At a regular meeting of the Louisville Board of Aldermen, held on Tuesday, April 19, Trey Hess of PPM Consultants, reported that application has been made for a Mississippi Municipal League Excellence Award, for the Jack's Restaurant project, located on South Church Avenue in Louisville, a project that required coordination and cooperation between the City of Louisville, Winston Partnership, Jack's, MDEQ, MDA, EPA and PPM Consultants, resulting in a $2.25M investment and a 3.7K square-foot restaurant.
Louisville Fire Chief, Robert Hutto, invited the officials to a Public Officials Day, beginning at Louisville Fire Department and ending on Stringer Industrial Road, on Saturday, April 23.
In other action, the Board:
• Voted 5-0 to approve payment to Triangle Drywall Supply, for $790, for the Industrial Building project.
• Voted 5-0 to approve payment to Frasier's Termite and Pest, for $575, for termite treatment at the Industrial Building project.
• Voted 5-0 to acknowledge payment to Danny Phillips for $420, for eight teams for Dizzy Dean registration.
• Voted 5-0 to approve the transfer of $20K from the Tourism Fund to Winston Partnership to help with the Red Hills Festival, Fourth of July Fireworks and Wings Over Winston.
• Voted 5-0 to acknowledge Toby Lee's attendance, April 11-13, at "Building a Case" training, by MDIAI, in Hattiesburg; travel $93, room $495, registration
$180.
• Voted 5-0 to approve the promotion of Nicholas Shumaker to the rank of Corporal, pay rate of $17.96/hour, effective April 21.
• Voted 5-0 to approve the promotion of Dalton Womble to the rank of Sergeant, pay rate of $19.36/hour, effective April 21.
The Louisville Board of Aldermen meets on the first and third Tuesday of each month at 5:30 p.m.
Jack's Restaurant Project Example of Public-Private Cooperation
Application has been made for a Mississippi Municipal League 2022 Excellence Award, in the category of Planning and Economic Development, for the Jack's Restaurant project, located on the old Team Motors site, on South Church Avenue in Louisville. The competition is divided into two population categories, those municipalities under 10K, and those over 10K, with categories in Public Safety, Planning and Economic Development, City Spirit and Public Works/Infrastructure Improvement. One overall winner will be named at the Mississippi Municipal League Conference to be held in June.
The transformation of the former Team Motors automotive repair facility and gas station into a shiny new Jack's Family Restaurant (Jack's) in Louisville is a perfect example of what public-private collaboration can achieve in communities with less than 10K residents. The redevelopment and cleanup of the Team Motors site represents a $2.25M private sector investment into the community, bringing with it as many as 45 jobs, and a commitment from the developer to take on the roughly $600K cleanup of the site. And in place of the Team Motors building, now stands a beautiful 3.7K square foot restaurant.
Like many small, rural communities in Mississippi, Louisville has had its challenges with encouraging re-investment in the downtown area, particularly along Church Avenue. With a keen eye on leveraging resources, the mayor and Board of Aldermen worked with Winston County, the Winston Partnership, and the Mississippi Development Authority (MDA) to spur private sector investment and redevelopment, utilizing funds from a 2017 EPA Brownfield Assessment Grant, the private-sector cleanup incentive offered through the Mississippi Economic Redevelopment Act (MERA), and technical support from the Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality and PPM Consultants, Inc. (PPM) to encourage Jack's to open its 200th store in Louisville.
The project presented a number of challenges including asbestos abatement and disposal, demolition of existing building structures, removal of an underground hydraulic lift, installation and operation of an ozone sparge remediation system, and installation of a vapor intrusion barrier with sub-slab depressurization system to protect patrons in the new restaurant.
As a result of cleanup activities, approximately 27K square feet of asbestos-laden buildings (all in poor condition) were abated and demolished; potential vapor impacts to visitors of the site were eliminated, and soil and groundwater are actively being cleaned up.
This brownfield redevelopment project is truly unique, in that it incorporates assessment
funding from an EPA Brownfield Assessment Grant; a community involvement process through the EPA grant and MDEQ's Brownfields Program, and the willingness of a private sector company to tackle asbestos, vapor intrusion, and groundwater cleanup using a Brownfield cleanup sales tax rebate. Collaboration is what this project was all about.
Louisville, Winston County, Winston Partnership, MDEQ, MDA, and Jack's all worked together through this public-private collaboration. Jack's has replaced an eyesore with an asset in the community.
