Residents of the Glendale, Eatonville and Rawls Springs communities will soon have the opportunity to ask questions and address concerns regarding infrastructure and other matters during two upcoming public meetings held by Forrest County District 2 Supervisor Sharon Thompson, who represents those areas.
The first meeting, which is for the Glendale and Eatonville communities, will be held at 5:30 p.m. May 9 at the Glendale Community Center, 451 Monroe Road in Hattiesburg. The second meeting, which is for the Rawls Springs community, will be held at 5:30 p.m. May 30 at the Rawls Springs Community Center, 50 Rawls Street in Hattiesburg.
“There have been a lot of questions from residents asking about water rates that increased at (the local) water districts; a lot of people are asking questions about ditches in their area,” Thompson said. “There is some confusion as to what (supervisors) are allowed to do and what we’re not allowed to do.
“So I felt it necessary to have this program to answer a lot of those questions.”
In addition, topics such as drainage, public safety, grant funding sources and other community development measure will be addressed at the meetings. Representatives from the Forrest County Sheriff’s Office, the Forrest County Road Department, the Forrest County Planning Department, the Mississippi Department of Transportation, and local utility districts are expected to be on hand to answer questions, along with county engineer Nick Connolly and Forrest County Fire Coordinator Chip Brown.
“I’m hoping all the officials, and maybe more, will be there to answer the questions directly,” Thompson said. “These are the professionals in these departments that can talk about, say, flooding issues.
“We have a lot of flooding issues in District 2, so if we have the engineer there, he’s going to address our issues or questions about a grant that we’ve applied for. We’ve not yet gotten an answer, but the engineer can say what the next step is, and what we’re waiting to do, along with our planner.”
Thompson said MDOT officials will hopefully be available to answer questions regarding 18-wheelers and other big trucks driving through neighborhoods.
“These are things that I’m not familiar with – things that I don’t have control over,” she said. “I haven’t decided whether I’m going to have the questions written (out in advance), but I think I’m going to have an open floor, so that (residents) can ask them questions directly and get an answer from those officials.”
Thompson said she is hoping for a good turnout from residents for the meetings.
“I put flyers in as many places as I could think of, to invite as many people in as I could, but I never know,” she said. “The last meeting we had, we had approximately 50 people come out from the Rawls Springs community in reference to flooding.
“So if we can get 50 people out, go back into their neighborhood and answer issues that they might have, that would be wonderful. I’m trying to get their opinion about how things are done, and their suggestions on things that may help improve their lives.”
