Community leaders spoke to the Tupelo City Council at its second January meeting

Several community leaders spoke to the Tupelo City Council during its January 18 meeting about increased violence and problems of bullying in the city’s public schools.

Mark Turner with United Brothers and Sisters spoke to the City Council about the increase in violence in the community. He also addressed the bullying in schools and said The United Brothers and Sisters want to help clean up the community. “We want Tupelo to be the safest town in Mississippi,” said Turner.

Charles Moore with the Lee County-Tupelo NAACP spoke to the city council. “The Lee County-Tupelo NAACP, Chapter 5304, in partnership with Indivisible Northeast Mississippi, would like to extend their availability and outreach to the city of Tupelo to promote equality and insure the best practices within the city government,” said Moore.

Moore was followed by Mary Jane Meadows with the Indivisible Northeast Mississippi group. Meadows said, “I represent the 300 members of the Indivisible Northeast Mississippi group. We are a local grass roots progressive organization,” Meadows said. “We operate with a larger national network to raise progressive leaders and to be active in local, state and national government. Our group has worked with the NAACP several times over the last years, and we realized we have some of the same goals. It is a wonderful way to partner and get to know the black community. Our members tend to be mostly white, but we are a growing multi-ethnicity and multi-racial group. We look forward to being together and expressing concerns jointly, working on projects to make Tupelo the best city we can be.”

After Turner, Moore and Meadows spoke, the city council then went into its routine agenda.

The city council approving Amendment 4 of the budget for 2022 including:

• In the Tourism Funds there was a transfer of $100,000 to the Capital Infrastructure Fund for the Baseball Common Area Project.
• Under the Tupelo Capital and Infrastructure fund the council passed a budget amendment the amendment acceptance of a donation for $4,000 from Neighborhood Association for Bel-Air Improvements. A second donation of $55,000 from the Sports Council was accepted for the Baseball 4-Plex Improvements.
• Kim Hanna was given approval by the council to close various bank accounts. The closed bank accounts included the Escrow Bond Account, the Haven Anchors Rental Account, the Tree Mitigation Account, the Art Committee Fund Account and TIF Bond Account. These accounts have held a zero balance and are no longer needed. All five accounts were currently held with Trustmark National Bank.
• Resolutions were passed making BancorpSouth Bank as the City of Tupelo municipal depository. The city had used statutory provisions requesting the State Treasurer to select the municipal depository for use February 1st, 2022, until February 1st, 2024. BancorpSouth Bank was selected by the State Treasurer.
• Taylor Newman, Director of Development Services, submitted the development agreement from Clubside, LLC. for the commercial and residential development located off West Jackson Extended behind the market center on Coley Road.
• Next was the request and approval for the replacement of two manufactured homes. These would be used for staff housing for the Tupelo Children’s Mansion.
• The council approved the appointment of Daniel Rupert to the Major Thoroughfare Committee.
• Lucia Randle, DTMSA Director, got approval for the 2022 MS Main Street Memorandum of Agreement. The memorandum is for the purpose of implementing the local Main Street program and continues participating as a Mississippi Main Street designated community.

The next Tupelo City Council meeting will be held February 8th at 6:00 PM.

Video of Tupelo City Council 1-18-2022 (Kendall Stancill):