Bollard plan moves forward

The Starkville Board of Aldermen approved a bollard plan to help create safer event environments for the city during their meeting on Nov. 21.

The board placed the plan on the consent agenda, which was unanimously passed.

Bollards are small metal poles, which are used to block off streets for vehicles. The current plan has streets listed in the Cotton District, Midtown and Main Street areas.

Ward 4 Alderman Jason Walker said Mayor Lynn Spruill has pushed for Starkville to become a tourism destination and this plan will help create a safer environment in the high traffic areas for events.

"Being able to bollard off and make those environments as safe as we can to eliminate vehicular and pedestrian conflict is really what that's going to do," Walker said. "As many guests as we host here in our downtown and Cotton District, we need to make those areas as safe as possible."

Since Starkville hosts a wide range of events in different parts of town, the bollards will be able to move from one location to another depending on the time of the year. Spruill said there have already been discussions with both the Starkville Fire Department and the Starkville Police Department and are both on the same page.

"The beauty of this is you have sleeves in places where you can be flexible, so you can move those bollards where you need them," Spruill said.

The total cost estimate of the project is around $65,000. This includes 213 sleeves and locations in the ground. For each street, it takes about three bollards to properly block it off.

There will be a total of 60 bollards on hand for the city to utilize. The price per bollard is about $200 and $250 for the sleeve, because the city will have to core into the street to install.

"Our capital improvement bond was to include traffic control devices so this could fit in that,"Spruill said. "The question now is just when do we want to begin that implementation."

The board is still working to finalize the specifics of the bollard plan.