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Posted Feb 23, 2024, 3:49 AM
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Registered User
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Join Date: May 2023
Location: JXN Mississippi
Posts: 1,212
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Rankin County Chamber of Commerce welcomes Merit Health Heart Cardiology Clinic to Flowood
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Rankin County Chamber
Yesterday at 9:55 AM ·
We enjoyed attending the Ribbon Cutting for the launch of Merit Health's comprehensive heart and vascular services yesterday. 💚🫀
Merit Health's dedicated healthcare professionals and the expansion of their cardiac services will allow heart and vascular patients to get faster and better care right in the heart of Rankin County. We are excited to see the exceptional care Merit Health Heart will provide to our community.
📍: 1030 River Oaks Dr., Flowood, MS 39232
📞: (601) 932-1030
https://www.facebook.com/RankinCount...fPSBLu4UMBJwVl
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Madison the City welcomes Beyond Integrative Counseling and Consulting
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Madison the City
7h ·
We are thrilled to announce the grand opening of Beyond Integrative Counseling and Consulting! Dr. Chancey Fort and her compassionate team is here to guide you on your journey through mental health wellbeing. Please visit Beyond Integrative at 105 Executive Drive Ste. A and discover a path to peace and healing.
Welcome to Madison the City!
https://www.facebook.com/madisonthec...Tvqf41JoxTZxBl
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Empty lot could make Old City Hall property more marketable
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A paved parking lot, a concrete base for a sign, a flagpole, light poles, trees, shrubs plus a vacant foundation remain on the property along U.S. Highway 51 that the former Ridgeland City Hall once occupied.
Signs that advertise “Building and Land for Sale” are still there, despite the structure being torn down.
There’s a clear view of the site now that the demolition of the former city hall and Ridgeland Plaza shopping center, which faced Lake Harbour Drive and was located behind the former city hall, is complete.
So is it good or bad to no longer have a building on the site?
Having a clean slate could make the property, which the city of Ridgeland plans to sell, more attractive to buyers.
“Someone could envision something new there,” said Nancy Lane, owner of Lane-Harkins Commercial Real Estate.
Richard Ridgway, senior vice president at CBRE, a commercial real estate services and investment firm, agreed.
Sometimes having a building on a piece of property can restrict potential buyers because some find it tough to see past what’s there and imagine something new, he said.
A plus for the site, which is about six acres, is its location at two busy intersections, Lane said. Between 20,000 and 29,000 drivers pass through the intersection of Highway 51 and Lake Harbour Drive daily, according to 2022 data from the Mississippi Department of Transportation.
Highway 51 carries drivers north to Madison and Lake Harbour Drive brings drivers from Rankin County into Ridgeland.
Property across Highway 51 from the former city hall is being developed as a second location of Two Gun Tactical, a shooting range in Flowood. “I think they must have chosen it because of the location,” Lane said.
Also positive is the extension of Lake Harbour Drive, which connects to Highland Colony Parkway and provides easy access to Costco, several restaurants and Renaissance at Colony Park.
If the former city hall remained, it might have been repurposed as a medical office building, Ridgway said, but now the empty site is perfect for a small grocery built from the ground up. “For people going home to Madison (on Highway 51), it’s on the right-hand side of the road,” he said.
The site is large enough for a small grocery that would be easy to get in and out, Lane said.
Even though retailers have scaled back plans for expansion because of covid and uncertainty about the economy, that’s not to say all of them have, Ridgway said.
“Something cool will be built there,” he said.
The demolition of the former city hall resulted from a blunder when a crew responsible for tearing down the shopping center mistakenly took out a chunk of the wrong building, the former city hall, on Jan. 15.
Ridgeland Mayor Gene McGee said by email that he could not answer discussions about the city hall demolition because those decisions have been made in executive session or with the city’s attorney.
“We simply are not in a position to discuss while this is an ongoing legal matter,” he wrote in an email.
The Ridgeland Board of Aldermen authorized “City Attorney John Scanlon to make a demand to tear down the remaining old City Hall building while meeting the Department of Environmental Quality standards, and request a monetary settlement for the last appraised value of the building, being $1.5 million,” according to the minutes of an executive session that was part of the Jan.17 board meeting.
A demolition crew using two excavators began tearing down Rdgeland Plaza shopping center, as planned, on Jan. 15, but a mistake occurred.
The crew took out a big a chunk of the former city hall at 304 U.S. Highway 51 before realizing it was in the wrong location.
Kim Cooper, director of public relations for the city of Ridgeland, acknowledged the unfortunate occurrence.
“There was an error the demolition contractor made yesterday but per the mayor, it’s in the hands of legal counsel,” she said on Jan. 16.
The city purchased the shopping center for $1 million last year from Rainbow Development Corp. and assisted the tenants, which included a liquor store, laundromat, Tower Loan and a title loan group, with relocating.
The shopping center demolition ties in with the city’s plans to improve Lake Harbour Drive so that traffic does not back up when drivers on Lake Harbour Drive turn onto southbound Highway 51.
Last year, the mayor and Ridgeland Board of Aldermen entered into an agreement with Baker Engineering to design the intersection improvements at a cost of $140,000.
The total cost of the project is $2.9 million, which is funded in part by a grant from the Central Mississippi Planning and Development District through the Metropolitan Planning.
The former city hall, which once held a blueprint company and was retrofitted to meet the city’s needs, was used from 1987 until the current one was built.
The building, which was declared surplus property in 2019 in advance of the city’s move into a new city hall built from the ground up, had been for sale.
The current Ridgeland city hall, located at School Street and U.S. Highway 51, was completed in 2020. The $15 million, 32,000-square-foot building houses various departments of city government that include the mayor, community development, public works, parks and recreation, information technology and traffic control. It also includes a two-story entrance lobby, board room, separate space for collecting water/sewer bills, computer networking for the city and a city history room.
In 2020, the city received one bid for the former city hall, but it was lower than expected and included conditions about nearby Purple Creek.
https://www.northsidesun.com/empty-l...?e_term_id=120
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New Home: After 70 years St. Richard Catholic School finds new home
A banner in front of Meadowbrook Church of Christ announces future plans for St. Richard Catholic School
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A banner in front of Meadowbrook Church of Christ proclaims: Future Home of Saint Richard Catholic School.
The school plans to start the 2024-2025 academic year at its current location and then move to its new campus in January 2025.
With a loan from Catholic Diocese of Jackson, the school purchased Meadowbrook Church of Christ, which is located at 4261 I-55 North and includes three buildings, for $2.5 million last month, said Father Joe Tonos, pastor at St. Richard Catholic Church.
Plans call for Meadowbrook Church of Christ to use the sanctuary through May and for Meadowbrook Preschool to remain there through May.
The move will put St. Richard Catholic School, which has an enrollment of about 200 students in K3 through sixth grade, in a location that is more visible than its current one on Holly Drive next to St. Richard Catholic Church.
“We’re hoping with better exposure, better visibility and being in a prominent part of town, we can bring folks back,” Tonos said. “That side of Fondren has more going for it.”
Enrollment at St. Richard, one of two Catholic elementary schools in the city, has dropped as families have moved to Madison and chosen to send students to public school, Tonos said. St. Anthony Catholic School at 1585 Mannsdale Road in Madison is also another option.
Tonos wrote in an email distributed earlier this year to let the 1,400 members of the parish and others on the distribution list know about the possibility of the purchase:
“The drive into school down Holly (Drive) and off of Office Park Drive has been a non-starter for parents. The proximity to the low-income apartments and exposure to dangers that have been present in the apartments, gas stations and surrounding areas have also made parents decide to move their children to another school.”
The move will put the school just a few blocks south of Banner Hall, at the backdoor of the gated, nine-story Barrington condominium building and near St. Andrew’s Episcopal School on Old Canton Road.
Patrick Crews of Jackson, whose three children attend St. Richard, said he’s looking forward to the ease of getting to the new location, the new facilities, “all the bells and whistles, all good things and, as visibility and awareness of the school continues to increase, more good things.”
St. Richard Catholic School plans to use the two-story education building that contains an elevator for classroom space and to repurpose the family life center as additional classroom space and for physical education use and as cafeteria, starting in January 2025, provided all goes as planned.
The school will use the sanctuary that can accommodate about 650 people and includes a “cry room” where people take babies or small children to avoid disturbing others during a worship service for its Wednesday morning Mass and as an auditorium when there are speakers and presentations.
The Meadowbrook Church of Christ property has an outdoor playground with artificial turf that includes playground equipment. Students will also be able to use Barrington Park, a green space, Tonos said.
Some renovations will be necessary to make the education building function for the school, said Tonos, who said the property has been well maintained. An estimate of the cost of renovations is being put together, he said.
Amy Neel Boteler of Jackson, the mother of two students at St. Richard as well as two sons who attended St. Richard and are now at St. Joseph Catholic School, said she’s pleased the move will mean newer, more modern facilities.
“I’m excited because I’ve been involved with the new aesthetics, picking out furniture and the floor plan,” she said. “My husband and I are contractors.”
The new location will be more up-to-date technology-wise, she said, naming standing and rising desks as a possible feature in classrooms. “We’re excited about upping the ante, so the school appeals not just to the current community base but beyond,” she said.
Another plus for the new location is the 190-slot parking lot and room to expand, which isn’t possible at its current location, Tonos said.
Students travel from across the metro area to St. Richard, which is known for its family atmosphere where “families feel connected,” said Russ Nelson, interim principal at the school, said
He credits Tonos with seeing the need for the move and what a new location could mean for the school’s future. “Father (Tonos) said, ‘Here is a huge opportunity for the school,” he said.
A capital campaign is expected to get under way soon, Nelson said, with naming opportunities available.
Boteler, who grew up in Jackson and renovates houses with her husband in northeast Jackson, said the new location means an investment in Jackson.
“I want to see the area thrive,” she said. “We love Jackson and want it to be super successful.”
Crews believes in the move but is a bit conflicted and nostalgic about the current location since he attended the starting in 1992 in kindergarten with beloved teacher Marie Lovitt until he finished sixth grade and then went to St. Joseph Catholic School.
“That’s mainly due to a personal connection with the current campus, having walked through these halls 30 years ago, having met my wife here, the memories of childhood friends that I still see weekly, teachers and staff that impacted my life and that have come before, but hey, it’s just a building I suppose,” he said. “At the end of the day it’s about the people, and it’s always been about the people that have chosen to send their most precious gifts to St Richard School and the community it’s cultivated.”
Crews said he expects parents who may not have a strong connection to the school and the parish and who may be considering other schools will after the move to the new location say, “Hey, look at St Richard, it’s safer now, it’s fresher now, it’s new” or “Have you heard about all the positive things happening at St Richard?”
Plans are to repurpose the current St. Richard Catholic School building for the St. Richard Catholic Church parish, Tonos said.
The parish has about 1,400 families and could use the space for meeting rooms for adults and dedicated space for its youth group and other organizations such as the Knights of Columbus, he said. The Jackson diocese, which has outgrown its space at 237 E. Amite St., could perhaps use some of the space he said.
Founded in 1953 by the Sisters of Mercy, the current location of the St. Richard was expected to need a new heating and cooling system and additional major repairs in the next five to 10 years, Tonos said, giving those as additional reasons for the move.
Crews believes the school is “riding a wave of positive momentum” that will set the groundwork for the next 15 to 20 years.
“Parents are buying in, the staff and teachers are buying in, our parish is buying in, we’re all in this together,” he said. “We need institutions like St. Richard to succeed and thrive, they’re making a choice to be in Jackson just as the Sisters of Mercy did in 1870 when they founded St Joe on Amite Street.”
https://www.northsidesun.com/local-c...&e_sort_order=
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