Concerns over Vidalia community development office closure voiced

Published Wednesday, July 15, 2009

By jennifer edwards

The Natchez Democrat

VIDALIA — Citizens concerned about the June disbandment of the Vidalia Office of Community Development let their voices be heard at Tuesday night’s board of aldermen meeting in Vidalia.

The office was formed in June 2008 with the goal of rehabilitating houses in the downtown area. One year later, the office was dissolved and the duties of the officer were reassigned within existing city offices.

Vidalia citizen Margaret Mays approached the board on behalf of other residents of District 1 asking why the office had been dissolved.

Vidalia Mayor Hyram Copeland said when the office was first formed it was agreed that the program would be evaluated after one year and if it were deemed unsuccessful at that time the program would be dissolved.

“We brought in a consultant from Washington, D.C., to evaluate the program, and it was based on those results that we decided the program could be done in-house and save the city money in the process,” Copeland said. “The city is committed to continuing the program and at the same time will save over $200,000 a year.”

Copeland said the Washington-based consultant concluded after meeting with employees in the office of community development that the staff was unwilling to communicate with the city.

“The consultant said the personnel was not going to work because individuals we had in place were not willing to communicate and wanted to do things in their own way,” Copeland said.

Copeland said the office also did not accomplish the original objective set forth when the program was formed — to repair existing properties.

District 1 Alderman Triand “Tron” McCoy said the need for rehabbing property was presented to him while he was campaigning, and he still wanted to focus on rehabilitation.

“Our plan was to rehab the houses downtown and help the families and senior citizens first,” he said.

Former Director Windell Millicks said he wanted to build new houses to replace houses that he said were “un-repairable” despite that first objective.

“I was looking at what was realistic and these properties were not able to be repaired,” he said.

Millicks also said he went to Concordia Bank & Trust to seek funding instead of working through City Manager Kenneth Walker, which was part of the agreement when the office was formed.

“I was not able communicate with Mr. Walker on several occasions,” he said.

Copeland said despite the anger over the disbandment of the office of community development it was important to focus on the fact that the programs the office was responsible for are still up and running.

Currently $275,000 in funding is available to eligible homeowners.

“We are going to continue working with the people we are already working with (on rehabilitating their properties),” he said. “The programs have not been eliminated.”

In other business:

- District 32 Sen. Neil Riser gave a brief statement on the conclusion of the recent legislative session. He said he feels confident that the monies allocated for his district are secure.

“It looks like our monies will be OK,” he said. “Now we have got to start looking at the needs of the city, parish and district are for the future.”

- The board voted to begin the process of advertising for bids for new equipment including a garbage truck, street sweeper and bucket truck. The board voted to take bids at the August meeting.

- The board voted to pre-file an ordinance amending the current ordinance on abandoned vehicles. The new ordinance is expanded to include vehicles parked in alleys and on curbs that were not covered previously.

The maximum fee for an abandoned vehicle was also increased to the state maximum of $500.

According to the state law, vehicle owners will receive a notice after 45 days of storing the abandoned vehicle and again after 60 days of storage. At that point, the vehicle will be sold with the money going to repay the town.

Any money remaining from the sale would be returned to the vehicle owner.

- The board authorized the sale of 10 surplus vehicles.

- The board approved a sign application for the Riverfront Royale Salon and Spa on Front Street.

- The board approved a sign application for Aaron’s on Carter Street.

- The board approved an occupational license for Cash in a Flash.

- The board authorized the city to join the Louisiana Community Development Agency.

Upon receiving approval to join the agency, Walker requested the board authorize the LCDA to assist the city in acquiring funding for a firm looking to locate in Vidalia. If the firm — which was not named — does locate in Vidalia up to 380 jobs could be created.

- The board authorized the city to retain The Boles Law Firm from Monroe, La., as council on seeking grant funding for the city’s new municipal complex.

The board also approved the firm to go before the bond commission in August as a first step in securing grant funds.