Magnolia August City Board Meeting Held With Many Residents in Attendance

Magnolia City Board Meeting was held Tuesday night at City Hall. All city aldermen/alderwomen and the mayor were in attendance, as well as approximately 20+ interested city residents.

Several actions from the working session held last week were executed.

Two topics that were removed from the Working Session Agenda were the recommendation to lower Aldermen/Alderwomen pay and the carrying over and buying back of accrued vacation by city employees.

Alderman Cornacchione asked that they be put back on the agenda, and after discussion, the items were left off until additional data could be collected and will be discussed at a later Board meeting.

The other topic concerning providing health insurance benefits to part-time employees was presented, and the Board voted to terminate providing health insurance to part-time employees. This also affects the aldermen/alderwomen, who in the past administration had voted to give themselves a monetary supplement for health insurance (actually a raise) and then provided themselves health insurance at a later meeting.

It is unclear and was not discussed how that will affect the current pay and compensation being provided to the current aldermen/alderwomen and the mayor, since they are technically parttime employees.

Alderman Cornacchione also requested that future Monthly City Board agendas include an “Old Business” section to track prior Board actions that were in work or needed to be discussed further.

The Board received an update on the Central Park Walking Trail Project from Mr. Garrett Smith of Neel-Schaffer. Central Park is located north of South Pike High School on Quinliven Road. This project was discussed over 2 years ago but stalled for some reason. The project is moving forward with bids to be opened August 19. This is an 80%/20% project from an MDOT grant, where the city pays 20% with matching funds (80%) being provided by the state. The project is expected to cost approximately $300,000 for a concrete walking trail.

Mr. Tramone Smith with WGK provided an update on the MCWI/ARPA Water Supply Improvement Project. This is a $1.287M project and is being paid for with a 2to-1 matching grant from ARPA (American Rescue Plan Act of 2021). To execute this project, the city would be required to fund approximately $400K of the project, with the ARPA funding being approximately $800K.

Mr. Smith recommended awarding the contract to Greenbrier Construction at a cost of $1.260M.

The mayor requested more time and discussion to ensure that all Board members had time to review the proposals and associated information.

Mr. Jordan Johnson from Dungan Engineering gave a brief update on a city paving project. In past months, each alderman/alderwoman was asked to prioritize streets in their wards and the city for repaving. Mr. Johnson has presented the estimated costs.

The mayor requested more time to review the proposal and may adjust the project to be a paving/patch repair action. This activity will be discussed later. Mr. Johnson is trying to push this project forward before the bids and data collected become outdated.

City department personnel actions approved included hiring Hasha Lewis from a part-time to full-time clerk to support the police, fire, and city court offices; approving travel and training for Craig Hampton in the city clerk’s office for 2025 Municipal Clerk training in Ridgeland, MS on August 25-27. The city also hired a new police officer, Cartrell Jackson, to serve as Security Officer/Processor for the South Pike COME SEE DR. LAMPTON AT THE FRYE/MAGNOLIA CLINIC BUILDING LOCATED AT 111 MAGNOLIA STREET!!! JACKSON School District. The South Pike School District will reimburse the city for this position and associated salary.

The Board also approved the appointment of Edward Johnson as the Volunteer Recreation Director for the city. He is the first Recreation Director for the city and was very excited and ready to get Magnolia’s youth engaged in local recreation activities.

The Board approved adopting a resolution for Willie May Fortenberry, a Magnolia resident turning 100 years old on August 14, 2025. Gigantic Bag of Summit has donated $250 to the Magnolia Police Department with the intended purpose of Community Outreach. The Magnolia Police Department sponsors many of these events, and this will help offset the costs.

The Board heard from Magnolia resident, Mr. O’Brian, concerning selling city property to him for a right-of-way to his property.

The Board and City Attorney discussed this at the working session and want to ensure that a fair process is used for selling this property so that Mr. O’Brian or other interested parties can bid on the property.

Apparently, someone donated the property to the city, and it’s out of the specific city limits, so there are some legal actions that need to be considered as part of the process.

At the end of the meeting, Alderman Chad Williams spoke about a city-wide prayer service to be held next Thursday, August 14, 2025, at 5:30 at City Hall. The prayer service will focus on supporting the city and county police/sheriffs, the School Board, the city administration, and bringing our community together in a common good to promote the City of Magnolia. All churches in the community are invited to participate and encourage their congregations to attend.

More information can be found on flyers at City Hall and in this week’s Magnolia Gazette.