STARKVILLE — The Starkville Board of Aldermen will hold its final public hearing on a redistricting plan that makes changes based on the 2020 Census and the city’s annexation of a part of the county. The hearing will take place during Tuesday’s board meeting at 5:30 p.m. in the City Hall courtroom.
The completion of the 2020 Census revealed imbalances in the distribution of Starkville’s population across its seven wards. With a population of 25,819, the ideal number of residents in each ward is 3,688.
Currently, some wards have an excess of population (4,866 residents in Ward 5) and some sit below the ideal number (3,085 residents in Ward 7). The deviation, which is a measure of how far the ward populations are from the ideal value, sits at 48.29 percent. Redistricting is required for any deviation greater than 10 percent.
“It’s a lot of changes…It accomplishes all our goals and brings in that new population,” Toby Sanford, G.I.S. director for the Golden Triangle Planning Development District, said during his presentation at Friday’s work session.
The plan, which involves numerous changes, will incorporate the annexed area into the ward map. The proposed plan moves everything annexed south of Highway 82 into Ward 5 and everything annexed north of the highway into Ward 6.
It will also balance the distribution of Starkville’s population across all seven wards, reducing the deviation to just 6.34 percent. This is the second public hearing the Board of Aldermen has held on the redistricting plan, with the first one drawing no feedback from the public.
“Each one of the aldermen has had a chance to look at it (the proposed plan). As I understand it, everyone is comfortable with those changes and they make sense,” said Mayor Lynn Spruill during the work session. “They keep us in really good shape as it relates to the numbers and the demographics that are required and associated with that.”
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Quality, in-depth journalism is essential to a healthy community. The Dispatch brings you the most complete reporting and insightful commentary in the Golden Triangle, but we need your help to continue our efforts. In the past week, our reporters have posted 39 articles to cdispatch.com. Please consider subscribing to our website for only $2.30 per week to help support local journalism and our community.
