Quitman works with Smart Growth America to plan for future
Published 12:39 pm Monday, September 12, 2016
- Dave Bohrer / The Meridian StarMain Street in Quitman is quiet on a summer Sunday afternoon. The city is working with Smart Growth America to find ways of utilizing the city strengths and set strategies for correcting problems.
Imagine if you could redesign your city: where would you begin? Help for the Homeless? Healthcare? New jobs? Blighted housing or abandoned factories?
Maybe you would want to have great restaurants, walking trails and bike paths. Maybe you would like to draw attention to great schools or historical sites or buildings and homes already in the area. And if you already had such interesting things in your town, how would you make sure that people knew about them? Just what is it that would make any town a great place to live and work?
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These are the questions the City of Quitman is asking. One year ago, city leaders began imagining how they could redesign Quitman. They wanted to emphasize Quitman’s positive assets and correct some problems found in most rural Mississippi cities. They are receiving an assist from a national organization called Smart Growth America, which has been providing answers and assistance to cities for many years. Quitman was selected by Smart Growth America to receive a two-day workshop this fall.
John Robert Smith, former Meridian mayor now a representative of Smart Growth America, said that he is hoping the workshop could be scheduled sometime in October or November. Smith visited with Quitman leaders Thursday via a conference call as part of the process.
Quitman’s best assets, Mayor Eddie Fulton said, are its school system, many historical buildings and homes, a beautiful lake, a large critical-care hospital, some great restaurants and some mom-and-pop businesses that are doing very well. Problems, he said, include some vacant buildings, old factories and open lots that need to be repurposed.
Quitman has some blighted housing that need to be remedied, Fulton said. Mississippi does not offer the funding to remedy these problems.
“We want to make our land more productive and use what we have in a better way,” Fulton said.
The workshop offered by Smart Growth America would be a two-day event outlining a walking tour, a public meeting, examples of similar cities and solutions that have been tried and been successful elsewhere, according to Smith. The following day, SGA will meet with Quitman leaders in a private forum and brainstorm the specific problems facing the city and possible solutions.
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After Smart Growth America reviews findings, it will compile a list called the Next Steps Memo of the most achievable proposals for the city. The Next Steps Memo will list strategies to achieve desired goals. SGA also will help the city find funding available through other government organizations such as Housing and Urban Development, the Environmental Protection Agency, the Department of Energy and the Rural Development Association.
The great thing is we are finding both Millennials and Baby Boomers like living in small towns, Smith said.
“They want to live in a vibrant town where people care about their homes and have good schools where their children can be safe and learn,” Smith said. “They want to live in towns where they can ride their bikes or walk to work and to lunch. Smart Growth America stands ready to help towns re-invent themselves into a new and better way to live.”