STARKVILLE — Oktibbeha County leaders expressed concerns at Monday’s board of supervisors meeting about lost tax revenue if the potential conversion of the railroad that bisects Starkville and Oktibbeha County into a walking and biking trail becomes a reality.
The railroad has not been used in years but still brings in about $80,000 in property taxes that the county splits with the city and the Starkville-Oktibbeha Consolidated School District, County Administrator Emily Garrard said. Board Attorney Rob Roberson said this is a factor to consider in the decision of whether to support the proposed project.
“(We) have to have a cost-benefit conversation,” District 3 Supervisor Marvell Howard said. “It’s got to benefit the county and the city equally.”
The Starkville Board of Aldermen voted unanimously on Oct. 1 to ask permission from the federal Surface Transportation Board to work with Kansas City Southern, the company that owns the railroad, to remove the rails and turn the route into a trail. The railroad runs from Ackerman to West Point.
KCS has not yet indicated its support, but the proposed project would allow the company to still hold the easement over the land in case it decides to use it for rail transport again in the future.
Mayor Lynn Spruill introduced the idea to the aldermen and scheduled a meeting for Tuesday at the Golden Triangle Planning and Development District to gauge interest from several entities, GTPDD project analyst Phyllis Benson said. District 2 Supervisor and Board President Orlando Trainer said he will attend the meeting.
The process would involve creating rules and regulations such as hours of operation and a way to get a permit to drive a golf cart on the trail, Benson said. District 5 Supervisor Joe Williams mentioned trail maintenance as a potential hidden expense.
“Maybe it would be worth doing a study,” Benson said. “When somebody says ‘study,’ you just sort of cringe, but there are so many unanswered questions with this endeavor because it’s so new to this area.”
Roberson asked if a potential increase in tourism dollars thanks to the trail could make up for lost tax revenue, and Garrard said that money would go to the city, not the county or the school district.
The trail would be part of the national network created by the nonprofit Rails-to-Trails Conservancy, the nation’s largest trail organization, according to its website. Mississippi has 15 RTC trails, including the Columbus Riverwalk, the Kitty Bryan Dill Memorial Walkway in West Point and Tanglefoot Trail, which stretches 43.6 miles from Houston to New Albany.
Tanglefoot increased tourism in very rural areas, said District 4 Supervisor Bricklee Miller, who supports the project.
“With areas like Maben, it could make them destination points,” she said.
Waste management and road construction
The board discussed billing methods for its house-to-house garbage collection services in response to an upcoming price increase because the number of residences in the county is growing. The county has been part of Golden Triangle Waste Services since 1997.
Currently, Golden Triangle Waste Services charges the county $62,000 or $8.12 per house. The number of homes the service collects garbage from will increase by about 1,500, which will mean a more than $12,000 increase for the county.
Garrard suggested billing property owners instead of individual tenants, and Howard said multi-unit rental property owners should disclose their occupancy percentage so the county knows how much to charge them.
Trainer told The Dispatch he would prefer the county charge property owners via an annual tax instead of a monthly fee.
“Our main concern is that our bill is about to go up, and we want to make sure the people that are receiving the service are getting billed and are paying for the service they’re receiving,” Trainer said.
The board will continue to consider the issue and did not take action Tuesday.
Additionally, county engineer Clyde Pritchard updated the board on the Poor House Road construction project that began a month ago. The goal of the project is to replace the base of half a mile of road between Highway 25 and South Montgomery Street in preparation for future repaving.
Construction was expected to be finished before Saturday because of Mississippi State University home football game traffic, and the road was open that day, but the project is not yet finished. The rumble strips on the side of the road fell apart when construction workers dug them up, Pritchard said.
At Miller’s request, the board approved the use of a surfacing material called fog seal that Pritchard said is rarely used in Oktibbeha County. Surfacing the stretch of road should be finished Tuesday or Wednesday, Pritchard said.
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