The Starkville Daily News will sit down with each member of the Starkville Board of Aldermen, discussing previous and future accomplishments for the city as the new year begins. Our series begins with Ward 1 Alderman Ben Carver, and ends with Mayor Lynn Spruill.
MOST PLEASED WITH THIS PAST YEAR
“My nine years in office, we have been pretty proactive in giving employees raises,” Carver said.
Throughout the years, Carver said the city has incrementally pushed salary raises, which resulted in a substantial raise for both the Starkville Fire Department and for the Starkville Police Department.
“We’ve played ‘catch our tail’ for the past nine years I’ve been in office on things such as life safety issues,” Carver said.
Those issues include funding necessary items like fire trucks, and providing the city’s officers with the proper equipment.
“We’ve gotten to the point now through organic growth, that we are at a point to make pretty large and significant investments in our capital improvements and our personnel.”
Along with those departments, the city also approved both phase one and phase two of city employee salary adjustments. These adjustments will work to bring Starkville employees to the 95th percentile.
“I feel like we are sustaining where we= need to be,” Carver said. “I feel like the city is at a point where we are taking care of our own.”
GOALS FOR THE NEW YEAR
Carver said 2018 is going to be the first year in a while the city will be able to “double down” on capital improvements.
This means focusing on roadway, curb and gutter, drainage and other infrastructure repairs.
“This is going to be the year of capital improvements,” Carver said. “We’ve always just done the best with what we had, but this year I think we will be able to do a little more than average.”
In the past, Carver said many of the roads were in poor shape, which resulted in the city “alligator backing” the roads. This means the city was repairing what they had to, because the certain sections of the road were deemed failing by the city engineer.
He said this year, residents should see a change in appearance.
“This year you’ll see paving will be a little longer, maybe whole streets,” Carver said. “Just some issues that have been on the list for a while now and are coming to fruition.”
BIGGEST ISSUE FOR 2018
Carver said this biggest issue going into the year falls on capital improvements. He said he doesn’t really have any major areas he wants to target, except having maintenance repairs throughout the city.
One thing Carver said he is looking forward to, is working on the first steps of the new industrial park and the development of business within it.
“I would love to see the industrial park breaking ground this year,” Carver said. “Let’s keep our fingers crossed.”
Carver said he wants to help recruit an “anchor business” and work with the Link and Communiversity to develop the workforce coming out of high school.
As the industrial park begins to take its shape, Carver said he is excited because of the economic impact it will produce, jobs it will create and the strong return of investment.
“That’s going to be the greatest thing Starkville is going see in the next few decades,” Carver said.
PERSONAL RESOLUTION
When asked what his personal New Year’s resolution will be, Carver said he would like to read the Bible from start to finish.
Along with reading the Bible, Carver said he would like to spend more time with his family. He said he wants to designate about an hour or two a day specifically for his family.
Tomorrow the Starkville Daily News will take a look at Ward 2 Alderman Sandra Sistrunk’s New Year’s resolution