Maroon Before Home Games

I received a message from one of the public relations officers of the MSU Student Association. They are asking everyone to wear a maroon shirt on the Friday before a home football game. I thought I would help pass the word around. Given that our next home football game is this weekend, I plan to show my support the day before and during the game.

Go Bulldogs!

Ribbon Cutting Tomorrow

Tomorrow I will be attending the ribbon cutting of "The Integrity Group" a new business located on Starr Ave, at 4pm.

The Belfry

Russell Street in Ward 4 has been the center of a lot of proposed development. Ergon, The Village, the changes make to LaGallaria Shopping Center to name a few. One of the proposed developments, The Village, went back to the drawing board for some revisions and is about to go before the Planning and Zoning Board. This development has the potential to change the very landscape around Russell Street and to add to the new urbanist concept that many of talked about for Starkville.

http://www.thebelfrystarkville.com

Sunday Alcohol Sales

Several months ago I had brought up the idea of allowing the sale of alcoholic beverages on Sunday in Starkville. There was a Starkville Daily News poll and a town hall meeting; however, the item was never brought to a vote by the board.

Recently some residents who want to see Sunday sales in Starkville have developed a released a website as part of an overall campaign. This website can be found at http://www.betterstarkville.com They also have plans to release fliers and table tents in bars throughout town.

Mayor Rupp Leaves Columbus for Mississippi State

At 9:00am this morning Mayor Jeffrey Rupp of Columbus resigned from his position to take a job working under Dr. "Doc" Fogelsong of Mississippi State University. Mr. Rupp's new title will be director of community and governmental affairs. The IHL board approved his hiring at a $100,000 /yr. salary. Rupp says that one of his main focuses will be in the area of economic development, a goal in line with Dr. Fogelsong.

Given Oktibbeha's need for additional economic development, particularly in the county, this could prove to be very beneficial to the MSU-Starkville-Oktibbeha community.

Commercial Dispatch Article

Citizen's Bank

Many of you driving now Highway 12 may have noticed a sign saying "Coming Soon Citizen's Bank" in front of the old, run down building that used to be Shoney's. The bank is now formally proceeding with the process of getting a new building there. They have submitted plans for the new building to the building department for review and approval by the department heads. Since the building is under 5,000 sq. ft. it will not require approval by our PNZ Board and Board of Aldermen.

Johnny Cash Festival

Some of you may have heard in the past talk about gathering support for a Johnny Cash Festival here in Starkville, MS. This is in part because the legend was inspired to write the song "Starkville City Jail" after he.... spent the night here.

One person who has been working hard on such a project is our own Daily Journal writer Robbie Ward. He managed to even secure the actual pair of shoes that Johnny Cash wore the night he was sent to our jail. Called the Johnny Cash Flower-Pickin' Festival, Robbie is looking at having it in Summer 2007. If you'd be interested in helping Robbie with this festival, please email him at robbieward1@hotmail.com

Highway 12 Old Burger King Location

Several folks have asked me if I knew what was going to become of the property over on Hwy. 12 where the Burger King used to be. In that lot, next to University Inn, is the old Burger King "cabin", Pizza Hut, movie theatre, and even a catfish shack, all of which have closed and been abandoned. The area had become very blighted looking which was unfortunate given its prime location directly on the highway and adjoining Mississippi State.

Upon contacting the realtor involved I learned that all of the property has since been sold to Nicholas Properties out of Jackson who are planning to develop the area with a new restuarant and shopping center. This early on I don't have any exact details to provide; however, I will be following up on this and providing more information as it is made available. The possiblity also exists that the old cabin will be purchased seperate from the property and moved from that location to another.

Mississippi Politics in a Nutshell

Richard W. Dortch, contributing columnist to the Clarion Ledger, wrote a rather thought provoking article on what he viewed as a conservative bias on the part of media in the state of Mississippi and politics in general in the state. He makes some excellent key points and I highly recommend this article to anyone willing to read it.

June 6th, 2006 Meeting

The agenda for the June 6th, 2006, has been posted on the city website and at five pages it looks to be a very long meeting indeed.

At that meeting, and soon on this blog, I will be giving a presentation on the results of the last meeting of the Technology Committee (which consists of myself, Alderman Davis, and Alderman Cox). I will be touching on the issue of a new city website with a presentation by web designer Patrick Miller from Milo Interactive and will also be proposing a cheaper hosting service for our website and updating everyone on the wireless internet initiative.

New Restuarant Coming to Town

Starkville will soon be receiving a new restuarant in the area, a fairly well known steakhouse called Doe's Eat Place. Located in Greenville, MS, and other locations in Arkansas, Doe's, will be a nice addition to the downtown area in Starkville. They plan to locate in what used to be an old theatre located on South Washington St., across from the pool hall by City Hall.

Follow up to University Dr. Development

I wasn't aware of this when I made my previous post, but there is now a website further outlining the development to take place on University Drive.

http://www.msstateside.com

The following is the master plan which outlines what the entire development will be like (click for a larger view):

The Future of Russell St.

Big plans are in the works for Starkville, and in particular Ward 4 and Russell St. The street that now leads into one of MSU's primary corridors is on the verge of major changes. For a while some have had their eye on the possibility of turning the Cooley Building into a convention center. In addition, Ergon and other developers are looking at transforming Russell Street with large scale development that includes retail on the first floor and office spaces/condos on the second and third floors. Another change is the possibility of boulevarding the street; however, it would have to come from seperate city funds than the money in our budget for road improvements as many other streets have road/drainage issues that still need to be addressed.

*click on images for a larger view*

Cooley Building, aka Physical Plant on Russell Street

The Village is one of the properties proposed for Russell St.

Layout of The Village development

In addition to this development, a request for the University to sell some of its land on University Drive was presented to the IHL board (and as far as I know approved) which would allow the following five story development to take place near the bridge leading to campus with a similar pattern of retail on the bottom and condos above.

University Drive Development

Town Hall Meeting Re: Justice Complex

There will be a town hall meeting on Monday April 10th, 2006, at the Greensboro Center to discuss the two top locations for the Justice Complex: The old Coca-Cola bottling plant location and the two-part downtown location. Figures from the last meeting showed the downtown location as being around $600,000 less expensive; however, there is some doubt to how accurate those numbers are in this preliminary stage. The two locations could end up costing close to the same amount. Another interesting point is the judge's statement that the police station and court should be two seperate buildings. The separate downtown locations would be able to accomodate that request. While I personally prefer downtown, i'd be interested to hear the community response at the town hall meeting. Here are some pictures with the first two being rough sketches of the downtown locations (with a new electric department as well) and the last is an overlay of the combined police/court at the Coke location.

Breaking News About the "Hammer"

Tom DeLay won't be seeking a bid for re-election according to two Republican sources who spoke to CNN. DeLay was calling supporters and is expected to announce it formally tomorrow morning.

Link to CNN story

Five MSU football players charged with assaulting a cop

I normally don't like to forward newspaper articles as I prefer to write my own material; however, I felt this was important and a sad day for MSU football.


Five MSU football players charged with assaulting a cop
By Ian R. Rapoport
irapopor@clarionledger.com

STARKVILLE — Five Mississippi State football players, including two starters, are scheduled to appear in Starkville Municipal Court today at 2 p.m. to face charges that they assaulted a police officer.

The five were were arrested and charged with simple assault of a police officer, a felony, late Sunday night, according to a news release from the Starkville Police Department.

Cornerback Derek Pegues and safety Keith Fitzhugh are the starters arrested. Offensive tackle Michael Gates, and defensive ends Charles Burns and Quinton Wesley are the others. All are freshmen.

Each player charged with the felony was held in Webster County Jail until a $25,000 bond was posted, because Oktibbeha County Jail was full.

Through spokesman Mike Nemeth, MSU coach Sylvester Croom said he’ll wait for the legal process to run its course before disciplining the players. “But,” Croom added in a statement, “there will be discipline taken no matter the outcome of the legal process.”

Police say other arrests are “anticipated.”

According to the report, the incident occurred at 12:30 a.m. on Sunday at Level III, a downtown Starkville nightclub, when off-duty police officer Demetric Armstead attempted to break up a fight between two women.

Armstead was attacked by “several individuals” and was knocked to the floor, said the report. He then identified himself as a Starkville police officer, but the attack continued. After Armstead went outside and called for help, on-duty police arrived, as did Oktibbeha County Sheriff’s deputies. The report said that the “attackers” left the scene. A day long investigation took place on Sunday, leading to the arrests.

Link to article

No Smoking Ordinance

The committee that was formed to deal with the No Smoking ordinance has finalized a draft of the ordinance that will be on the agenda for our Tuesday, March 21st, 2006, meeting. We scheduled that date for the last public hearing and will most likely vote on the issue then. The committee itself consisted of myself, Aldermen Matt Cox, Alderman Sumner Davis, two representatives of the Restuarant Association, two representatives of Breathe Free Starkville, and a representative of the Student Association.

A copy of the ordinance can be downloaded here.

Starkville in Motion Proposed Bike/Walking Path

Starkville in Motion are currently making plans for a proposal for the southern portion of Starkville that would involve placing multi-use paths (walking and biking) all the way from campus to McKee Park. These paths, unlike the bike lanes on University Drive, would be seperate from the street similar to what is on campus. Being able to accomplish this would require an effort on both the city and the university; however, SiM is working on several grants that would help to pay for a good portion of the costs. Below is a rough sketch of the areas the path would be running by.

As per people's requests...

I am restarting my blogging. I was surprised how many people were reading on a daily basis. I had stopped blogging because of trying to get into the habit of balancing being an alderman, school, and work. I didn't realize that several people enjoyed reading it so I am planning to restart and begin using a regular schedule for my alderman based posts:

* Wednesday (following meetings) - overview of meeting
* Friday - update on any new building permits issued or requests made
* Others TBA