A $250 million bond bill under consideration in the Mississippi Legislature includes two items benefiting McComb.
An earmark of $100,000 would go toward a project identified only as a “McComb recreation center, while another worth $375,000 would go to widen Parklane Road and move sewer lines under that street.
In another matter, an attempt to get bond funding to four-lane Highway 24 did not make the cut for thew overall bond bill this year.
While the Parklane Road work has been discussed at length for months at city board meetings, less is known about the recreation proposal.
Rep. David Myers, D-McComb, who asked for the bond money, said this morning the still-under-wraps project has a total cost of $2.5 million, and that he is trying to arrange financing before revealing any details.
The funds, Myers said, would go toward the “construction, furnishing and other related expenses” of the recreation center.
Beyond that, he would not share any other information.
“It could be another couple of years,” before he announces anything more about the project, Myers said.
He characterized the proposal as an economic development project, adding that such projects commonly involve opaqueness as they come together.
When asked where he intended to secure the remaining $2.4 million needed for the project, he said, “The same place I’m getting it now.”
Myers has given some vague hints about the his plans in the past.
In December, he appeared before the McComb city board as it debated a 1 percent food and beverage tax.
He said at the time he backed it the tax, especially if revenue from it were directed to a recreation project he was planning.
That tax idea ultimately fizzled when it became clear that the city board was not unanimously behind it.
Myers confirmed this morning that the recreation center to receive funding in the new budget is the same one he referred to last year.
Mayor Whitney Rawlings said today that while he had not seen the details of the bond measure he understood the $100,000 to be intended for the city’s recreation department in general, not for any particular program or facility.
Rawlings said that he and other city officials had lobbied in Jackson for money, and while the bond measure is less than they asked for, he is nevertheless pleased at the imminent funding.
Other local projects receiving bond funding include $625,000 for a new fire station in Brookhaven, $260,000 for the sewer system in Meadville and $100,000 for the Lincoln County Civic Center.
Rep. Angela Cockerham, D-Magnolia, said this morning that she was able to get $200,000 in bond funding to go to infrastructure improvements in the Wilkinson County School District.
“Last year I did Amite County, and so this year I wanted to do something for Wilkinson County,” said Cockerham, whose House District 96 includes parts of both of those counties.
