Tupelo mayor says city is booming; city council rejects bids for skate park

During remarks at the Nov. 16 meeting of the Tupelo City Council, Mayor Todd Jordan said, “Things seem to be booming in Tupelo.”

Jordan said business appeared to be strong when he drove through downtown Tupelo the prior Saturday. Jordan commended Lucia Randle, the recently appointed Tupelo Main Street Director, for her work in promoting downtown Tupelo and keeping it a vigorous retail center. “We have a lot to be thankful for,” the mayor said.

Nettie Davis, City Council Member for Ward 4, reminded everyone of the Thanksgiving community service scheduled for the following day at the Link Center.

Kim Hanna, the city’s Chief Financial Officer asked for permission to open a bank account for deposit of tax money for the Thoroughfare Fund. The council approved unanimously. Hanna also recommended early payoff of a debt to Bank of America, which she said would save the city $339,000 per year in interest payments. It would free up that amount to be used for other expenses paid from the city’s general fund. The early payoff was unanimously approved.

Alex Farned, Director of the Tupelo Parks and Recreation Department, spoke about the city’s plans to build a skate park. Farned told the board, “This was the second time we bid out the skate park project. Once again our lowest bid was for around $349,000 and they went up from there.” Farned asked the board to reject the bids and said he would get back to work on ways to make the skate park a reality including looking for other sources of funds. The board approved rejecting the skate park bids and for Farned to explore other options.

Board President Buddy Palmer told the council it needed to consider final approval of exemption from ad valorem taxes for three Leggett & Platt components within the city. City Attorney Ben Logan said the state tax commission and the Lee County board had approved the exemptions and recommended the city council give the Leggett & Platt requests final approval, which it did. Logan said the property exempted had a value in excess of $700,000.

The city council then went into a closed executive session to consider economic development matters.

Click link for video of Tupelo City Council Nov. 16 meeting: https://youtu.be/oZzpc0Yb2zw