News and information about Starkville and Oktibbeha County
“To Walk On Fertile Ground”
STARKVILLE, MISS., June 12, 2008—Professional Speaker and Life and Business Coach Kristi Brown has just released her first book, To Walk on Fertile Ground, through Book Surge Publishing and is already gaining praise for her honest and inspirational look at infertility, cancer and faith. [Read more...]
It’s a new feature here on StarkvilleNow.com. We’ve talked to a few citizens about providing a monthly column. Those will appear here in “Voices.” Let me know if you would like to participate.
The SDN runs with a piece today on the new BOA passed business incentive policy. Good story with a little thought behind what they mean. Also interesting to see the OCEDA/City spec building is still alive.
Thanks to reader Walter, here is the perm link to the policy form the City website. Apparently, there were no black helicopters hovering in conspiracy when it disappeared last week after all.
I hardly ever comment on national policy here, but I saw that the US Congress was looking to “fix” the housing mess.
My question- what do the rest of us get who managed our mortgage and our money and kept our lifestyle within our budget? Forget the charges of predatory lending. They is a reason you have to put a down payment on a home. And is a Federal bailout going to help?
I think the government should use that money to buy every adult a copy of The Total Money Makeover
My 2 cents.
Alderman Perkins and Supervisor Trainer seem to not like progress. That’s the only reason I can think of when they voted against the TIP bonds for retail development. It seems a slam dunk to myself and quite a few other Starkville residents.
Let’s try this again:
Developer says I’m going to sink lots of money into your city/county. “Can you help with infrastructure- pipes, wires, roads? I’ll pay for it myself now, but can you reimburse me when you want to how you want to if I do what I say I’m going to do by a certain time? And you can take part of my taxes, which will increase because I’m putting a bunch of my money into the project, to pay for it.”
Lather, rinse, repeat.
Thankfully, they seem to be in the minority and it passed both bodies.
…and didn’t commit a crime (that we know off).
Local web guru and former comic book shop owner/fan Rob Snell is set to testify before the US House of Representatives’ Committee on Small Business about search marketing this Wednesday at 10 AM EST. Rob knows a thing or two about search engine placement and web marketing. He’s even written a “For Dummies” book about it.
Pretty cool for a guy who used to have mullet and read X-men books.
A little late in posting, but the city has posted the draft resolution (PDF) for business incentives. This is a proactive move and long overdue. I also found it interesting that “movie Industry studios eeting minimum criteria” is listed.
If we could couple this with a first class, state of the art business incubator (kind of like the Powe Center, but really for small businesses), I think we could really move our high tech industry forward.
UPDATE: That link was working as of 9:00 AM this morning, but is now dead. That PDF has been omitted from this page under “Related Files.”
by Jogee Lenarduzzi
StarkvilleNow correspondent
Tuesday night, the BOA again agreed to give a portion of the 2 percent food and beverage tax to Mississippi State University.
This money helps fund events and programs that enhance student life. Past events that have benefited from this fund are the lyceum series, Down in the District, Bulldog Bash, Main Street Music Festival and several others.
Mayor Dan Camp stated that because the university receives funds from the city, they should invest the majority of those funds into things that bring money back to the city. He noted that Down in the District and Main Street Music Festival have been combined and moved from the city to campus.
Camp and Roy Perkins both thought this took away valuable profits for Starkville businesses.
Richard Corey, made the motion to approve the fund, and Matt Cox seconded. P.C. “Mac” McLaurin and Sumner Davis had to leave the meeting early, so neither voted on this tax. Everyone else voted in favor, although Perkins did so with reluctance.
Before the vote, Bill Kibler, MSU Vice President for Student Affairs, told the board it was not his decision where the money would be spent. He said Braxton Combs, MSU Student Association president who was present at the hearing, would pass these remarks on to student decision makers on campus.
“There are 17,000 residents of MSU who spend money in Starkville,” Kibler said.
Even if the money given to MSU wasn’t spent inside the Starkville limits, those students brought in an abundance of tax money.
There was a surplus of 2 percent tax funds from last year, and Kibler said this money will be used to pay for the night shuttle route, which runs from campus to many restaurants and bars in Starkville. These funds will allow the night route to run earlier in the evening and later into the night and on a more regular schedule.
The BOA held another public hearing to discuss the city’s false alarm ordinance. This ordinance states that if a police officer is called to investigate a business and the alarm is false, the building receives a warning. After the third warning, a business must pay a fine.
Several people at the hearing said the fine is too high. Oktibbeha County Humane Society president Diane Wall said the Humane Society’s alarm system has gone off several times and they have been fined. There were actually intruders, she said, but when officers arrived, the intruders were gone. Once a box of puppies was left, and another time someone was trying to steel pit bull puppies.
Wall said that by fining people so highly for calling the police, it discourages people from reaching out for the help they may really need. Others in the audience agreed, as did several of the alderman.
Cox said the ordinance was intended to stop big companies from not fixing malfunctioning alarm systems which waste police time.
“
We’re ensnaring private homeowners … which we’ll try to improve,” Cox said.
He suggested that those with ideas of how to fix the issues with the ordinance present their thoughts again, so that alderman can help make adjustments.
The BOA was approached about partnering with a nonprofit organization that pays adults older than 55 to train in city jobs. The city would receive free work, and the worker would get much needed hands on training that would allow them to succeed in securing a job in the future.
To many alderman it seemed like a win-win situation, and they wanted to hear more about what they had to do to become active in the program.
The aldermen spent a little more than three hours covering other issues such as proposed planning and zoning changes and requests from the fire department, electric company and city personnel. They passed all zoning and planning changes recommended by the Planning and Zoning Commission.
by Jogee Lenarduzzi
StarkvilleNow correspondent
The BOA approved the Tax Increment Financing Plans for Cotton Mill Marketplace and Middleton Marketplace Tuesday after hearing the public’s opinion at an open meeting.
P.C. “Mac” McLaurin Jr. motioned separately to approve both TIF plans. Sumner Davis seconded the Cotton Mill plan and Richard Corey seconded the Middleton Marketplace plan. Both plans were approved by a 6-1 vote, with Roy Perkins in opposition each time.
McLaurin explained that the city would not be issuing any bonds until after the developments were built and running for several months. This would allow the city to be sure the projects will be stable.
After the projects are completed, the BOA will then vote on approval of the actual TIF bonds.
“This is a necessary preliminary item. Before the approval, there will be at least two more,” McLaurin said. “This is just one in a series of steps to allow this to move forward.”
The first project, Cotton Mill Marketplace, will be located on the corner of Highway 12 and the Mississippi State University campus. If all goes as planned, the makers of Cotton Mill Marketplace will transform the area that was once the old theatre, the Cooley Center, and the Burger King into a development including national retail shopping, restaurants, a hotel, parking decks, apartments and a convention center.
A convention center will be housed in the Cooley Center and will maintain the center’s façade with a revamped interior. Developers hope to start construction in May 2009 and complete the center by 2010.
One of the developers for the project, Brooks Holstein, said they have received a good response from retailers including national department stores. Holstein also said developers were moving forward very aggressively to get the project started.
Some Starkville citizens showed concern of the Cotton Mill Marketplace because of the possible effects on the surrounding neighborhoods. One present, Harry Cole, gave an in-depth public statement stating his concerns with the project.
He wanted to know which department stores would be moving into the future development and if it would put the department stores that are already in Starkville out of business. He also wondered if Starkville really needed another convention center when MSU has places where large groups can convene.
The most debated issue Cole and others brought up was the possibility of imminent domain being used to take people’s homes from them.
Both developers, Holstein and Mark Nicholas, made a public pledge that they would not be asking the BOA for imminent domain. They did, however, state that they hoped to purchase some homes from people currently living on some of the land. If those people did not want to sell, they would make alterations to their plans to accommodate the current owners.
Another citizen, Dorothy Isaac, brought up a different point.
“We have another side of town that is under-developed. Bring some development to that part of the town. We want to see some progress,” Isaac said.
She said development for Starkville was great, but instead of putting all of it near the university, it should spread out over town.
In response, Holstein said that perhaps they could do future development in other areas of town.
“We came to this city and selected this site simply because it was the best retail spot we could find. It lends itself to redevelopment,” Holstein said. “We’re doing this because we believe in the city.
The second development, Middleton Marketplace will be located on Highway 12 and the corner of Louisville Street right by Brewski’s. The developers hope to take the current shopping area and give it a new façade. They also hope to bring in new retailers and build two restaurants and a Fairfield Inn. The development will include the current shopping center on the corner and the land that was formerly the Coca Cola plant.
This development was met with less opposition than Cotton Mill Marketplace.
The only concerns voiced at the meeting from the public was question of trash upkeep and the possibility of building a fence behind the development that backs up to a neighborhood. The developers seemed very flexible to these ideas and told the citizens they would work with them to make sure trash was placed in dumpsters that would be fenced. They said they would consider building the fence along the back of the development.
Should the BOA have approved Tabor's University Inn project?
Total Voters: 20
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