Oktibbeha County engineer will recuse himself from dam repairs

OKTIBBEHA COUNTY, Miss. (WCBI) – The answers to fixing the Oktibbeha County Lake Dam will not come from the county’s engineer.

Clyde Pritchard says he will recuse himself from “any and all matters related to the Oktibbeha County Lake Dam.”

In a letter to the county, Pritchard says he repeatedly told county supervisors that the dam needs to be repaired before it fails.

He says no “no action” is unacceptable and the board seeking a second opinion about his finding represents a vote of no confidence.

District 3 Supervisor Marvell Howard, who lives near the dam, he agrees with Pritchard’s assessment but wants the board to take some action to rebuild the dam.

Howard says nothing has been done to find funding or a fix for the dam since a near-catastrophic failure in January of last year.