JULY 1, 2009
TIM PRATT
STARKVILLE — A new Lynn Lane recreation path is in the works.
The Starkville Board of Aldermen Tuesday voted 4-3 for engineering firm Neel-Schaffer to move forward with a revised plan that would connect Sycamore Street to McKee Park and the city’s Sportsplex. Original plans called for the path to connect Mississippi State University to McKee Park, but environmental and right-of-way issues, along with fast approaching Federal Highway Administration funding deadlines, caused Neel-Schaffer’s Kevin Stafford to inform the city last week the whole scope of the project needs to change.
The new path would total about 9,000 linear feet and begin at Sycamore Street. It then would flow through McKee Park and eventually circle the Sportsplex on the other side of Lynn Lane. Aldermen Tuesday were leery about the newly proposed plan, considering the intent of the original path was to connect MSU with McKee Park and local neighborhoods.
Stafford warned the board, however, that the city could lose $1.2 million in federal funds if it doesn’t finalize a project by Sept. 30. The city would be obligated to provide roughly $320,000 in matching funds to receive the $1.2 million.
Read complete article at Commercial Dispatch.
My question is: Whose lack of active support scuttled the original project? It seems that someone who should have been making things happen, sat on their hands and let this thing die.