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The September 19th Board Meeting is available on live stream.
Here are the highlights:
Mayor Dale Berry asked for ideas on ways to make our “Hometown Healthy.” Although we received the Healthy Hometown grant from Blue Cross Blue Shield 2 years ago, the city can apply for additional grants that are available through Blue Cross Blue Shield. If you have suggestions for ways we can improve the health of our town, please put them in writing and submit to City Hall or contact your alderman. Ideas are needed.
City Cemetery will be locked each night at dark. This action has been taken due to vandalism at the cemetery with 4 wheelers etc. Keys will be available at City Hall if anyone needs to visit the cemetery after dark.
Magee’s Sales tax collection was $354,000. This figure does not include revenue from Love’s. Love’s will be covered in the next Sales Tax Report. From Jackson to the coast, Magee ranks number 3 in Sales Tax collections behind Ridgeland and Hattiesburg. Magee is number 48 out of 313 cities that report Sales Tax revenue in the state of Mississippi,
A lengthy discussion was held concerning ways the city airport could be managed to increase revenue for the city. The board will continue to investigate the best solution.
The need for an updated website for the City was discussed. Out-sourcing a website is very costly. Alderman Whitney Baker and acting City Clerk Lane Yearby have agreed to work on the development of a site. Maintaining the City of Magee domain name and well as the present email address was discussed. Whitney discussed a 3-year term to host the city website for $360.
By keeping the website in-house, the site can be updated on a regular basic. Whitney and Lane will build the website with templates available through the hosting company. The website would have a calendar of events as well as information about local happenings. Through the hosting company, the site will be mobile friendly. Matthew Hickman made a motion to move forward with the website and Angel Brister seconded.
Applications for Keep Magee Beautiful has been made with Keep Mississippi Beautiful association. Training for the program will be held in October. Each board member has been asked to appoint a person to the commission. The names will be submitted at the October 3rd meeting.
Joe Worell discussed the need for an updated phone system. According to the Mayor the system has not been updated in 45 years. The new phone system would have a 12-line recording capability. The new system would have a wireless back up which will provide a backup system for the police department. The PD should never be without a working phone system. The automated system will allow callers to choose which department their call will be directed. If the city employee called does not answer the phone, a recorded message may be left on the phone. The message will also connect to the person’s cell phone. The contract is for 5 years which means for 5 years the company will be responsible for all maintenance of the lines. The phone bill for city hall and police department averages about $2,200 per month. The new system will bring a savings of $150.66 per month with additional services now available. After discussion, the matter was tabled until the October 3rd meeting.
Mitzi Stubbs the grant writer for CMPDD (Central Mississippi Planning Development District) met with the Mayor and others to discuss what grants she felt the city would qualify. One particular grant Mrs. Stubbs encouraged the city to apply for involves money that would be spent for Senior citizens. The grant is for $450.000. A Senior Citizen Day Care would be built where the old YMCA building is located (near walking track). The present building would be torn down with the new building meeting all codes. Senior Citizen activities now held at the Community House would be moved to the Senior Citizen Building. (These are suggestions for the grant application…nothing has been decided).
Streets will be closed for Crazy Day on October 28th.
The next regularly scheduled Board meeting is October 3rd. The alderman will be available at 6 o’clock prior to the meeting starting at 6:30 to discuss any questions from the public.
Again, the entire board meeting is available on MageeNews.com
