Mayor Lynn Spruill informed the Starkville Board of Aldermen at its Friday work session the city landfill on Rock Hill Road has been temporarily closed while it is brought back into compliance with standards set by the Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality (MDEQ).
Spruill told the Starkville Daily News the closure is related to operations, but not expansion, which caused the landfill to be closed from September 2016 to April 2017.
"Apparently, when we ran out of room we kept pushing stuff in there and so we're now out of compliance with MDEQ because we've taken up too much of our buffer space, so we've got to come back in compliance," Spruill said.
City garbage will be taken to the Golden Triangle Regional Solid Waste Landfill on Old West Point Road until the city landfill is reopened.
RETAIL STRATEGIES
Representatives from Birmingham-based national retail partnering firm Retail Strategies gave the Board of Aldermen a status update on different economic development projects going on in the city.
The firm contributed to attracting several high-profile companies to the area, including Dairy Queen and Academy Sports + Outdoors.
In their update, the representatives of the company - which usually makes four trips to Starkville in a year - mentioned several potential concepts that are looking at
locating to the city, but no companies were specifically named.
Among theses, Retail Strategies said interested restaurants included fast-casual, Asian, Mexican and some focused on health. One possibility mentioned was a 7,000-square-foot family-style restaurant.
Retail Strategies also mentioned a specialty grocer and national fitness company had recently toured the market.
Spruill said she thought the update was productive, but there is still room for improvement.
"I want them to come back more often than they have because I think in the past they've not been quite as frequent in their communication with us, so I'm hoping we will be a little more informed a little more regularly," Spruill said.
The Starkville Board of Aldermen is scheduled to have its next meeting on Tuesday, Oct. 17 at 5:30 p.m. at City Hall.
OTHER BUSINESS:
• Aldermen will discuss holding a new round of public hearings to amend the city's smoking ordinance to include an indoor smoking exemption.
• Aldermen will consider establishing set hours for trick-or-treat from 5:30 p.m. to 8 p.m.
• Aldermen will consider appointing Calvin Ware to the Golden Triangle Solid Waste Authority Board to complete the unexpired term of Emma Gandy and then for the term from Jan. 1, 2018 to Dec. 31, 2021.
• Aldermen will consider appointing Edward Kemp to the Golden Triangle Solid Waste Authority Board to fill a new Starkville position for the term from Jan. 1, 2018 to December 31, 2021.