Deborah Delgado, who represents Ward 2 on Hattiesburg City Council, is hoping to see some improvements in the near future to Edwards Street, a main Hattiesburg thoroughfare that connects U.S. 49 to Old Highway 49 near the Hattiesburg Public Safety Complex.
Delgado requested an update on the measure during council’s June 5 work session, where she said residents recently conducted a charette, the French word for chariot, also used to describe a work session where participants team up to brainstorm ideas for a project. One of the main ideas from that session was to turn Edwards Street into a boulevard to improve the condition of the road.
“(We want to) redo the street and encourage business development down there,” Delgado said. “At the time we were realizing that the (recently-opened safety complex) was going to be there, and that would be a major anchor in that area, and it is also a major corridor into the city.
“So we want to just make it look better and improve the community down there.”
Before that idea can come to fruition, sewer work would need to be performed on Edwards Street to update the lines in that area.
“It’s my understanding that the sewer is going to start this fall, and then by next fall the actual reconstruction of Edwards Street will begin in 2024,” Delgado said. “But a boulevard would make it nice – to have the different directions of traffic on different sides of the boulevard.
“We could put in shrubbery and that kind of thing, just to improve the appearance of the area.”
In particular, Delgado would like to pay attention to the area around Shelton Avenue and County Drive, but would like to see the whole road renovated.
“The entirety of Edwards Street needs to be redone,” she said. “I’m sure that we’re going to put some attention to all of it, from (U.S. 49) on in.
“I’m not sure about taking (the whole road up) and redoing it, but I know that we have a lot of infrastructure work to do down there.”
Edwards Street is home to many residences, including apartments and houses. It also houses several businesses and organizations, such as Edwards Street Fellowship Center, South Pointe Express Mart, Hattiesburg Auto Auction, Warren Pittman Founder’s Hall and CL Dews & Sons Foundry Machines.
Several churches also are featured along the span of the street – including Higher Dimensions Harvest Temple and Ridgecrest Church – and the Hattiesburg Public Safety Complex is located at the Hall Avenue end of the street.
