The Lincoln County Board of Supervisorsapproved a plan Monday that accepts $45,000 in grants and adds inan additional $45,000 in county funds for improvements to theLincoln Civic Center.

    The plan calls for an asphalt overlay of the parking lot, anaudio/visual system, additional chairs for the multi-purposebuilding and a new tractor for the arena.

    The $45,000 grant comes through the Pearl River Basin DevelopmentDistrict.

    The agreement does call for the county to equal the $45,000 with$45,000 of its own. County Administrator David Fields said thatwould not be a problem.

    “The commission has been saving their money and they’ll be able tomatch this and get started quickly,” said Fields.

    Fields said the civic center has raised the money on its own.

    “They received a good chunk of it from the new RV park,” saidFields. “It’s done better than expected.”

    Lincoln Civic Center Director Quinn Jordan and Fields worked ongetting the grant.

    “Without grants such as the one from Pearl River, the Lincoln CivicCenter cannot afford to do the improvements that the citizens ofLincoln and surrounding counties deserve for this type offacility,” said Jordan.

    Jordan said different portions of the grant will affect the civiccenter in their own way and are all important to the center.

    Fields said in most years the county is able to receive funds fromthe Pearl River Basin Development District.

    “We’re eligible for 50,000 a year for recreational projects,” saidFields.

    Other plans for the civic center are raising the announcer’s boothand adding a deck to better view and judge activities in the arena,according to Jordan.

    The board also motioned two projects for further study.

    A proposed plan to run fiber optic lines through the county, mostlythrough the Enterprise and Bogue Chitto areas to connect theschools and eventually provide high-speed Internet to residents,was met with concern from the supervisors as they were unsure ofhow that would impact the roads and their maintenance. Thosepursuing the project were expected to be asked to attend a futureboard meeting to discuss the work.

    An offer from a local attorney to give county employees theopportunity to purchase flat-rate legal services drew interest fromthe supervisors, but they decided to study the issue beforedeciding.

    The board will meet again on Thursday at 9 a.m. to go over thedocket.

    Their next scheduled meeting after Thursday will be on Feb. 20 inthe boardroom at the Lincoln County/Brookhaven GovernmentComplex.