OKTIBBEHA COUNTY – Supervisors unanimously agreed Monday to allow $700,000 left over state grant funding to be redirected toward relocating and upgrading the Josey Creek sewage pumping station, which serves NorthStar Industrial Park.
The funds were originally part of a $2.5 million site development grant used to build a 200,000-square-foot pad at NorthStar near the Louisville exit off Highway 82 to market to new tenants, Golden Triangle LINK CEO Joe Max Higgins said.
“We think when those final bills get paid, we’re going to be somewhere around $700,000 left over, plus or minus,” Higgins told supervisors during a Monday meeting. “… We then started looking at what we could do. What would we spend to enhance the park? … The city would really like to rebuild and relocate (the) sewage pumping station that serves the area there.”
Higgins said Mississippi Development Authority, which awarded the grant, has agreed the remaining $700,000 in funding can be reallocated to help cover relocating the station, which is estimated to cost about $2.2 million. The city and county split the local match for the grant.
“We said that any other money, other than the grant money, would not be the board of supervisor’s responsibility, but others,” Higgins told supervisors. “In other words, the city or whoever they can get the balance of the money from, they fund it.”
As per the agreement, the city will be responsible for finding the remaining $1.5 million needed to relocate and update the station. For now, Oktibbeha County Economic Development Authority has agreed to cover the rest of the cost, Mayor Lynn Spruill said.
“OCEDA has tentatively agreed to cover the remainder, but that is not yet set in stone as we were not fully aware whether those funds would be available from the grant nor did we have a clear idea of what the cost estimate was,” Spruill wrote in a text to The Dispatch.
Relocating the Josey Creek station to the northwest corner of the park makes the facility more accessible for routine maintenance and ensures future expansion opportunities at NorthStar, Spruill said.
“So to me, this is a win-win for us in the sense that we get assistance in upgrading that lift station,” Spruill told the board of aldermen during a Friday work session. “The plan … is to move it onto the property of NorthStar Park, so that we’ll have easier access and we won’t have to cross private property, even though we have an easement.”
Supervisors approved the interlocal agreement, pending legal review. The board of aldermen will vote whether to approve the agreement during the board’s regular meeting this evening.
If the board approves the project, Spruill said the new lift station could be up and running as soon as fall 2026.
McRae is a general assignment and education reporter for The Dispatch.
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