Thanks to crowd outbursts and hot button issues, Mayor Parker Wiseman was forced to call the Starkville Board of Aldermen meeting to order several times Tuesday night, and he was also called on to cast the deciding vote in a 3-3 split that passed an improvised motion to seek Federal Management Agency approval for Carver Drive relief.
The board did all work together to unanimously pass the request for a public hearing to consider the possibility of creating an ordinance to regulate outside sales, outdoor displays and yard sales. In addition, the board held its second public hearing on amending the helmet ordinance and its first public hearing pertaining to the possible amendment of the zoning ordinance and the city of Starkville code of ordinances.
When it came time for Wiseman to cast his vote on the Carver Drive issue, he prefaced it with his opinion of how the board had come to its current situation. He said he has worked tirelessly to try to find a solution that would oblige everyone, but that he did not see a better way to begin dealing with the issue at this point.
The Board approved Option 5A, which will cost an estimated cost of $175,000 and consist of an initial cleaning of the site, channel restoration, erosion control and addressing how the water drains in at Hiwassee Drive.
This came much to the dismay of Ward 6 Alderman Roy A. Perkins and Ward 7 Alderman Henry Vaughn who have pushed for improvements to the area for years, but wanted the board to vote to completely pipe and cover the ditch, which the approved project will not do.
“This is a very difficult decision. It has been my wholehearted desire to find a way to fight to cover this ditch … each of these board members have drainage projects in their wards … this is the only project on the drainage list that is a pipe and cover project … I wanted to see this project done in the manner that you wanted it done, but it has now become abundantly clear that the only way we are going to be able to get a project built that provides relief as quickly as possible is to do an open channel project.”
The vote was split with Perkins, Vaughn and Ward 1 Alderman Ben Carver voting against and Ward 5 Alderman Jeremiah Dumas, Ward 4 Alderman Richard Corey and Ward to Alderman Sandra Sistrunk voting for the motion. Ward 3 Alderman Eric Parker was absent.
Prior to the vote, Perkins urged the board to defeat the motion in favor of continuing the cover and piping project that began two years ago when the city installed 40 feet of pipe at one end of the ditch.
“I wish the board was really honest about this and really wanted us to give deep consideration to all the options, but here you want to make an impromptu motion here about 10 options and make a decision tonight,” he said
Perkins said that if the board was really concerned with taking care of the problem at Carver Drive, then they would have chosen to apply for the Community Development Block Grant that could have provided a maximum $600,000 in funding to pipe and cover the ditch.
Vaughn was also livid with the rest of the board for considering the proposed motion, which he saw as a rushed, blatant disregard for the people of the Carver Drive area.
“Is it right to just throw this motion in there,” Vaughn said. “Is it right? Is this all they are worth? $600,000 is too much to go down there? You are telling them ‘you take this or you take nothing.’ That’s not right, and you are going to sit here and say you aren’t making any biased decisions … What is wrong with y’all? There is a God somewhere and He is tired of us being oppressive.”
Sistrunk responded by asking Vaughn what the difference was in the Northside Drive ditch, which is in Vaughn’s ward and where open channel improvements have been made, and the Carver Drive ditch. She said she struggled with why the board would elect to solve a similar problem in a different way.
The motion was actually to authorize FEMA approval for Option 5A, one of several options presented to the board earlier this year, and was brought forward by Dumas, who said authorization for funding would only be granted if the FEMA approval went through.
Perkins cited an older project undertaken by the previous administration, when voicing his opposition to allowing FEMA to come in.
“The ditch that ran along the west side of Carver was just as long and just as deep, the federal government didn’t come in trying to dictate to us, trying to regulate our business,” Perkins said. “We used existing staff, some of this staff is still working for us now, they cleared that ditch out, put that pipe in that ditch, covered it with dirt, and we haven’t had one problem with that ditch since, to my knowledge. Some people don’t even know it was there. I appreciate the efforts of the board tonight, but this is not the proper method to do this.”
“I am absolutely supportive of finding a solution to the problem with the ditch on Carver Drive,” she said prior to the vote. “I would like it to be a cost effective solution, channel restoration is that, and I would like it to be consistent with what this particular board has done with other ditches, including the Hollis Creek ditch and the Northside Drive ditch.”
Sistrunk said channel restoration, erosion control and stabilization were the focuses of the efforts on other ditches located in the city, and that these had worked well.
Several citizens spoke for both sides of the issue during the citizen comment period, which ended up lasting over an hour.
The board also voted to schedule a public hearing for the next meeting to discuss creating an ordinance to regulate outside sales, outdoor displays, yard sales and other related matters. Dumas said there are four focus areas he hopes the ordinance will address.
“One is outdoor commercial storage, where there is language in here that discusses the storage of commercial goods in front of properties in commercial zoning. There is one that speaks of an outdoor display allowance, which allows the display of goods in the outdoors. There is one that speaks to outdoor furniture, talking about how indoor furniture can not be stored permanently outdoors. Then there is one that talks about garage sales, which basically just limits people on being able to continue a perpetual yard sale.”
In other business, the Board held it’s second public hearing on the possible amendment Safety Helmet Ordinance, and Dumas read a letter received from the transportation committee concerning reasons to amend this ordinance. The board sent three basic areas of concern: Infringement of personal responsibility, discouragement of cycling and the burden of enforcement. He said the board could only find anecdotal evidence to back up the discouragement of cycling and that the committee took no stance either way. With the burden of enforcement, the transportation committee looked at loads of data from the Center For Disease Control to statistics from the Starkville Police Department regarding biking accidents, and though the committee took no official position, they did report 67 percent of the trauma victims of the accidents reported were over the age of 17. Dumas said the committee quickly dispelled the infringement on personal freedoms, saying they needed to make no comment on personal freedoms.
In less controversial action, the board also its first public hearing on amending the city’s zoning ordinance to allow exemptions for rebuilding for non-conforming residential structures. Under the current ordinance, no building damaged to the extent of more than 50 percent of its market value can be repaired or rebuilt if it is in non-conformity with the regulation uses of its zone. Perkins presented this proposed amendment, which looks to exempt residential structures despite their non-conformity.
The Dispatch Editorial Board is made up of publisher Peter Imes, columnist Slim Smith, managing editor Zack Plair and senior newsroom staff.
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