Thank you, Mayor Barry, for having the guts to do what was right for the people of Meridian. The decision to stop the current Threefoot project was a hard decision, but the correct one in my judgment.

When your City Clerk of over 20 years, your City Financial Consultant and your Bond Counsel all advise you that the project is not economically feasible and could bankrupt the City, you have to listen and act. That is exactly what our Mayor did and we should be proud of her and support her decision.

Everyone, including the Mayor, wants to see a Threefoot project which includes a downtown hotel and banquet facility, but this was not the right project. It had too much public money in it and not enough private investment. Our community has so many other needs at the present time, such as infrastructure, which has been neglected for over 16 years, and the police, fire, water and sewer services which need to be extended to our newly annexed areas. This is all occurring in the worst economy since the great depression.

The current City Hall project alone will cost the City over $18 million dollars and will be paid back at 1.3 million dollars a year for 20 years. In fact, one-third of the current City budget this Mayor inherited from the prior administration is to be used to pay back debt.

What the citizens of Meridian do not know is that not only was the City putting up a $14 million dollar bond issue on the Threefoot project, but it was also going to have to purchase and tear down the Trustmark Bank building and adjoining parking garage at a cost of over $2-$5 million dollars. HRI had also requested an additional $6 million dollars from the City to purchase furniture and fixtures for the hotel and to help with other finances. Finally, if the project went over budget, which we all know it would have, guess who would have had to foot that bill? All of our citizens, and particularly those on fixed incomes, should be glad they do not have to suffer the additional tax burden of this ill-advised project.

Will there be another project? I hope so, and I think so does Mayor Barry. I believe her vision is to see downtown Meridian grow and flourish. She just cannot risk the economic future of the whole City on one project whose chance of success was less than 50 percent in my opinion.

Let’s all thank Mayor Cheri Barry for standing up for Meridian.

 

Mike Convert

Meridian