Bike lanes have already been added to one road in downtown Kosciukso. However, the rest will not come until early July after the Kosciusko Board of Alderman unanimously approved an ordinance that will add bike lanes and convert many downtown streets into one-way roads.
“I believe this will help traffic flow through downtown and also make us a bike- friendly community and perhaps bring more people to downtown,” Alderman-at-large Tim Kyle said.
The ordinance calls for portions of Washington, Jefferson, Madison and Jackson streets to be converted to one-way roads with the addition of bike lanes. Bike lanes were added to Monroe and Natchez streets.
The conversion of Washington, Jefferson, Madison and Jackson streets to one-way roads will not begin until July or 30 days after the passage of the ordinance. A misdemeanor charge will be carried with any violation of the ordinance.
See the full ordinance below.
In other actions the aldermen approved a bid for rehab at the city sewer and a lift station at the lagoon. A portion of the project will be funded by the Community Development Block Grant program, which can be used for affordable housing and infrastructure development. CDBG will provide $310,000, while MDA 27,094. The city will be out approximately $400,000.
“The project came in over budget and we spent a lot of time trying to find out why,” city engineer Christian Gardner said. The lift station is substantially deeper than most anything anyone normally deals with and when you get deep, the cost goes up exponentially. The pumps are also larger than we originally estimated."
“It took a lot of damage during hurricane Katrina and has continued to get worse,” Mayor Jimmy Cockroft added. “I know that $400,000 is a lot of money, but we need to do this while we can because it is not going to get any better.”
Other actions taken by the aldermen include
• approved changing F street to James H. Meredith Street;
• approved payments to Gardner Engineering and Belinda Stewart Architects;
•approved Deitrias Robertson as a WIOA youth worker;
• assessed a property cleaning at 527 E. Jefferson St.
• approve a project from the First Baptist Church for renovations at the church sun building.
