A wild year for Mississippi University for Women saw it stave off legislative efforts to merge it with Mississippi State – or at least relocate the Mississippi School for Mathematics and Sciences there. Meanwhile, an annexation effort in Columbus stalls, Mayor Keith Gaskin decides not to seek reelection, and the Frank P. Phillips YMCA celebrates 100 years in Lowndes County. Here’s a look at the county’s top stories from 2024.
MUW’s future in jeopardy
To combat declining enrollment, Mississippi University for Women, which has accepted men since 1982, entered 2024 amid a name-change effort that was going poorly.
Based on a combination of surveys and advice from consultants, The W rolled out Mississippi Brightwell University as its proposed new name in January. A skewering reaction from alumni and many Columbus citizens – some of whom did not support a name change at all – sent MUW back to the drawing board. A month later, MUW unveiled Wynbridge State University as its new renaming choice, while a growing number of alumni and some in the legislature pushed for The W: A Mississippi University.
With both MUW’s enrollment and name-change effort flagging, a Senate bill introduced in late February sought to merge The W with Mississippi State University, giving the latter control of the campus in Columbus that opened in 1884 as the nation’s first public university for women.
The bill failed, as did another to potentially close three of the state’s public universities, and alumni and Lowndes County leaders have fueled a grassroots effort to protect The W from a merger or closure in the upcoming legislative session.
MSMS relocation effort
The Senate bill to merge MUW and MSU actually started as a bill to relocate the Mississippi School for Mathematics and Science to MSU. The bill’s purpose was changed twice before it ultimately failed.
MSMS, a residential high school for gifted juniors and seniors, opened in 1988 on the MUW campus. In 2023, MSMS executive director Donnie Cook was fired for pursuing, and publicly talking about, efforts to move the school to Starkville. As details of those efforts emerged, emails showed MSU had conceptually developed a plan for a new campus for Starkville High School and MSMS that would sit on MSU property.
In April, District 43 Rep. Rob Roberson, R-Starkville, said he planned to introduce a bill to make that megacampus happen. By December, Roberson had backed off from that position somewhat, but he and District 15 Sen. Bart Williams, R-Starkville, both said they support relocating MSMS.
Wherever MSMS ends up, new Executive Director Ginger Tedder said the school needs new facilities.
$36 million school bond passes
Despite a late start to the campaign and a long delay in releasing project specifics, voters overwhelmingly approved a $36 million bond to fund facility improvements for Columbus Municipal School District.
The new, 15-year bond essentially replaced an expiring 2009 bond that built the middle school.
CMSD plans to upgrade facilities in three phases, starting with safety improvements, parking lot repairs and a sprinkler system at the high school. Improvements to Sale and Cook elementaries, as well as a new external gymnasium at Stokes-Beard will follow. The final phase will focus on improving the high school athletic complex.
As part of the plan, the district will consolidate its elementary operations into three campuses – Stokes-Beard, Sale and Cook – while repurposing Franklin and Fairview.
Annexation fight flames out
In March, Columbus City Council voted to pursue annexing two areas south and east of the current city limits. By November, the council had pumped the brakes.
Before the March vote, the Golden Triangle Development LINK presented the city a report that showed the annexation plan raising the city’s poverty rate and lowering the median home value, among other negative metrics. The plan would add about 2,000 citizens to the city. Mayor Keith Gaskin vetoed the vote, but the council overrode it.
A groundswell of residents in the proposed areas opposed annexation, which led Lowndes County to commit up to $50,000 in a legal fight against the city.
By November, litigation bills were mounting on both sides, and Trip Hairston, president for the county board of supervisors, began negotiating with Ward 5 Councilman Stephen Jones for a solution. Ultimately, the council voted to put a stay on the annexation case, at least until after June’s elections. In exchange, the county will pay up to $35,000 toward Columbus Fire and Rescue’s training, since the city department already responds to emergencies in the proposed annexation area.
If the city resumes its annexation effort after the new council is seated, the county will seek to clawback its CFR training dollars.
J5 owner, president acquitted of fraud
In April, a federal jury acquitted J5 owner Jabari Edwards and president Antwann Richardson of 17 criminal counts each — including wire fraud, conspiracy to commit wire fraud, money laundering and making false statements – of allegedly defrauding the government of $3.3 million in COVID relief funds.
The verdict in the federal courthouse in Oxford ended a nearly two-year legal battle centered on companies owned by Edwards, including J5 Solutions, J5 GBL, the Bridge Group and North Atlantic Security Services, among others, as well as his personal limited liability company Edwards Enterprises.
While the prosecution claimed, in part, the defendants applied for Paycheck Protection Program and Economic Injury Disaster loan funds for one company, then inappropriately spent the money on other companies, the defense successfully argued it was not illegal to intermingle those dollars.
Days after the verdict, Edwards publicly criticized the prosecution against him as “discriminatory and baseless.”
Industry expanding, new retail coming in
The county saw growth in its industrial and retail sectors in 2024.
In August, Aurora Flight Sciences, based at the Lowndes County Industrial Park off Highway 82, announced a $43 million expansion that would add 63 new jobs. The company specializes in the design, testing and production of unmanned aircraft systems and was acquired by Boeing in 2017.
Later in the year, Stark Aerospace, also at the industrial park, announced it would add 96 jobs thanks to a $61 million U.S. Navy contract to build missile canisters.
Meanwhile, Burford Electric in East Columbus, an electromechanical solutions company that rebuilds large electric motors, announced its own $2.5 million expansion in August that would create an estimated 15 new jobs.
On the retail side, outdoor superstore Rural King announced plans in October to relocate to the old Kmart on Highway 45 in Columbus and bring another, yet-to-be-determined, retailer along to share some of the space. Hull Group completed its inside-out flip of the front of Columbus Place, the old Leigh Mall, in the summer and announced plans in December to similarly renovate the rear of the main building for commercial, medical and municipal office space, or even entertainment space. The group also is making space for six outparcels in front of the old mall and is under contract to purchase four others nearby.
Mayor’s race comes into focus
Columbus Mayor Keith Gaskin took a two-week health absence in late August. Less than a month after he returned to work, Gaskin – first elected in 2021 – announced at a press conference he would not seek election this year to a second term and instead endorsed local pastor Darren Leach.
Earlier in the year, Ward 5 Councilman Stephen Jones launched his campaign for mayor. By 2024’s end, District 5 Lowndes County Supervisor Leroy Brooks and local Realtor Bill Strauss both announced their intent to run for mayor.
Qualifying for municipal offices begins Thursday.
Promise at Burns Bottom
Nine years after efforts began to redevelop the former Burns Bottom neighborhood next to the Roger Short Soccer complex, in May, a development group showed interest in making the dream a reality.
Friendly City Development Partners, led by Nic Parish of the Burns Group and Saunders Ramsey of Live Adelaide LLC, submitted a proposal to the Columbus Redevelopment Authority to transform the five-block project area – now named Park View – into a mixed-use residential/commercial development. An environmental review is underway, which will help guide the project’s viability and final design.
Since 2015, the CRA has worked to purchase more than 70 lots — some vacant and others with dilapidated structures — in Burns Bottom, all in an effort to clear and market the site for redevelopment.
It used $3.2 million in local ad valorem taxes to purchase and clear those lots. Since 2023, the CRA has also received a combined $5.2 million in state and federal funds for infrastructure work in the project area.
Pedestrian Bridge reopens
The pedestrian bridge that crosses the Tombigbee River and connects the Columbus Riverwalk to The Island reopened in October after 4 1/2 years.
A runaway barge that broke loose from a tow boat struck the bridge’s eastern support pier in February 2020, leading the city to close the bridge for repairs. A lawsuit against two companies the city claims were responsible for the damage rendered a $4.2 million settlement in February 2023, enough to fully fund needed repairs.
Originally built in 1925, the bridge was repurposed for pedestrians in 2013.
YMCA centennial
The Frank P. Phillips Memorial YMCA celebrated its centennial in April, complete with a block party downtown that displayed the local organization’s history and demonstrated what it still has to offer.
While the broader YMCA organization was founded in London, England, in 1844, The Columbus Young Men’s Christian Association was organized April 22, 1924, during a dinner at First Methodist Church. A year later, the organization’s first board president and eventual namesake offered an endowment of $100,000 for the project. Phillips left another $100,000 to the Y upon his death in 1942.
In 1926, Mr. and Mrs. Henry Pratt deeded the organization property in south Lowndes County that became Camp Pratt, where the Y held youth camps for decades, and the downtown Y formally opened April 24, 1931.
The downtown building has undergone renovations and expansions through the years, even surviving a fire in 1998.
A segregated Sim Scott YMCA built for African Americans in 1964 remained open until 1985. A New Hope branch built in 2001 closed in 2020, three years after The YMCA sold Camp Pratt. The Caledonia branch was built in 2003.
Zack Plair is the managing editor for The Dispatch.
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