Clarksdale voters could be faced with a $20 million decision come this November.
That’s the early estimate Mayor Chuck Espy has given for the repair bill to fix the city’s aging infrastructure and alleviate flooding woes that have plagued Clarksdale for the past several years.
The repair bill would come in the form of a bond referendum in which voters would have the final say in whether Clarksdale embarks on the ambitious plan.
“This is going to cost a significant amount of money,” Espy said during one of two community meetings held Thursday.
And while the city has been operating under a no-frills budget and line items have been cut, the mayor said there is no way Clarksdale would be able to pay the bill on its own, hence the call for a bond referendum.
“Our reserve funds have been depleted,” Espy said.
The mayor said the pipes that handle the drainage for Clarksdale are undersized and the storm water system as a whole is dated. Engineer John Cameron, with Neel-Schaffer in Memphis, Tenn., estimates a large portion of the city’s pipes are 60 to 70 years old.
However, at least one Clarksdale resident present at Thursday’s meeting at the former Greyhound Bus Station said he’s against higher taxes that would come in the wake of a bond referendum.
“We need to find solutions without using an engineering firm or putting a burden on taxpayers,” said Bud Phelps, who has a home on Maywood Street and was a former Clarksdale city commissioner.
What needs to be done?
Among the items targeted for repair by Neel-Schaffer are:
* Storm water drainage and backwater flooding;
* Street upgrades;
* The Second Street bridge, which currently only has a 4-ton weight limit;
* Pavement maintenance on streets;
* And new traffic signals.
Cameron said his firm is currently in the process of gathering responses to a questionnaire about flooding and/or drainage conditions in neighborhoods. He said they had 60 responses from the first round of meetings held in March.
Among the areas identified as problem areas are:
* Pearson Street, as the engineers are proposing a ring levee around that neighborhood;
* The Sasse/Bloom neighborhoods off Desoto Avenue and near the hospital;
* And Spruce, Vincent and Russwin streets near Kirkpatrick Elementary School and Anderson Park.
More meetings are planned for the upcoming months to gather more responses.
Once that input is received, then Neel-Schaffer will put together repair estimates and forward that on to city leaders in September or October.
Ed Seals, who has been a city commissioner since 1989, said the city has battled flooding issues for a long time.
“We have made a little headway, but not the type of headway that we should have made over a long period of time,” he said during a meeting at the National Guard Armory on Ritchie Street.
Ward 3 commissioner Willie Turner said some of the biggest flooding issues for his constituents are in the areas of Vincent Street, Spruce Street, Jackson Avenue and Magnolia Avenue.
“Ward Three has its share of flooding and drainage issues, but we will work diligently to get these issues corrected,” Turner said.
What about the Sunflower River?
Phelps was among those at Thursday’s meeting at the bus station questioning what can be done about the Sunflower River, which handles all the storm water that drains from Clarksdale and the surrounding area.
“We’ve got flooding,” Phelps said. “Instead of building a levee, why not dredge the river and get rid of it (the storm water runoff) quickly?”
City commissioner Bo Plunk said, “It ain’t just the Sunflower River. It’s the pipes all around town. Everything drains to the Sunflower River.”
He said the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers had recently visited, but in order for work to be done on the Sunflower, then environmental studies have to be completed and it could be a lengthy process.
Fellow commissioner Ken Murphey urged those in attendance to contact Congressman Bennie Thompson’s office, as well as that of Sens. Roger Wicker and Cindy Hyde-Smith and push for the work to be done.
And the help will have to come from the federal government, Plunk said.
“Jackson, Mississippi, has wrote the Delta off. We’re not going to get any help from the state,” he said.
(Managing editor Josh Troy contributed to this report.)
