Aldermen hold work session in preparation for Tuesday night meeting

The Starkville Board of Aldermen held its Friday work session meeting the other night in preparation for its first meeting of March coming up on Tuesday night.

With no presentations in store for the Board, Friday’s work session was fairly light and left the Board to only discuss the agenda items for their upcoming meeting on Tuesday.

One of the items on the agenda is the presentation of TVA STEM grants being awarded to two schools of the Starkville Oktibbeha School District and one private school.

“This is about the second year that TVA has made available to schools and it is through the STEM grants to promote technology and research stuff like that, so it is a competitive approach,” said Starkville Utilities General Manager Terry Kemp. “Each of the schools had an opportunity to submit a project and we were very fortunate to have three different schools that are going to be awarded; Starkville Academy, Overstreet Elementary and Armstrong Junior High School.”

Mayor Lynn Spruill also mentioned the next item on the agenda which is the consideration of extending the proclamation of a local emergency due to COVID-19 for an additional 30 days.

Spruill said she hopes it does not go on for much longer, but it is something for the city’s continued effort to make it through the pandemic.

Other items of business for Tuesday will be the consideration of acceptance of the lower quote of $22,676.75 for

the Garrard Road sidewalk project from Groundstone Construction and the permission to apply for an assistance to firefighters grant in the amount of $539,000 for a mini pumper, 37 sets of turn-out gear, and 66 radios with a city match of $50,194.81.

Spruill also mentioned that absentee voting for this year’s city municipal election is now open at the city clerk’s office on Monday through Friday from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. and the one Saturday they will be open will be April 3 from 8 a.m. to 12 p.m.

After everything was discussed, the Friday meeting was adjourned until the Board’s next meeting on Tuesday night at 5:30 p.m. at City Hall.