PHOTO: Caleb Rivers, Beat 1 supervisor, being escorted from Yazoo County property Monday morning
YAZOO CITY, Miss.–Escorted by the sheriff off of county property where road equipment is kept, Yazoo County Supervisor Caleb Rivers said he believed the county was about to spend too much on new equipment.
So, he staged a protest Monday morning.
Rivers is a freshman supervisor up for re-election. The fight between he and other county supervisors began when bids were submitted for lease/purchasing new county road equipment. Rivers told the other supes that he though the purchase would be too much, and his vote against it stopped the purchase.
The supervisors have made it a policy to begin new lease/purchases at the end of maintenance contracts and warranties for the equipment so that repairs and maintenance bills don’t cost the county extra money.
After a squabble at Friday’s board meeting, the other supervisors voted to take some equipment from Rivers’ beat and sell it. Rivers voted no, but he was outvoted.
Monday morning, when the equipment was set to be sold, he locked a gate and jumped up in one of the trucks and refused to get out. That’s when the sheriff was called in to escort him off the property, and he complied. A video of the event was posted to Facebook by Mickey Rivers, Caleb Rivers’ father.
“Caleb Rivers voted against spending over 3 million dollars for new equipment when the existing equipment still has 2 years of warranty left on it, for his reward, he is being punished by the other board members for not toeing the line. They are taking the equipment that beat one needs to maintain the infrastructure and roads. They are also planning on firing 2 of beat one employees. As Caleb said, the board has forgotten who they work for and that is the taxpayers of Yazoo County!” read a post from Mickey Rivers.
Though Rivers was removed, and the equipment taken for sale, he was not arrested or charged.
There were posts supporting and posts against Rivers on Facebook from Yazoo readers.
