City cuts payment to Watkins

Published 6:00 am Wednesday, February 8, 2012

    The Meridian City Council voted unanimously Tuesday to cut their monthly payment to David Watkins, project developer of Meridian’s new police station, by $9,999 until work resumes on the project.

    The order, made during the Meridian City Council meeting Tuesday morning, included a mutual agreement between the councilmen and Watkins to reduce the project developer’s monthly consultant fee of $10,000 to $1, effective Tuesday.

    The council voted on the issue without discussion.

    “We agreed with him that since nothing was happening, that we were going to reduce that agreement until he got going back with the project and some other things started happening around town,” Ward 1 Councilman Dr. George Thomas said after Tuesday’s meeting.

    “Part of the agreement with him was that he was going to help the city developed some projects. Since he’s not going with that project right now, we both agreed that we would reduce that (Watkins’ fee), and once we get going with some projects there’s a possibility that they can be renegotiated,” Thomas said.

    Construction on the project has been halted and isn’t scheduled to resume until March 15. Watkins said the project – which entails renovating an old grocery building on 22nd Avenue into a new police station that will serve the entire department – has taken significantly longer than expected to finance.

    Watkins said last week there have significant delays in closing on the new market tax credits, which are an important aspect of the project’s funding. He said the original closing date for the tax credits was expected to be Dec. 15, 2011. The date has been pushed back, he said, because of problems with coordination between the numerous entities involved with the tax credits and because it took longer to than expected for the tax credits to be allocated for the project.

    The project developed stressed that the project is not unfunded, there is just a delay in accessing the funds. He added that the delay will not cost the city anything.

    Meridian hired Watkins Development in October 2010 to work as a consultant for the $10,000 a month fee with a one year contract that is automatically renewed each year “for a number of years”, according the agreement with the city. The contract with the city states that $10,000 a month is a 50 percent reduction on the firm’s usual fee.

    Thomas said the $1 fee was proposed to keep Watkins “on line” with the city.

    “We still want an agreement with him, if he’s willing to work with the city to develop some things,” Thomas said. “But, until some things start happening, we just felt basically to just have an agreement with him; the $1 fee was just a token amount to keep the agreement going without any significant amount of money in it.”

    Other issues addressed during the Council meeting included:

    • Order authorizing execution of Interlocal Cooperative Agreement with the Lauderdale County Board of Supervisors for demolition of unsafe buildings. This is a continuation of the previous contract between the city and county. Thomas said that because of new board members due to the recent supervisors’ election, a new agreement was necessary.

    • Order authorizing State Games of Mississippi to use all city facilities for the games.

    • Order authorizing execution of project agreement with the Natural Resources Conservation Service for repairs to gablons along  Gallagher Creek in Highland Park. The city pays 15 percent and NRCS the remaining 85 percent. The council also applied to the Pat Harrison Waterway District to pay part of the city’s 15 percent.