Following funeral services Monday for District 1 SupervisorCliff Givens, fellow board members will now look to find areplacement for the long-time county official.

Givens, 74, died Saturday in Jackson after a lengthy illness. Hewas in his sixth term as supervisor.

Chancery Clerk Tillmon Bishop said the appointment issue has notyet been put on a board meeting agenda. Supervisors are scheduledto meet Monday, Nov. 4, but he did not know if the issue would beraised then.

“My impression of the board is that they’ll until the sixth orseventh, after the election,” on Tuesday, Nov. 5, Bishop said.

After receiving a few calls about the possibility of a specialelection, Circuit Clerk Terry Case Watkins contacted the Secretaryof State’s Office.

Under guidelines in Sect. 23-15-839 of the state code, there isinsufficient time to get the appointment matter on next Tuesday’sgeneral and special election ballot. Watkins said the nextopportunity for a special election would be next November, whichcoincides with regularly-scheduled elections for supervisors andother county officials.

“We will not have a special election,” Watkins said. “Whoever’sappointed will serve out his term.”

The current supervisor term ends in December 2003.

Bishop said he had received no calls from people interested inbeing appointed. Historically, he said, supervisors have appointeda family member to fill out the rest of a term of a supervisor whodied in office.

Whoever is appointed, county officials said, will have some “bigshoes to fill.”

“It’s somewhat an end of an era, politically, in countygovernment,” Bishop said.

Bishop echoed the comments of his predecessor, J. Ronny Smith,in talking about the level of respect that Givens received from hisfellow board members.

“They didn’t always agree with him, but they always listened,”Bishop said.