Legislative Update from all levels
By PATRICK ERVIN
Publisher
Riding the wave of energy and excitement from Friday’s Southgate Redevelopment Project ceremony and groundbreaking, much of the same crowd made their way to the BB King Museum and Interpretive Center to hear the latest happenings from all levels of government affecting Indianola and Sunflower County. Of note, Indianola Mayor Ken Featherstone, Sunflower County Board of Supervisors President Riley Rice, state legislators Senator Sarita Simmons (District 13), Representative Otis Anthony II (District 3) and Senator Joe Thomas (District 22), Central District Transportation Commissioner Willie Simmons and Ashley Beal, case worker on behalf of Second Congressional District Representative Bennie Thompson, provided information for their constituents.
Featherstone spoke about the city’s Safe Routes to School projects where sidewalks will be installed on BB King Road, Jefferson Street and Oak Street for students walking to school in the area. In addition, the mayor highlighted the city’s two work session meetings on infrastructure and programs to combat criminal activity in the city. “In light of what has happened in Buffalo and in Uvalde, Texas, the new police chief and I, along with the county’s Emergency Management Service, are working on an active shooter emergency response plan at warp speed.”
Rice enumerated the county’s allocations of $100,000 to Sunflower County municipalities under American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) and Recovery Act guidelines. The board president shared that Congressman Thompson’s office availed funding for municipalities with a small application window. “We were able to work together and get the applications done,” Rice said. “As a result, we were able to get the town of Sunflower $300,000; Doddsville, $200,000; and Drew, $500,000. Sunflower County also provided North Sunflower Medical Center $650,000 for sewer issues and was instrumental in the recruitment of the Entergy Mississippi solar station and Parmida.”
Senator Sarita Simmons highlighted pay raises for teachers through the passing of legislation and the allocation of funds that would allow $5,000 a year pay raises for county sheriffs pending local approval. The legislative session also included the passage of the Mississippi marijuana legislation, allocation of $2.5 million to the BB King Museum and more than $7 million to Mississippi Delta Community College. “We did undergo redistricting during this session,” Senator Simmons said. “Even though we lost population, I’m proud of the fact that we were still able to maintain our five legislative positions from the Delta.”
Redistricting does, however, move Thomas’s district out of Washington and Sunflower counties. “This will unfortunately be my last session representing everyone here,” Thomas said. “My district will now include just about all of the city of Canton.”
Commissioner Simmons informed the gathering about funding being spent for the beautification of highways at the 82 and 49 intersection, replacement of the bridge on Highway 82 at Sunflower County’s eastern edge, paving the main strip in Moorhead from the Inverness exit to Highway 82, work on Ruleville’s Fannie Lou Hamer Memorial Gardens, walking trails in Belzoni and pavement of Highway 82 from the Washington County line into the city limits of Indianola
At the federal level, Beal talked about Congressman Thompson’s support for fair housing and home ownership, Community Development Block Grants, and the bipartisan infrastructure bill.
Much of the public information included some overlap between the different levels of government to which Mayor Featherstone said, “Inter-government relations are trending in the right direction.”
“I’m not going to reiterate what my colleagues have said. Instead, I’d like to talk about a couple of the balls that we didn’t quite get across the goal line this legislative session,” Anthony said. “We wanted to expand health care for working families and help protect their income and plug in some holes that may exist in their household budgets.”
