STEVEN NALLEY
At its regular Tuesday meeting at City Hall, the Starkville Board of Aldermen will set a date for a work session to address both the redistricting of city wards and prioritization for capital improvement projects.
It will also plan for a public hearing at a later meeting to amend Starkville’s subdivision regulation ordinance to allow developers to finish paving roads at the first phase of construction, making construction easier.
Federal regulations require the city to keep the population of its wards as balanced as possible, so cities look at which wards are under- or over-populated after each census.
Cities then redraw borders to rebalance the population, making every effort to keep current city officials within the wards they represent.
Lynn Spruill, chief operating officer for Starkville, gave a presentation July 5 on the wards which made it apparent more than a few officials lived near current ward borders, putting them at risk for losing office if the borders cannot be drawn to keep them in their current wards. At that meeting, Ward 6 Alderman Roy A. Perkins suggested the matter be tabled until fall.
“I think we need to pick up on this after the budget process because we’re going to have to deal with some issues on the budget process, and with the municipal complex, we’re going to have these town hall meetings,” Perkins said. “I would suggest that we just wait until after September to pick back up on this because these other issues are going to consume the public’s attention and time, given the magnitude of those two matters.”
Now, Spruill said, both matters have been addressed, and the board is ready to discuss any issues that may arise from redistricting.
The same work session will also return to an issue raised in a June 21 work session, she said. At that time, Starkville Mayor Parker Wiseman gave all board members a list of possible capital improvement projects compiled by Government Consultants, Inc. representative Demery Grubbs and asked them to give a priority level to each project.
Read the complete article at Starkville Daily News.
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