Chancery Clerk Rechelle Siggers and Deputy Clerk Luevenia Byrd congratulate co-worker Cindy Fields on 25 years of service in the Chancery office.

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County supervisors carried over a request from Circuit Clerk Sharon Reynolds for raises for her staff and matching funds into her own state retirement account at their payroll meeting Tuesday – but not before receiving a related report from Barbara Tuchel of Tunicans for Transparency in Government.
Tuchel said the transparency committee is urging Tunica County to move toward a “merit based raise system rather than the across the board system of the past.
“Just because the employees across the lobby from the Circuit Clerk’s office earned and were granted raises does not necessarily mean raises need to be granted in the Circuit Clerk’s office,” she added.
Tuchel noted that residents “depend on the Circuit Clerk for accuracy and efficiency.” The TTG report included documents copied from the official record of absentee ballots from 2007’s primary which shows that 20 absentee ballots were sent to one post office box. The report also noted that none of these 20 absentee ballots were marked with a received date by the Circuit Clerk’s office.

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High water is lapping at the top of the boat ramps at Tunica Cut-off and near the road at Mhoon Landing Park. The Mississippi is expected to rise from 30.8 feet on the Memphis gage on Wednesday, May 1, to near 33 feet by May 7.

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James K. Polk is best known for adding large portions of land to the nation during his tenure as 11th president of the United States, but once upon a time, he owned a small parcel of land in Tunica County, Mississippi.
Locals still reference an area of land in northern Tunica County as the Polk Place, but James K. Polk was not among owners of that property. Recently discovered land records from the Chancery Clerk’s office show that on May 1, 1847, Polk purchased a section of land “lying and being in the county of Tunica and state of Mississippi.” The legal description is “Section 23 of Township 5 of Range 11 west in the Chickasaw Cessions.” That area lies in the east central section of Tunica County, not far from the Tate County line.
Land records show that Polk acquired the land from James Brown and his wife Mary A. Brown of Lafayette County, Mississippi. Polk is listed as a resident of “Washington City” while he served as U.S. President from 1845 to 1849. He paid $80 in cash for the property.

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