Deputy sheriffs at the Hinds County facilities' entrance will soon be able to monitor the temperature of those coming in remotely. On Monday, the board of supervisors approved $22,500 to purchase five facial-recognition temperature scanners.

UVC CDE Sanitation LLC, a Madison-based company, will supply the devices to the county for installation in three locations: chancery building, circuit clerk building and the Raymond Courthouse.

"The reason I am requesting this is as we have flu season in the present or rapidly approaching, and this is so that none of the deputies have to walk up to the person as they are entering," County Administrator Jennifer Riley Collins said.

"(Visitors) can just walk up to the scanner; the scanner recognizes the face, sends the signal back to the laptop that will be set up behind the plexiglass. The deputies will see the temperature on their monitor."

Precinct Change in Edward

In the town of Edwards, the community center is a better polling location than the library because it has a bigger space, Hinds County Board of Supervisors learned Monday.

After presentations by Hinds County Electoral Commission Chairwoman and District 2 Election Commissioner Toni Johnson and some community stakeholders, the board approved the Precinct ED relocation from the Lois A. Flagg Library, 105 Williamson Ave., to the Edwards Community Center at 108 Mount Moriah Road.

The move will be a permanent relocation unlike the temporary precinct changes Johnson previously announced for three locations leading up to the Nov. 3 general election.

"Recently, there were some renovations done to the community center, which in the past used to be the former polling location," Johnson said. "Due to COVID, the library is a little small, a little congested."

"The community center provides for parking," she added. "We will do the same thing we did for the other three precincts—send out notification cards (to affected potential voters)."

Another recent development was a collaboration with Jackson State University to create an emergency polling location.

Improvement to Detention Centers

The board of supervisors also approved over $50,000 in facility upgrades for the Henley-Young Juvenile Detention Center, the Raymond Detention Center and the Work Center.

Lewis Fire Protection Inc. will rebuild an existing fire pump motor for the Raymond Detention Center and work center for $10,580. For $40,886.00, JL Roberts Mechanical will install a new domestic water booster pump station at the juvenile detention center.

"This (juvenile detention center) is one of the properties that we had to make modifications to under our consent decree (with the federal government)," County Administrator Jennifer Riley Collins said. "There is a water pressure problem up on that particular hill, and so in order to get water out to those facilities as well as to the sprinkler system, (we need) the water booster pump."

Hinds County President and District 1 Supervisor Robert Graham said the development is long overdue. "I am glad to see that we are working on that particular problem because that is the highest point in the city of Jackson, and we've had a problem getting water there for several years," he said.

Email story tips to city/county reporter Kayode Crown at [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter at @kayodecrown.