For the last several months, Forrest County District 5 Supervisor Chris Bowen has been in talks with several other county and city officials – including Mayor Toby Barker, City Council President Carter Carroll and Ward 1 Councilman Jeffrey George –– to find ways to make the county and Hattiesburg more pedestrian-friendly by enhancing walkability.
To assist in those endeavors, Bowen presented a $50,000 check to Barker at Monday night’s meeting of the Hattiesburg City Council. The money, which comes from District 5’s recreation fund, will be used for sidewalk projects on North 38th Avenue and North 30th Avenue, as well as biking lanes off Jamestown Road and playground equipment at Thames Elementary School.
“These things are sometimes worked on for years in advance,” Bowen said. “For instance, the J Ed Turner sidewalk and link to the Rails to Trails – we’ve been working on that for four years, and are just now going out to bid on that as we speak.
“So every time I see somebody utilizing the sidewalks or bike lanes – and I use them too – I think that’s the next step in the maturity of our community.”
County officials also have reached out to Forrest General Hospital staff for assistance on an overlay for the walking track at Thames Elementary, and Bowen has talked with the mayor about sidewalk projects connecting The District at Midtown to the Midtown Market.
“That’s something that I started funding years ago with the city,” Bowen said. “District 5 recreation monies helped us build all the sidewalk down South 37th and all the sidewalk down Arlington Loop, all the way until you get to University Baptist Church.
“And with the city and the Mississippi Department of Transportation, we helped fund the sidewalk leading from Hardy Street down South 34th to Beverly Lane. So this is all part of making the community a more pedestrian-friendly community.”
Bowen also was able to use monies from District 5’s recreation fund to secure a new $80,000 pumper truck for the county’s fire services, along with a new $25,000 handicap-accessible portico at the Carnes Community Center.
“Thank you so much for the citizens of Ward 3,” Carroll told Bowen of the funds going to his ward. “We appreciate all the things that we’ve worked on together over the years.”
