No signs of stopping in Oktibbeha County

From road and park projects to Starkville’s pending annexation plan, growth in the city and Oktibbeha County shows no signs of stopping.

The Starkville Board of Aldermen has voted on a plan to annex land east of the city that next goes to Oktibbeha County chancery court. The land in question is along the Highway 82 and Highway 182 corridors out to Clayton Village and in the University Hills area on the east side of Mississippi State University.

Some residents of those areas have expressed opposition to the plan, but Mayor Lynn Spruill is confident the annexation will succeed.

“I think it’s a very conservative, thoughtful and deliberative approach to annexation that will be beneficial to the community as a whole,” Spruill said.

The annexation will be good for the county as well as the city, Oktibbeha County Board of Supervisors President Orlando Trainer said. The city will receive additional property and sales tax revenue, and the county will have some leverage to enhance other areas outside the city, he said.

“It will help shape those areas out in the county that, for lack of a better phrase, benefit from being close to the city but not in the city,” Trainer said.

Retail and commercial development

The addition of a new retail center that will include ALDI and TJ Maxx received county and city approval in August via a tax-increment financing plan. Castle Properties will build the center at the corner of Highway 12 and Industrial Park Road after Garan Manufacturing finishes and moves into a new building at North Star Industrial Park.

Site prep and infrastructure work is wrapping up at the new park, which is a partnership between the city and county. It will be at the intersection of Highways 369 and 82 at the north end of Starkville, and Garan is the first tenant.

The Mississippi Supreme Court put an end to a lawsuit over the zoning of the industrial park in September after almost three years, allowing the construction and marketing of the park to move forward.

Infrastructure, parks and stormwater updates

Voters approved increasing the city’s tourism sales tax by 1 percent earlier this year to build a tournament-ready field at Cornerstone Park and make other capital improvements. The board of aldermen is nearing approval of a contract with Dalhoff-Thomas, the Memphis-based architecture firm in charge of the Cornerstone Park design.

In September, the Parks and Recreation Department unveiled a three-year capital project plan for all the city’s parks, with a projected total cost of $1.31 million. Recent improvements include the repaving of the walking track at J.L. King Park and the resurfacing of the basketball and tennis courts at McKee Park.

The city has a “very active pickleball group,” Parks director Gerry Logan said, and one of the McKee Park tennis courts will be converted into one of the first permanent pickleball courts in the state.

The board of aldermen recently voted to hire two new firefighters and bring the fire station on Garrard Road up to full staff capacity after 10 years without it. A property tax millage increase will pay for the new hires and the addition of new city equipment, including a fingerprinting machine for the police department and a hot mix asphalt truck.

Discussions of updating the city’s stormwater ordinance started in April after heavy rain caused flooding. The updated ordinance, effective in September, tightens restrictions on how stormwater can be handled on development sites.

South of the city, construction on Longview Road is underway and will be finished by August 2020. The project will replace culverts and widen the road so it can handle heavy amounts of traffic, District 4 Supervisor Bricklee Miller said.

“We want to make sure we build something that’s going to last,” Miller said.

Starkville Utilities installed two electric vehicle charging stations at the end of September. The ChargePoint stations are near the intersection of Jackson and Jefferson streets, behind Hotel Chester, and outside the Starkville Sportsplex.

Research park growth at Mississippi State University

The software company Babel Street moved in September from the Thad Cochran Research, Technology and Economic Development Park at MSU to the third floor of the Cadence Bank building on Main Street.

The MSU Research and Technology Corporation manages the research park and bought the Cadence Bank building in May. Cadence is leasing the first two floors for the next two years and will then move into a new building on Russell Street.

The plan is to turn the entire building into an innovation center for the research park and bring in more companies after Cadence moves out, Research and Technology Corporation Director Marc McGee said.

“(Babel Street) needed to expand and grow, and they loved the idea of being downtown because it creates a lot of walkability for them,” McGee said. “The building will be for companies like Babel Street that would prefer to be downtown versus out in the research park.”

The third floor of the Cadence building is more conducive to Babel Street’s business than the space it just vacated at the research park, CEO Jeff Chapman said.

“It’s a lot more free and open,” he said. “What we do here is programming and software development, and what that means is a free flow and exchange of ideas.”

Meanwhile, the research park has a new coffee house and restaurant on Technology Boulevard, under the same ownership as Starkville Cafe and The Camphouse.

Community advisory board forms at OCH

The OCH Regional Medical Center Board of Trustees appointed a seven-member community advisory board about a year ago to act as liaison between the hospital and the public. All seven members belong to organizations in the community and have been working hard to establish the board’s presence, chairperson Cindy Walker said.

“There are a lot of rumors, and we try to make sure we have accurate information about the hospital,” she said. “Anything that’s said, we can clarify it when we’re out in the community speaking to normal people that we come in contact with.”

Walker facilitates a support group for caregivers of people with Alzheimer’s, and other board members belong to groups including Starkville Rotary Club, Kiwanis and Lions Club, she said.

The board meets once a month and recently discussed creating its own social media presence to further build connections with the public, Walker said.

“I think we represent all facets of the community,” she said. “We’re able to bring the total community served by the hospital together and bring in different viewpoints.”

Story by Tess Vrbin

Photos by Dispatch Staff