Officials finalize ‘road map’ for city’s future

Published 5:00 am Tuesday, July 25, 2006

With approaval of a strategic plan, Brookhaven leaders havefinalized a ‘road map’ of city priorities for the next fouryears.

The board of aldermen voted unanimously last week to adopt thestrategic plan for the city for 2006-2009.

“I feel that if Brookhaven has a strategic plan, we’ve got aroad map to where we are going in the future,” said Mayor BobMassengill.

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The board of aldermen worked together to form a list ofpriorities for the city to focus on over the next few years. Thetop five areas – economic development, downtown revitalization,equipment replacement, systematic paving and infrastructure needs -all received a unanimous vote by the board of aldermen.

“About the first of the year, each alderman and alderwomanturned in a list of priorities, things they would like for the cityto accomplish during the remainder of this term,” Massengillsaid.

Seventeen items submitted by the board were duplicated.

“We decided to vote on 10 items of that 17 and of that, fivereceived a unanimous vote,” Massengill said. “That dictates wherewe spend our time and energy.”

To top the list, economic development will receive muchattention. A joint effort project between the city and county tocontribute to the infrastructure needs of LinBrook Business Parkalong with a grant from the Economic Development Administration isunder way.

“We are excited about the opportunity that project will give thepeople in our part of the state,” Massengill said.

The second priority on the strategic plan is the revitalizationof the downtown area.

“One of the things that we did was replace Bradford pear treeswith Sasanquas, and we hope to continue that trend through the yearso the downtown area has a uniform look as far as foliage isconcerned,” Massengill said. “We are also working on lighting fordowntown to give Brookhaven, especially at night, a unique andattractive appearance.”

Brookhaven was the recipient of a $220,000 United StatesDepartment of Agriculture Rural Business Enterprise Grant to assistwith lighting and signs for the downtown business district.

Another area of priority will be systematic paving.

“We’ve identified a number of streets that need paving and weare trying to base the paving on the amount of traffic and thecondition of the street,” Massengill said.

The last of the top five priorities is infrastructure needs.Many improvements such as new sewer lines will take place over thenext few years.

“We’ve already begun working on that, with us identifying sixareas in the community that have sewer problems and have begunworking on those areas,” he said.

Easements will be required to continue with the sewer projectand plans are under way to begin door-to-door visitation to obtainthose.

Other items addressed in the strategic plan include interstatelighting at exit 40, community appearance, annexation, communitycenter, new police department facility, the possible moving of thecity barn, training of mid-level managers and a bus service.

“We would love to get lighting at all three exits, but fundingis not available,” Massengill said. “We do feel that it’s a fairlystrong possibility that we will receive funding for lighting atexit 40. That will make it much more attractive, safer, and willshow traffic that this is a progressive city that is inviting youto exit.”

Planning for annexation continues as the city looks to thefuture.

“From what I understand, it will likely be the last quarter ofnext year before we know where we stand on that (annexation),”Massengill said.

Massengill said planning must begin now in preparation forannexation because of the services the city must provideimmediately such as police and fire protection.

“We need to plan in dealing with those and that is part of thisstrategic plan,” the mayor said.

Other services addressed in the strategic plan is a Multi-ModalTransportation Facility that will move the train depot north sothat the passenger train will not block downtown traffic.

“This is a federally funded project that the city is required topay 20 percent, but our 20 percent is the property we are puttingup.” Massengill said. “At this point, it is not costing thetaxpayers anything.”

Plans are expected to be in the hands of the MississippiDepartment of Transportation by early August. The funds,administered by MDOT, will renovate the old power plant buildingnear the smoke stack to create a transportation hub forBrookhaven.

The new facility will provide a nicer place for people to get onand off the train. Massengill said that last year 4,000 people goton or off the train at the Brookhaven depot.

With a variety of projects and issues needing attention, thestrategic plan provides direction for the city officials tofollow.

“I was very pleased Tuesday night that the board approved this(strategic plan), because it does give us some direction,”Massengill said. “It keeps us from going off on tangents and forthe most part the things that we’ve all bought into are where weought to be spending our time and energy.”