Lincoln County Constables Lavon Boyd and Charles Smith toutedthe benefits of the TRIAD program and asked the Lincoln CountyBoard of Supervisors help promote it during the board’s meetingMonday.

TRIAD is designed to help the elderly and others who live aloneeach day and who are enrolled in the program. The Lincoln CountySheriff’s Department, the Brookhaven Police Department and AARPmake up TRIAD. The program is funded through the Council onAging.

In one TRIAD service, a computer automatically calls everyone onits list at a designated time each day to ensure they are OK. If noone answers the call, the number is flagged and a deputy isdispatched to check on the person.

Although that is the primary mission of TRIAD, Smith said theycan also install smoke detectors and door peek holes as well asprovide E911 house numbers for those in the program.

TRIAD is funded through a $1 assessment on all citations issuedin Mississippi through the Council on Aging. For more informationor to enroll in the program, call 835-5502.

The board also received a brief update on federal funding forroads and bridges.

County Engineer Carl Ray Furr said he met with legislatorsrecently and expressed Lincoln County’s need for assistance on itsroads and bridges.

“I am still very concerned with what the Highway Department hasdone with the (Surface Transportation Program) and State Aidfunding,” Furr said.

Federal STP and bridge replacement monies have been frozen atthe state level because of state budget cuts, leaving them short onmatching funds.

Part of the problem, Furr said, is the state’s distribution ofthose bridge replacement funds. Every supervisor voiced theiragreement.

Currently, the money is split among all counties based on anestablished formula. That would be fine, Furr said, if every countywas using the money given to them.

One Central Mississippi county, however, has more than $6million in unspent bridge money and has not even started a projectsince the program began several years ago, he said.

In contrast, Furr said, “Lincoln County probably did the bestjob in the state of using that money to improve the county’sbridges.”

“We use every bit of that money every year,” said District TwoSupervisor and Board President Bobby J. Watts. “We use it down tothe penny.”

The board also considered and approved a 10-year ad valorem taxexemption for Continental Carbonics while tabling a request for thesame from Denbury Resources.

The requests were tabled earlier this month for more research.Continental Carbonics had not submitted an inventory list of theitems to be exempted with their request following a capitalimprovement program.

That inventory had been received since the month’s first meetingand appeared to be in order, said County Attorney Bob Allen.

The request was approved with the stipulation that TaxAssessor/Collector Nancy Jordan would review the list and removeany items that are not allowed to be exempted by law.

However, Denbury Resources was requesting an exemption based on”expanded enterprise of public utility.”

“I can’t find the authority within the code books for that,”Allen said.

Jordan said she would do some further research and bring it backbefore the board at its next meeting.