HOLLY SPRINGS, Miss. (WMC) – A Mississippi state legislator has filed two bills aimed at resolving ongoing issues with the Holly Springs Utility Department, which has faced years of customer complaints, lawsuits and a state investigation.

State Representative and Hollow Springs native John Faulkner filed both House bills Tuesday. One would appropriate funds for infrastructure improvements, while the other would establish a board of directors to give residents more oversight of the utility department.

The Holly Springs Utility Department serves 12,000 people. Last year, the Mississippi Public Service Commission said the relatively small customer base made up 80 percent of TVA’s complaints.

Customers say they experience frequent power outages but pay high power bills.

“We’re hoping to get some kind of relief to come in to help those people with the high bills. It’s just so expensive,” said Yolanda Reese, a Holly Springs Utility Department customer.

“I’m tired of the lights going off, never knowing when they going back on. Because me myself, I’m on a CPAP, and I want the light to stay on,” said Mary Raimey, another customer who recently moved to Holly Springs.

Faulkner said this legislative session is the time for state lawmakers to act on behalf of customers.

“It’s been well-documented across the state of the problems we have here at the Holly Springs Utility Department, so I’m hoping and believing that this session, they will get behind this bill so we can get across the goal line,” Faulkner said.

House Bill 588 would appropriate funds from Fiscal Year 2027 for repairs, improvements and upgrades to the utility’s infrastructure.

House Bill 599 would establish a board of directors for the Holly Springs Utility Department.

“So now the customers will be able to have someone that will be accountable to them. To take the burden off the good mayor and the board of aldermen would be the customers what they need to lower the rates with a more dependable board in place,” Faulkner said.

Both bills were filed Tuesday and are waiting to be discussed in committee.

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Trinidad Chambliss is going to court for his sixth college football season.

Lawyers representing the Mississippi quarterback sued the NCAA on Friday, in which they are requesting for preliminary and permanent injunctions which would give Chambliss another year in Ole Miss, ESPN reported.

Earlier this month, the NCAA officially denied Chambliss a waiver for an extra year of eligibility, stating that the 23-year-old and program officials at Mississippi failed to give enough medical evidence by a doctor which proved he was dealing with an “incapacitating injury or illness.”

Chambliss has claimed that frequent respiratory issues that he suffered while at Division II Ferris State is what kept him sidelined his sophomore season.

“In Trinidad’s case, the NCAA failed in its mission to foster his well-being and development as a student-athlete,” the lawsuit says. “The mechanisms (i.e., waiver rules) for granting Trinidad an additional year of eligibility — so that he has the opportunity to compete in four years of college football — are available and within the NCAA’s control.

“Despite the duty of good faith and fair dealing it owes Trinidad, the NCAA insists on considering the evidence in Trinidad’s case in an isolated, rather than comprehensive, manner; interpreting its rules to impose requirements not contained therein; taking unreasonable if not irrational positions; and acting in an arbitrary and capricious manner in its decision-making and ruling.”

Chambliss’ attorneys, Tom Mars and William Liston, claim that the NCAA is guilty of a bad faith breach of contract with Ole Miss.

Mars has also reportedly told ESPN that officials at Mississippi provided the NCAA with 91 pages of Chambliss’ medical records, with the QB’s doctor also writing in a separate letter that he dealt with “recurrent throat infections, poor sleep quality, daytime fatigue, and exercise-related airway discomfort,” during the 2022-23 academic year.

Officials at Ferris State have also advocated for Chambliss, with the school’s assistant athletic director for sports medicine writing that his “combination of acute and chronic illness impeded Trinidad’s ability to consistently engage in athletic activity including weight training, conditioning, and football practice.”

Despite his eligibility remaining in legal limbo, Chambliss has already signed to play for Ole Miss for the 2026 season, with his deal being reportedly worth up to $6 million including incentives, per ESPN.