JACKSON, Miss. (WLBT) – Hinds County has a new director of Public Works.
On Monday, the Board of Supervisors appointed Dexter Shelby to the position.
Shelby, who will earn $105,000 a year, replaces Dion Quinn, who has been in the position since early 2024.
“Dion Quinn [is] a very good man. We just did not feel that he was moving as quickly and getting the tasks completed as quickly as we would like, so we decided to go with someone else,” Board President Robert Graham said.
Graham said Quinn would remain with the county and would return to his previous position as landscape infrastructure manager.
Shelby previously was public works director for the city of Clinton and worked for the city of Madison.
District 4 Supervisor Wanda Evers made the motion to hire Shelby. She told the board he had the experience the county was looking for and that she had spoken with the mayor of Clinton, who gave the county a “good report.”
“He has budget experience, project management experience, organizational skills, team leadership,” Graham said. “He’s worked on different types of streets; he’s fully abreast of our paving process.”
“We’re looking for him to create a culture of change that promotes unity and completion of process,” he added. “When we interviewed him, he showed us [he has] a systematic way of doing things.”
Graham tells WLBT that this type of leadership in the department is needed, especially after it has fallen behind on several projects.
“We have a lot of grass that needs to be cut in Hinds County,” he said. “Normally this time of year we would have made three rotations on the cut cycle. This year, we haven’t completed one.”
Shelby is expected to start on August 19.
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