Video: Oktibbeha County To Remove Mississippi Flag

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STARKVILLE, Miss. (WCBI) – It was a 3-1 vote Tuesday for the Oktibbeha County Board of Supervisors to remove the state flag from county-owned properties.
Supervisor for District 3, Marvell Howard, added the public discussion to the agenda after he didn’t vote on the issue earlier this month because he wanted citizens to be able to share their opinions and give the board more time to consider their vote.

“The issue came up earlier this month at a meeting but it came up during citizens comment period and I didn’t think it was fair to the citizens of Oktibbeha County for an individual to come during citizens comment period, sit down in front of the board and ask us to make a decision on an issue of this importance,” said Howard.

Howard was one of the three to vote in favor of the resolution.

He says he hopes this decision will help move the county forward.

“My vote was to give Oktibbeha county the clearest path possible moving forward towards success,” said Howard.

Several citizens came to voice their different opinions.

Kenneth Aasand is a resident of the county and he says he is disappointed in how the vote turned out.

“Obviously the outcome is not what I expected. They made the point of saying because the majority of the people of Oktibbeha County voted to take the flag down, that they would take the flag down, despite the fact that the majority of Mississippian’s voted to keep the flag up. I think it sets a very dangerous precedent because now the county is different than the state. What happens when Oktibbeha County has something different than Lowndes County? It’s just a sad situation,” said Aasand.

Howard says the resolution is effective immediately.
In July, the city of Starkville followed several others in removing the flag from city buildings.