The Lauderdale County Board of Supervisors is expected to vote Monday on whether to move the county’s Confederate monument located in front of the courthouse.

N’spire Walker, president of Dream Team of the South, has met with the Meridian City Council and the supervisors to call for the monument’s relocation.

The city council approved a resolution earlier this month in support of relocating the monument, which is on county property.

“I, for one, was interested in this sort of a resolution just to say we do support this group’s initiative to relocate the monument,” said Council Vice President Weston Lindemann of Ward 5. “We don’t have the authority to do anything more than that.”

Walker has suggested that a Confederate cemetery in the county would be a better location.

Someone in support of the relocation has contacted someone involved with the cemetery and is trying to set up a meeting, she said. 

“We’re coming before you all in hopes that you all will give us the votes as well and work together so that it could be moved,” Walker told supervisors Thursday.

Other matters

• Emergency Management Director Odie Barrett asked the board to consider switching the county to the Mississippi Wireless Information Network and upgrading radio equipment for approximately $800,000.

The county’s emergency radio service contract is nearing its end and the county’s radios are close to the end of their service life, Barrett said.  

• Supervisors will vote Monday on whether to approve Leading Edges as the advertiser of record for all tourism grants resulting from state or federal COVID-19 grants. 

• The board will also vote on whether to approve Waggoner Resilience Inc. for professional consulting services related to COVID-19.