In 2016, many important questions were asked in Starkville and Oktibbeha County.
How can the city provide a permanent home for its police force? What does the future hold for OCH Regional Medical Center? How will Starkville address growth and development in the next decade?
Many questions were resolved last year, but problems remain.
From the development of a financial plan that will construct a partnership school for all sixth- through seventh-grade students to horrific crimes in the city’s Cotton District, an eventful 2016 produced many highs and lows — and headlines.
Here is a look at the year’s top stories in Starkville:
Hospital future uncertain
Last summer, Oktibbeha County supervisors began a process that could ultimately lead to the sale or lease of OCH Regional Medical Center. Supervisors first hired consultant Ted Woodrell to guide them through the process of conducting an analysis of the hospital’s long-term financial and market viability and then selected the Tennessee-based firm Stroudwater and Associates to perform the study. Stroudwater’s report suggested supervisors seek transaction proposals from outside firms after revealing an annual $3 million to $4 million gap exists between current operating results and levels needed before strategic capital investments are considered.
OCH Chief Executive Officer Richard Hilton, however, refuted the report, saying Stroudwater’s data was filled with misinformation and understated the hospital’s income and overstated its expenses.
Hospital supporters have mobilized and developed a petition drive that, if it secures 1,500 signatures of qualified county voters, will force a potential transaction to a public vote.
SPD steps up presence in Cotton District
Starkville Police Department opened a new police substation in the Cotton District after the area, which is mostly populated by students, was rocked this year by horrific crimes.
Five Columbus residents, including a 16-year-old, were charged with various felonies connected to the November shooting death of 21-year-old Mississippi State University student Joseph Tillman.
Jaylen Barker, 20, and Syboris Pippins, were both charged with capital murder. Barker was also charged with possession of a stolen firearm, while Tyler Harris, 16, Jamario Pippins, 22, and Brandon Sherrod, 19, were each charged as accessories after the fact.
SPD Chief Frank Nichols said Tillman was walking along Maxwell Street when he was approached by a number of suspects. After an alleged robbery occurred, he said Tillman chased one individual, returned to the group and confronted the remaining suspects.
Tillman was shot at least once. Two men are also behind bars after they allegedly beat, subdued and locked a male victim in a Maxwell Street apartment’s closet and raped a female victim in May. Terry Lamont Hill, 42, of West Point, and Jerry Lee Talley Jr., 29, of McCool, were charged with felony rape, kidnapping and robbery. They were indicted by an Oktibbeha County grand jury and are scheduled in circuit court this month.
TIF usage questioned
How Starkville utilizes tax increment financing packages to land commercial investments could be defined this year after the mechanism was scrutinized by aldermen and the public in 2016.
Aldermen approved a $1.5 million, 15-year package in January that will bring an Academy Sports store to west Starkville but voted down a $1.35 million package for a Walmart Neighborhood Marketplace in the east. Although Walmart representatives originally said the project would not materialize without financial support for an access road, hope remains for the project after aldermen renewed the $14 million investment’s property plat in December. Ward 1 Alderman Ben Carver said he wants the city to develop clear guidelines for implementing TIFs in the future.
County, MSU lower state flag
Oktibbeha County and Mississippi State both lowered the Mississippi state flag last year, joining the Starkville Board of Aldermen’s 2015 decision to no longer fly the controversial symbol.
In January, supervisors voted 3-1 to only fly the U.S. banner above county-owned facilities. MSU followed a similar path late last summer, removing the flag — with its Confederate battle flag emblem — from numerous campus flag poles. The process began over the summer, Chief Communications Officer Sid Salter said, after high-level officials asked MSU President Mark Keenum’s permission to remove the flag from various buildings, and Keenum granted those requests.
Planning comes into focus
Both Oktibbeha County supervisors and Starkville aldermen took action this year that will help shape future development. The board of supervisors enacted the county’s first development guidelines this summer, approving a tiered permitting fee system for new construction efforts.
Starkville aldermen also accepted two different studies — a comprehensive planning effort and a park system analysis — which will help guide future boards. The parks report delivered this summer states more than half of Starkville’s eight public spaces are in poor condition and called upon the city to hire a maintenance manager and programming director, create an advisory board made up of invested residents and expand the system for future growth.
Aldermen also approved a new comprehensive plan last month that sets guidelines for future zoning and land uses, which the city will use when it rewrites its development codes. A bill of exceptions challenging the board’s implementation of the document was recently filed in Oktibbeha County Circuit Court. A third study on how to redevelop the Highway 182 corridor into a walkable retail corridor is also expected to be approved by aldermen next year.
SPD gets permanent home
Aldermen solved a decades-long issue this fall — how to provide Starkville Police Department with a permanent base of operations — when it approved an almost $5 million renovation to the city’s former administrative home. Previous bids for the project came in over budget, but a rebidding process — along with a 1-mill tax pledge from Ward 6 Alderman Roy A. Perkins — led aldermen to approve a financially obtainable project. SPD is expected to open its doors in May once renovations conclude.
Leaders announce departure
Three important Starkville entities will have new leaders this year. In 2016, Mayor Parker Wiseman announced he would not seek a third term in this year’s municipal election cycle, opting instead to spend more time with his family. His term ends June 30.
Additionally, Starkville-Oktibbeha Consolidated School District Superintendent Lewis Holloway announced his intention to retire this summer. He will assist the district as it begins its search for a new superintendent. In August, Holloway was convicted of two simple assault charges stemming from a 2015 altercation with his neighbor.
The Greater Starkville Development Partnership Board of Trustees also launched a search for a new chief executive officer after Jennifer Gregory resigned her post in October. That search is expected to conclude this winter or spring.
ISIS couple sentenced
Two former Mississippi State University students convicted of attempting to join the Islamic State were sentenced to a combined 20 years in prison last year. Both Muhammad Dakhlalla and Jaelyn Delshaun Young pleaded guilty in federal court late in the summer after they were arrested attempting to board a Golden Triangle Regional Airport flight that would have connected them to Atlanta, Georgia and eventually the Middle East. Dakhlalla, a Starkville native, was sentenced to eight years in prison, while Young, his fiance, received a 12-year sentence. During his sentencing, Dakhlalla condemned IS and said the FBI saved his life by arresting him.
Partnership school receives funding
Mississippi State University and the Starkville-Oktibbeha Consolidated School District are expected to move forward with a grades 6-7 partnership school after state lawmakers agreed to fund the project last year. The Legislature approved a $5 million pledge in 2016, with an additional $5 million to come this year once local funding sources are secured. The SOCSD Board of Trustees is expected to finalize a $16 million bond sale this year to cover the local portion, and MSU previously donated about $10 million — most of which includes land — for the project.
Dak Prescott’s big year
Although only a fourth-round draft pick, former Mississippi State quarterback Dak Prescott has taken the National Football League by storm. Prescott, who took over as the Dallas Cowboys’ starter for the injured Tony Romo before the regular season began, has not relinquished the post, leading his team to 13 wins so far this season and the No. 1 seed for the National Football Conference heading into the playoffs.
The Pro Bowl selection has tied the record for most wins in a season by a rookie quarterback. He has thrown 23 touchdowns, three shy of the rookie record set by Peyton Manning (1998) and Russell Wilson (2012).
He has 3,630 yards and needs 110 more to surpass Manning for fourth most among rookies. Prescott’s success in the NFL came on the heels of an inauspicious sendoff from Starkville. He was acquitted in July for driving under the influence, following a March arrest in the Cotton District where the results of his breathalyzer test were inconclusive. Police claimed his speech was slurred and he had trouble walking at the time of his arrest, but video evidence during the trial indicated that was not the case.
Hamilton arrested
Oktibbeha County Circuit Clerk Glenn Hamilton found himself in legal trouble this summer when he was arrested in June and charged with trespassing, possession of Native American artifacts and possession of methamphetamines. Hamilton, 60, and Rufus Edward Lewis, 59, were both arrested in northern Clay County after a 911 caller reported the men on private property near the Monroe County line. The second-term circuit clerk was arraigned in October, and the District Attorney’s office recused itself from the case. State law allows for the removal of elected officials if they are convicted of a felony.
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