Our Mississippi Municipal League held its annual convention last week and I along with Bridgette Peters, Joe Brooks, and Ron Holloway were there. The Convention welcomed eighty two new Mayors and over two hundred new Aldermen or Council members. This was the largest attendance I have witnessed since becoming Mayor. Over fifty courses were available to better prepare an elected official to serve their communities. Most public officials want to improve their Cities, Towns, or Villages and learning how to do it within laws governing Municipalities is critical to their efforts. Featured speakers at the Convention were Dick Hall, Central District Transportation Commissioner, Marshall Ramsey, Clarion Ledger Cartoonist, and Oklahoma City Mayor Mick Cornett. Dick covered several interesting facts, such as Mississippi, a State that has not always received great press, ranks high (10th) in our national transportation system. Transportation systems are the key to economic growth and while we are in pretty good shape there are countless obstacles that face our State. We have several hundred bridges that need replacing, but there are insufficient funds to do so, and maintaining the roads becomes more difficult each year. He reiterated the fact that the 18 cents in gasoline taxes has not increased since 1989 and the cost of road construction and repairs has more than doubled. According to Dick, we can either find new revenues or face a loss in economic development as our roads and bridges deteriorate. Marshall Ramsey pokes fun at all politicians and this year has been a very good season for his skills. Mayor Mick Cornett talked about the transformation of Oklahoma City from the bombing of the Federal Building to their current lofty position of being designated as one of the best Cities for quality of life and having the lowest unemployment in the Country. The Mayor believes the key to economic growth lies in focusing on quality of life issues. Industry will locate in areas that offer quality of life attractions such as clean fun filled parks, walking trails, biking trails, great health care facilities, good attractive schools, cultural attractions, and a safe place to raise a family. I have said many times that Quitman has all of the assets needed to become one of the most attractive small Cities in our State. Tuesday, our Board will be asked to make the first step and begin the planning process to accomplish the utilization and improvement of the assets we are so fortunate to have. We recently issued a boil water notice for the entire City for the first time for me as Mayor. Usually boil water notices are the result of broken water lines that cause pressure drops in the system. This notice was not the result of a broken line, but happened as three separate samples taken from three locations in the City all came back testing positive for coliform bacteria. This bacteria is commonly found in the environment and are generally harmless. Health Department requires a total boil water notice because of the possibility that other harmful pathogens could enter the system like the coliform bacteria found in the samples. This has happened before, approximately fifteen years ago, and occurred as a result of contaminated test jars. We believe this to be the case now, but will be taking samples from twenty three locations for testing Monday, repeating the process Tuesday, and hopefully will receive an all clear notice on Wednesday. Notification will follow via the use of Clarke County Hot Topics, City of Quitman Face book page, radio stations WQMS and KLOVE, and television stations WTOK (11) and WMDN (24). Declaring a boil water notice was necessary, but it comes with a cost to our Citizens, Commercial entities, Hospitals, Schools, and Industrial Companies as they incur the additional expense of buying bottled water. Recycling will continue to be a major push for our City as it adds revenues to the garbage fund, and is allowing us to purchase a new garbage truck. The value of recycling is abundantly clear when you can sell cardboard for $120 a ton versus paying $34 a ton to put it in the landfill.
Posted on: Mon, 22 Jul 2013 19:44:07 +0000
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