MACON – Stewart Lamb, president of Main Street Macon, believes the recently revived organization can get a lot accomplished in its first year, but it’s going to take an “all hands on deck” approach.
Those hands include the board of aldermen and the Noxubee County Board of Supervisors, who, after initial meetings and presentations in August, have not provided any funding to help the group compete for a Mississippi Main Street revitalization grant.
“I don’t know, and I’m trying to understand,” Lamb said of the city’s lack of contributions. “I think … we may not be doing a good job of explaining the hundreds of thousands of dollars that would be available to the city with their support. I mean, their support really does open up grant eligibility for the association to receive serious dollars that would help this initiative.”
Main Street Macon, which was revived as an association in June after dissolving in 2017, has already built a new board, raised roughly $2,500 for future projects, and has formed four committees to address downtown’s economic vitality and promotion.
Christy Ferguson, the organization’s director, said the primary goal for the group is to bring life back to Macon’s vacant downtown.
Since forming, the group has already reached out to all the downtown businesses and is hoping to work to repaint the buildings to give downtown a more cohesive look in the short-term, Ferguson said.
That project, alongside other smaller efforts, including creating a rock garden and additional mural projects, is another way the group hopes to give downtown a more appealing facade.
Ferguson said the group applied for 501(c)(3) status in August in hopes of opening the door for additional revenue streams to fund those projects as well as loftier goals like grants to repair the downtown’s sidewalks, create downtown signage or possibly construct small pocket parks in vacant downtown lots.
“(We want to do) something that’s going to be family-friendly for the kids to be able to come and do something,” Ferguson said. “We have a lot of our kids go outside of Macon and Noxubee County to do other activities, and … if they’re going to spend their money, let’s see if we can get them to spend their money here.”
In the meantime, Ferguson said the group has been working to raise enough matching funds to be competitive for Main Street Mississippi’s revitalization grant this cycle, which closes Friday and offers three grants at amounts ranging from $150,000 to $500,000.
To be competitive, Ferguson said the organization requires at least $20,000 in matching funds on hand for the lowest grant amount. Those matching funds rise to $90,000 for a $500,000 grant.
Ferguson said she has gone before the city council twice to present on the group’s purpose and to request funding assistance for the matching funds.
Beyond funding the group’s initial $500 associate membership fee, the board has not agreed to allocate any funding, and Ferguson and Lamb still are not sure why.
“I think maybe there just needs to be some further conversations there on an educational front to do that,” Lamb said.
Mayor Freddie Poindexter, in a text to The Dispatch, wrote he is “fully supportive” of Main Street Macon and confirmed that the board has not agreed to give any additional funding to the organization yet. Poindexter declined to answer why the city has not allocated any additional funding to the organization.
“The board has not made a decision on providing financial support beyond the $500 they approved to become an associate member again,” Poindexter wrote.
As Main Street Macon grows and starts accomplishing smaller projects, Ferguson believes the city will see its vitality and become more receptive to funding its efforts.
“The more that we do downtown, the more that people spend their money,” Ferguson said. “Well, then that’s going to help the city get more of that sales tax back. And even with the county, one of our plugs was that the value of these buildings will go up, and then that way they’ll be getting more tax money.”
Ferguson said she went before the Noxubee County supervisors in August and plans to give one last go at requesting funding at its Tuesday meeting prior to the grant deadline.
District 5 Supervisor Bruce Brooks said he believes Main Street Macon is something the board wants to give funding to, but the county has too many other projects to fund, including upcoming repairs to the Noxubee County Adult Detention Center, which closed in July.
“We’ve been just in conversation, but until everybody sits down on the board, at the table and discusses all of our situation and prioritizes things that we’re dealing with for this budget cycle (funding is unclear),” Brooks said. “We have not done that so at this point, I can’t give any direction. It’s still in the hopper at this point.”
Brooks said he believes once they get a clearer idea of how much the jail project and other necessary efforts cost for the county that the board will look to provide some funding to the organization.
“I’m in favor of it,” Brooks said. “… I have several businesses in Brooksville, even though we’re talking about the Main Street in Macon, but we also look at it for Brooksville and Shuqualak, (because) anything that’s good for the city is good for the county. Anything good for the county is good for the city.”