Oktibbeha County lags behind in census response
As counties and cities throughout Mississippi push to increase census response rates, Oktibbeha County lags behind.
According to the Census Bureau, just 50.3 percent of county residents had completed the 2020 census as of July 27. A comparison of county response rates July 23 ranked Oktibbeha County 59th out of Mississippi’s 82 counties. Statewide, about 57.5 percent of Mississippians
have responded.
Census response data also falls short for the City of Starkville, at 52.2 percent. In 2010, Starkville had a response rate of 64.8 percent.
Mayor Lynn Spruill said census participation is extremely important for the community, and she urged residents who haven’t responded to do so as soon as possible.
“It’s a direct relationship between census response and the success of our school system and our city,” she said.
“Not only is this going to bring a tremendous benefit to the taxpayers here at the Horse Park,” he said, “But we’re also going to bring natural gas service availability to 250 rural homes along the way. People in rural Mississippi deserve to have the same exact choices for energy and utilities as someone living in downtown Jackson.”
Presley said he and his fellow commissioners have an “82-county jobs strategy,” to bring opportunities like natural gas to Mississippians throughout the state.
“We do investment everywhere and that’s going to make a difference not only here, but to those 250 families,” he said. “And guess what, getting that gas line here makes it a little bit easier for us to get it down the road.”
At the Horse Park, the natural gas service will help reduce the cost of heating the buildings, MSU president, Dr. Mark Keenum, said. The university plans to replace current heating system, which uses butane, to take advantage of the lower-cost fuel.
“We’re going to have 16 low-intensity gas radiant heaters here in this facility,” he said. “This natural gas energy source will allow us to reduce energy costs for heating this facility by one-half, by 50 percent.”
Thursday’s announcement comes as part of 2018 rural expansion partnership between the Public Service Commission and Atmos Energy. The partnership provides up to $5 million per year for natural gas projects, $3 million for expansion of main lines and $2 million for installing service lines and meters.
The Horse Park project will include about 2.3 miles of new pipeline at a cost of $400,000-$500,000.