WCBI Rumor

Normally I try to avoid dealing in rumors; however, I wanted to share one I had heard. Basically it was that WCBI is considering opening a satellite office in Starkville, similar to what the Commercial Dispatch does for their paper. That could be really interesting and makes me wonder if competition for coverage of the Starkville market is heating up between WCBI and WTVA.

Anyone heard anything?

Roadway Improvements

Posted on the city's website is a copy of the planned roadway improvements for the '08-'09. If you're curious whether your street is listed please feel free to review the document.

http://www.cityofstarkville.org/cosdocs/FY_08-09_Roadway_Maintenance_Projects-_Priority_1.pdf

Starkville in Motion Meeting Overview (9/8/08)

Devon opens
Mentions "Darius Goes West" movie.
Treasurer Report: Just under $2000 in account.
Membership Report: 48 paid members. 300 on email list.

Introduction of Day One students who will work with SiM. 3 present, 4 more who were unable to attend.

Robbie Ward announced the upcoming Johnny Cash festival. Looking for volunteers. pardonjohnnycash.com has a link for volunteers.

I gave a presentation on beautification regarding the 182 corridor based upon a similar presentation given to the Beautification Committee. Currently the city has approved regular street sweeping of 182, which was one of the nine recommendations. Other ideas discussed included plantings and entryway markers. I will be working with Ben Griffith and others towards establishing a working ordinance to begin to require sidewalks in new developments and Ben is trying to write a unified building ordinance that would incorporate a lot of the recommendations from the Comprehensive Plan that the city approved.

Question about mass comprehension plan and zoning ordinance. 182 sidewalk and bike lane. As that area redevelops people are talking about wanting to have buildings moved forward (this only makes any sense if the building is demolished). Two separate sidewalk ordinances were suggested. One residential and one commercial. People want a timeline/deadline on when the new ordinance will be in place. At least 30 days from the draft because it needs two hearings. Ideally I would like to have it in place before the end of the year.

Patrik Nordin recommended a Sidewalk Beautification day and mentioned that Lynn Spruill is a good contact for having brush/garbage cleared from existing sidewalks. Jim Gafford recommended adding it as a rolling action item for the sidewalk committee.

Ron Cossman talked about Lynn Lane progress. Board of Aldermen looked at it on Tuesday, had a public hearing on Thursday. Public hearing including a one hour lecture on the conceptual plan for Lynn Lane project. Issue with right of way (ROW) on Locksley Way. City Engineer proposed compromise regarding reducing traffic lanes to allow for sufficient ROW. Will come back before the board at the first October meeting.

Kate Fabel is organizing a Wheel-A-Thon through 52 Moms and SiM. Sept. 27th is the date with Board of Alderman approval and we're have worked out the providing of city resources for the event. Entry cost will be $10 per person. Two roadblocks: $312 is the insurance cost. Partnership was unwilling to suppliment the cost. Secondly, permission must also be sought out from OCEDA. SiM will have a table at the event. Asked for a volunteer to have SiM t-shirts printed at University Screenprint. Kathy volunteered. 50 or more were the suggested number to order. Motion to provide $200 was made and unanimously passed. Devon Brenner and I volunteered to man the table for the event.

Lois was not present to speak to the Safe Routes to school coordinator position; however, Devon mentioned a promising candidate was interviewed.

Kathy mentioned that the Starkville Area Arts Council awarded grant towards the Starkville Arts Walking tour. Fall/Winter is the approximate time of year. I volunteered to work with Kathy regarding compliance with the city's public event policy.

Hamp Beatty volunteered his name to chair the sidewalk committee. Officers will be nominated by October and elected in November.

Ron Cossman brought up the proposed Southern entrance to MSU. Phase 1 would just be a 2-lane road. Phase 2 would have 4 lanes and bike lanes/sidewalk. SiM representatives at the public hearing requested to have sidewalks/bike lanes at the first phase.

Devon Brenner brought up that if you notice areas that have bikes being locked up to things other than bike racks to notify SiM and the University to bring attention to those areas.

Joe Fratesi made motion to give the board permission to spend up to but not over $100 for any one event. Unanimously approved.

Meeting adjourned.

Sidewalk Ordinance

For a while, people have mentioned to me a desire to see more sidewalks in town. Having visited other cities, I've noticed many cities with an extensive sidewalk infrastructure. Upon researching it a little more, and going back to the Comprehensive Plan the city adopted back in 2006, I've decided to look into pursuing an ordinance to begin requiring sidewalks as a part of new development. This is also a long-term goal of the building department, so enacting an ordinance now could give us a chance to test it out and make any appropriate changes when the building department is ready to release their overall new series of building ordinances. One complaint I can anticipate receiving is that it may create sidewalks that "lead nowhere" but given enough time they eventually will and it will make it easier on the city to fill in the gaps as a part of its own street program.

I plan to speak to this effect at tonight's Starkville in Motion meeting; however, I need a little more time to work on a complete draft ordinance.

Special Called Meeting Today at 1:30pm

In a bit of an emergency, a special called meeting was issued for today at 1:30. The reason is that the third party company provider of financing for our police and court software has been negligent in sending in the appropriate payments to our software provider and now the software has been shut off. Obviously this has to be rectified immediately. More as it develops.

Cowbells Featured in WCBI Article

So there has been a lot of talk lately about the opening of the new bar, Cowbells, which is in the county and has resort status, allowing it to serve alcohol on Sunday and stay open as late as they want. My current understanding is they'll be open until 4am.

Here's the article by Steve Rogers.

http://wcbi.com/article.php?subaction=showfull&id=1220129244&archive=&start_from=&ucat=8&

Thoughts?

Board Meeting Tonight (9/2/08)

Tonight we have a number of interesting items on the agenda. There is a request for in-kind support (closing of streets, police presence) for the Johnny Cash festival. Robbie Ward has done an excellent job on that and should be commended. Also, Kate Fabel is presenting a similar request for a project the 52 Moms organization is hosting. Their event is called the Wheel-A-Thon and will involve a race around the research park for people using anything with wheels (but no motor) such as bikes, skates, unicycles, etc. Should be interesting and proceeds go to McKee Park.

There will be a presentation regarding the roadwork to go around the new Cotton Mills mall development. Their proposal does involve the boulevarding of Russell Street with the addition of bike lanes and improvements to Spring St.

There is a presentation from Kevin Stafford from Neel-Shaffer regarding the Lynn Lane bike path project. This project, which I've touch on before in this blog, will involve a bike path, seperate but parallel to the road, that will extend from Blackjack Rd/Sororiety Row to the Sportsplex on the other side of town. Long term, if we could find a similar path along the northern half of Starkville we could potentially form a bike path loop around the entire city.

There will be a second public hearing on the proposed budget. Action on adopting that budget most likely will not occur until around Sept. 15, the deadline.

I've made a request to have 182 regularlly swept. This is in accordance with the wishes of the Beautification Committee and one of the points in their 9 point plan.