Supervisors vote to pay for infrastructure, OK new landfill

By By Steve Gillespie / staff writer
June 8, 2004
Lauderdale County supervisors voted Monday to enter an agreement with Meridian to fund infrastructure for planned retail businesses in the city at Highway 19 and North Hills Street.
Alex Smith, the project's developer, said he wants to build a three- or four-lane street connecting the highway and North Hills at the location where a Backyard Burgers restaurant is soon to open.
Smith said other businesses also will be built there. In addition to the street, Smith said water and sewer, electrical power and gas lines are needed.
The agreement between the county and city is called a tax increment financing plan, or TIF. Lauderdale County Administrator Rex Hiatt said Meridian will issue $500,000 in limited obligation bonds to fund the project.
Hiatt said Lauderdale County will send the city 35 percent of the amount of property taxes it collects on the development. The city will use the money to re-pay the bonds.
At the same time, Hiatt said, the city will use all or a portion of the sales taxes it receives from the businesses on the property to help pay off the bonds.
Also on Monday, supervisors amended the Lauderdale County Solid Waste Management Plan so that a new landfill can be established on Willow Lake Road near U.S. 45, north of Marion.
Glenn Pogue, vice president of Engineering Plus, addressed the board on behalf of Pritchett Landfill.
Pogue said he wrote letters to residents who live within half a mile of the site and landowners who have property along Willow Lake Road between the site and Highway 45 letting them know about the landfill.
Pogue said 16 letters were sent. He said he received one telephone call about the proposed site from a Texas woman who wanted to know if the landfill would be seen from the road. Pogue said the woman also had general questions about what could be put in the landfill.
Pogue told supervisors the landfill would not be seen from the road and that it would be monitored by the Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality.
He added no household waste or hazardous waste would be dumped in the landfill.