows that," she said.
While the board accepted Ladner's official notice of retirement, they all agreed that they should start seeking out her replacement immediately.
"We better start looking for somebody," Wright said.
"We aren't going to have a choice," said District 1 Supervisor Cobie Collins.
"Beverly, we don't know what we are going to do without you and you have got to help us find somebody who understands how this all works," Dew said. "And the one who really knows how it all works is running for the office and we can't appoint her, so that is my thing."
The board agreed that a certified tax assessor would be needed to fill the vacancy, and that they may need to search outside of the county for a replacement.
Other topics covered in the meeting include:
- Parks and Recreation Director Sedric Hudson said that he has added a new accountant, Buford Adkinson, and a new attorney, Bernetta Levison, to help keep his department running smoothly.
- Hudson said that he is working on making his department more cost efficient, adding that he has been generating more income with concession stands at three of the ball fields.
- Parks and Recreation also recently received a check for $42,000 from the City of Yazoo City.
- Tim Mood with Economic Development said that he was looking into a grant from FEMA to bring a SafeRoom shelter to Yazoo County which would be helpful for storm victims.
- Mood added that the unemployment rate for Yazoo County was 5.7 percent, which was not a good number when compared to other counties in the Mississippi Delta.
- Mood also reminded everyone about the upcoming Job Fair at the National Guard Armory on May 14.
- Yazoo County Schools Superintendent Dr. Ken Barron proposed a partnership with Yazoo County in building a new access road to the Yazoo County High School campus off of HWY 49.
- Barron added that this secondary road would help reduce traffic jams at the campus entrance, and would also offer an alternate route to exit the campus in an emergency situation.
