McComb officially on Thursday regained control of the MLK Center from the city school district, and will solidify operation plans for the center at Tuesday’s board meeting.
At the board’s work session Tuesday this week, Mayor Quordiniah Lockley said the board needs to decide who will oversee the facility.
“It’s been under City Hall and it’s been under Recreation,” Lockley said. “We need to decide where we’re going to house it.”
Recreation Director Ron Kessler told board members that he had already talked with the school district about events scheduled at the facility, and said people had been calling the recreation department to make reservations.
He said taking on the facility would cause “no added pressure for our department. We have no issues with that.”
Selectmen Devante Johnson said he would like to see the rental fees for the building cut in half. If that happened, “I think the building would be more utilized,” he said.
Fellow board member Ronnie Brock agreed, and suggested the city could follow the lead of other area cities and rent on a daily basis rather than hourly, with different weekday and weekend rates.
Kessler also agreed, and recommended charging a $50 reservation fee that would be become nonrefundable within 14 days of the scheduled event.
He said he would make modifications to the proposed lease and bring it back to the board for action Tuesday.
In other business, the board:
• Delayed discussion on a donation for a domestic violence shelter.
Lockley said Janice Jefferson, who has founded the nonprofit Walking in the Light with singer LaPorsha Renae, would meet with him later in the week to discuss vacant lots available in the city where a new domestic violence shelter might be built.
The previous shelter, operated by Women in Need of God’s Shelter, has closed.
• Postponed discussion of a donation to the McComb Junior Auxiliary. Some selectmen voiced a preference for developing a standard method for dealing with such requests.
• Discussed attending the state Public Employees Retirement System annual meeting on Dec. 19.
• Noted upcoming payments of $57,000 for the police department’s new generator, $249,673 to Webster Electric and $18,807 to Neel-Schaffer for the Railroad Boulevard improvement project, and $589,946 to Greenbriar for the Northwest Interceptor sewer upgrade project.
• Announced plans to close City Hall on Christmas Eve and New Year’s Eve as well as the actual holidays.
