Mayor concerned about conservation grant cost

By Randy Bell

Clinton is beginning the process of developing a citywide conservation plan using an $878,000 state grant, but Mayor Will Purdie continues to be concerned over how the City will come up with a $696,000 local match that’s required to draw down the Mississippi Outdoor Stewardship Trust Fund (MOSTF) money.

“I’m not comfortable accepting monies that will obligate us to make that match until we have identified with some level of specificity what the match is going to consist of,” said Purdie.

The mayor also makes it clear that he’s not satisfied with the overall pace of the multi-faceted project.

“I know that we’ve been working [and] talking about this project for over a year now, and it seems to be that there’s been very little progress made.”

The mayor says City leaders will continue to scrutinize the work that’s being done.

“It’s always incumbent upon the Board and myself to review ongoing projects, [to] make sure they align with current policy objectives and needs. That review process is ongoing for every project.”

Mississippi Urban Forest Council (MUFC) Executive Director Donna Yowell applied for the MOSTF grant on the City’s behalf and is serving as the project coordinator.

She says, “That match can be in-kind, it could be donations, it could be use of equipment and land. It could be a lot of different things.”

Yowell says some of the recreation projects funded by Clinton’s two per cent restaurant tax could be applied toward the match, as well, although she believes the match can be achieved without them.

According to Yowell, having the City put so much skin into the game increased Clinton’s chances of getting the grant.

The application envisioned a five-pronged approach to encourage outdoor activities and conservation efforts in Clinton, including walking trails, tree parks, nature education, landscaping and pollinator fields.

Yowell says an early focus has been on arboretum certifications. The Quisenberry Library, the Clinton Visitor Center and the Bruenberg neighborhood were the first to earn an MUFC certification, which requires the property to have at least thirty native species of trees.

Yowell says more certifications are in the works, including one for Mississippi College.

“They will be the first university to be certified as an arboretum in the state of Mississippi.”

Not only will the Clinton Community Nature Center receive a certification, with the wide variety of trees found there, Yowell expects it to be classified as a “third level” arboretum, also a first for Mississippi. And she says other locations in the city are being considered. A tree inventory is planned in Clinton’s Olde Towne District.

There’s also work to be done to get wildflowers growing across Clinton.

“We’ve got to get our pollinator fields planted by the end of November, first of December,” Yowell says. Two of the fields will again be at the I-20 interchanges in Clinton. “Before the project is over [in two years], we will have ten of those locations,” she says.

The plan also includes ten landscaping projects across the city.

Regarding nature education, “Our goal is to work with the Nature Center and set up an entire year of activities and get them on the calendar, so that, starting in January, we know exactly how the citizens can get involved in this project.”

The path forward for the final part of the project, walking trails, is a bit uncertain.

Yowell says, “That’s still up for debate on where the trails need to be located.”