STARKVILLE — It’s a pleasant Wednesday morning at Pecan Acres and more than a few residents are agreeable to visits.

You know this by the open front doors that dot the 120-unit low-income housing complex just off Highway 12 in downtown Starkville. Through the metal screen doors, residents are sending a message that they are home and ready for company.

Behind one of those screen doors, Blitz, a miniature Dachshund, naps in the sun as Bennie Brown, who lives just a few doors down, has dropped by for a visit.

A street over, Kelly Ewing sits in a lawn chair in front of her apartment, chatting with the granddaughter of a woman who lives across the street.

Pat Hines, the grandmother, is watching TV, but her front door is open and when a knock comes at the door, she sings out, “Come on in” without even knowing who has knocked.

The conversations going around Pecan Acres vary from topic to topic, but what no one seems to be talking about is the fate of Pecan Acres itself.

“I haven’t heard anybody talk about it since I don’t know when,” said Ewing, 34, who has lived in Pecan Acres for the past 11 years. “I don’t know if people have forgotten about it or if they’re just waiting to hear what’s going on. Nobody seems to be that worried over it right now.”

Brown, 71, put it more succinctly.

“What’s there to talk about?” he said. “They’re going to move or they’re not going to move.”

A year ago, the proposed relocation of the Starkville Housing Authority complex to a site a couple miles to the west on Highway 182 was the “talk of the town,” with public hearings, resident surveys and community activists captivating the attention of the residents and the broader Starkville community.

But since Johnny Moore, the attorney representing Alabama-based developer Christoper Dobbs, died unexpectedly on Aug, 30, there appears to have been little movement on the issue.

Dobbs hopes to turn the 20-acre site currently occupied by Pecan Acres into a commercial development — an “entertainment district” that would include such things as restaurants and a bowling alley. To do that, he would purchase property on Highway 82 and build low-income housing to replace the housing units at Pecan Acres, then deed that property to Starkville Housing Authority in exchange for Highway 12 location.

But it’s been months since residents at Pecan Acres have heard anything on the status of that plan.

“We haven’t gotten any notices or anything,” said Hines, 52. “Nobody knows what’s going on.”

The project, said Starkville Housing Authority director Bo Bell, may be forgotten in some quarters, but it’s anything but gone.

“There is still some momentum,” Bell said. “There is still some work the buyer and seller have to do (on the Highway 182 property). There has to be a signed contract on the purchase of the new land before anything else can happen. That should be done in the next 30 to 90 days. That’s what we are hearing.

“On our end, we’ve been deliberately slow-playing it,” he added. “Until the sale is final, there is nothing for us to do but maintain our property and take care of our tenants.”

Starkville attorney Rob Roberson, who has taken over as attorney for Dobbs on the project, did not return calls from The Dispatch by press time.

Daniel Havelin, the Starkville city planner, said his department is waiting, too.

“Right now, there’s nothing for us to act on,” he said. “At some point, there will be a lot of processes that have to happen, but we haven’t been approached and asked for anything yet.”

For Bell, the planned move could relieve the growing financial pressure on the Housing Authority.

“These are older units,” he said. “They’ve been here for 60 years and the older they get, the more maintenance costs there are. HUD budgets are going down, but our expenses are going up. That’s the reality of it.”

Some residents resistant to the change

Residents like Brown do not appear to be anxious about the status of the planned project.

The current Pecan Acres location sits adjacent to the Vowell’s grocery store, which houses a Starkville-MSU Area Rapid Transit bus stop in the parking lot. It also is walking distance from downtown.

On Highway 182, however, the most accessible store would be a Dollar General and the nearest full-service grocery would be more than a mile away.

“I kind of like where I’m at,” Brown said. “I don’t have a car, so I can walk to get groceries or get my beer pretty easy. But if they move us, it will be a new place and that’s nice, too. I just hope I can get around if they move us over there. That’s what I don’t know. But, the way I look at it, they’re going to do what they’re going to do. I’ll stay or I’ll go. That’s pretty much the story.”

Harvey Rogers, a Pecan Acres resident of two years, is also opposed. Though he has his own transportation, many of his neighbors do not.

“I’ve got a car so it wouldn’t affect me, but there’s no resources over there (in the new proposed location for Pecan Acres),” Rogers said. “I’d rather stay here.”

Brenda Garner, who has lived in Pecan Acres since August 2015, said she believes the proposed project is prioritizing profit over people.

“It’s about money. It’s not about the good of the community and the people in the community,” Garner said.

Dispatch Photographer Jennifer Mosbrucker contributed to this report.

Slim Smith is a columnist and feature writer for The Dispatch. His email address is [email protected].

READER FAVORITES

• 

  Spruill requests LINK refund as county weighs future

  By Paloma Green • 1 day ago

• 

  Police chief taking $14K pay cut in Yazoo City

  By Zack Plair • 19 hours ago

• 

  Community Profile: Ex-athletes push area youth to ‘give track and field a try’

  By Jake McMahon • 1 day ago

• 

  Families have ‘one less thing to worry about’ as 500-plus backpacks given away Sunday

  By Ashlynd King • 1 day ago