McComb selectmen could vote next week on borrowing millions of dollars to fund street paving.
“We’re at the point where we need to decide if we’re going to borrow money to pave our streets, and how much we’re going to borrow,” Mayor Quordiniah Lockley said at Tuesday night’s city work session. “We need to do something. People are demanding we do something about our streets.”
He said selectmen should have already been driving the streets of their wards to assess them and help determine which ones might be included in a slate of paving projects.
Lockley again noted the city’s approximate borrowing capacity of $5 million and said the city should leave some room in case of emergency.
“I would say we should borrow no more than $3 million,” he said. “If I were to recommend a minimum, I would say no less than $2 million.”
He also noted again that the borrowing will result in a tax increase for the city to pay back the loan.
“There are citizens crying about it, but it’s going to mean a tax increase,” Lockley said.
He said the amount of extra millage cannot be determined until the amount to be borrowed is settled and the board accepts a bid on term and interest rate.
On a number of occasions during this first year of the term of office, board members have discussed the need to address not just streets, but also infrastructure such as water and sewer lines.
However, Lockley said the discussion for this prospective project addresses only paving.
If approved, it would be the third tax increase enacted by the board, including a millage hike passed last year to fund the current budget and for a loan to pay for a new Martin Luther King Center gym.
Public Works Director Alice Barnes said her department can try to avoid making more work for themselves or contractors.
“Some of our streets don’t need heavy equipment or a milling machine on them,” she said. “We can look at them beforehand and not have to dig them up (to repair or replace water or sewer lines) after we pave.”
Selectmen Michael Cameron, Donovan Hill and Ted Tullos were all absent from the work session.
In another construction matter, the board discussed applying for a $500,000 grant to rehabilitate or replace run-down homes in the city.
A representative of Grants Unlimited, based in Hattiesburg, pitched the program, which would bring the money to McComb through the Mississippi Home Corporation.
No match is required, and Grants Unlimited’s fees would be paid through the grant. Grants’ Unlimited would also serve as the program administrator for the city.
Grants Unlimited was proposed to serve as the city’s grantwriter on retainer last fall, but selectmen voted the matter down on concerns that the city could have to pay the firm and its owner, Lakeylah White, even if she produced no results.
Another firm, Smith and Smith, pitched their services to write a grant for a different home rehab program earlier this year, but the city decided the program was too complicated to work through before the application deadline.
To meet the looming application of Aug. 16 for Grants Unlimited’s grant proposal, the city must advertise intent and a public hearing on Aug. 5.
