Supervisors OK money for arts center
with a contingency
By By Steve Gillespie / staff writer
Nov. 18, 2003
Lauderdale County supervisors voted Monday to give $150,000 to the Mississippi Arts and Entertainment Center but with a contingency that the city of Meridian do the same.
Frank Farley and Duffee Williams, board members for the center, made the presentation. The money will be used for preliminary site design, permitting and engineering for the center planned at Bonita Lakes.
The total estimated cost to build the center, which will include an amphitheater, studio space and a hall of fame, is $54.5 million. Williams said today the center will ask the Meridian City Council for $150,000 tonight.
Farley said the center will have an enormous impact on the region and the state.
District 1 Supervisor Frank Florey made the motion to approve the $150,000 request and take it out of county cash reserves. District 5 Supervisor Ray Boswell added the contingency that Meridian also pay $150,000.
In other business, supervisors discussed what happened to a home the county bought along with property at the Interstate 20/59 industrial park sight.
The home was heavily damaged more than a year ago by vandals who were never caught. Later, supervisors allowed the sheriff's department to use material from the house to build a tractor shed at the Hilltop House for prisoners.
Boswell said he was not aware of what happened and objected to the authorization not being reflected in any of the county's board of supervisor minutes.
District 2 Supervisor Jimmie Smith made the motion to allow the materials be used from the house, but Boswell voted against the motion.
Also Monday, after a closed session to discuss litigation, the board voted to allow its attorney, Rick Barry, to represent Boswell who is facing a $1.9 million lawsuit from Cuba Timber Co.
Barry said the lawsuit against Boswell and comments he made at a board meeting as a supervisor, was a result of a lawsuit filed by Lauderdale County against the lumber company that allegedly damaged two county roads with its logging trucks.
