City turns down county's offer at private meeting

By By Fredie Carmichael / staff writer
June 20, 2002
Facing a deadline to sign an agreement on the proposed Cooper Communities project, Meridian city leaders have rejected an offer by Lauderdale County supervisors to contribute $500,000 toward costs of an interchange to serve the development.
The move leaves the fate of the $6 million to $8 million interchange on U.S. 45 unclear and could threaten the future of the $35 million retirement community touted as a way to lure residents and boost the local economy.
Councilman Bobby Smith said Wednesday that he, Councilman Barbara Henson and Mayor John Robert Smith rejected the offer at a private meeting Monday with three Lauderdale County officials.
The meeting   which included county administrator Rex Hiatt, Supervisor Jimmie Smith and Supervisor Craig Hitt took place at the offices of the East Mississippi Business Development Corp.
Councilman Smith said Cooper Land Development Inc. wants a definitive contract signed with the city within the next five weeks. The cost of the interchange has been a key element in negotiations.
The Monday meeting took place in private and out of view of the public, allowable because neither the Meridian City Council nor the Lauderdale County Board of Supervisors had a majority of its members present.
The state's open meetings law requires advance notice and that formal and informal meetings of governmental bodies be open to the public if a voting quorum is present.
The meeting
The meeting came a month after city leaders announced plans to pay for the estimated $6 million to $8 million interchange up front by tapping a $10 million line of credit set up earlier this year through the Mississippi Development Authority.
In the end, the city would be responsible for 20 percent of the total cost, plus interest, and the Mississippi Department of Transportation would use federal funds to repay the other 80 percent to the city over a five- or six-year period.
When asked why the city is looking to the county to help fund the interchange, Councilman Smith said, "because this is something that will benefit all of Lauderdale County, not just the city of Meridian."
Councilman Smith said the supervisors initially agreed to back the Cooper Community and help fund such things as the interchange and are now backing down.
Hitt disagrees
Craig Hitt, president of the Lauderdale County Board of Supervisors, said while supervisors support the Cooper project, he doesn't expect the county to pay more than $500,000 for the interchange.
Hitt said supervisors are still waiting on the outcome of two grants the city applied for that would help fund providing an interchange and water and sewer to the industrial park.
Mayor's view
Mayor John Robert Smith told reporters in his biweekly press conference Wednesday that it was "short sided" for the supervisors not to back the interchange and only focus on the industrial park.
The mayor also said the city has put in its second application for a federal grant that would help fund the other $1.6 million needed to provide water and sewer to the industrial park. The first application was rejected.
He said the grant is needed to match the city's investment of $1.5 million to go ahead with the project. He said he hopes to learn the fate of the application soon.
Both Bobby Smith and the mayor said they hoped the supervisors would eventually fund the $1 million for the interchange.
Bobby Smith said the current squabble over the interchange is just "a small bump in the road."