Jackson County hires social-distancing monitors for Ocean Springs, Pascagoula beaches
Jackson County supervisors on Friday hired four independent contractors to monitor beaches and others areas in the county to spot and disperse crowds of more than 10 due the coronavirus threat.
Supervisors are going to pay $166 a day to the four who were hired. They are constables: Ty Thompson, Shane Langfitt, Calvin Hutchins and Kerry Fountain.
They will monitor the beaches and other areas in rural Jackson County at times that do not conflict with their constable work.
The decision to hire the independent contractors came up after supervisors received complaints of large crowds still gathering at East Beach and Front Beach in Ocean Springs, at Pascagoula beaches and elsewhere.
The board made the decision during an emergency meeting. Anyone found in violation of the crowd requirement could face a fine of up $500 and six months in jail, or both.
In addition, supervisors approved a measure to waive all co-pays for testing for COVID-19, the disease caused by the new coronavirus.
The waiver covers visits to a doctor’s office, emergency rooms, acute care facilities, urgent care facilities and over the phone through tele-health appointments.
During the meeting, supervisors also brought up the idea of creating warning signs that could be displayed to advise residents to not gather in groups of more than 10, wash their hands, and distance themselves from others by 6 feet in an attempt to avoid contracting the virus.
In other matters, Sheriff Mike Ezell told that officials with the American Civil Liberties Union had called around to say that authorities were being too aggressive in their arrests.
Not true, according to Ezell, who said the sheriff’s office will continue “to maintain law and order.”
The sheriff also pointed out there had not been a lot of problems. He said there is special pod set up at the jail to house new prisoners in an attempt to avoid possibly exposing the rest of the jail detainees to the virus.
At Friday’s meeting, supervisors discussed the large number of out-of-state residents, mostly from Alabama and Louisiana, who are calling the Circuit Clerks to inquire about obtaining marriage licensees here because they are unable to get them in their states.
Supervisors want to restrict the out-of-state residents from coming over to Jackson County to get a marriage license as another precautionary measure.
This story was originally published March 27, 2020 at 11:31 AM.
