Video: Tupelo City Council Gets Update on Major Thoroughfare Plan

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TUPELO, Miss. (WCBI) – Tupelo Council members get an update on that city’s Major Thoroughfare Program two years before voters will return to the polls to decide whether to extend the city’s 10-mill thoroughfare property tax for another five years.

Members of the Major Thoroughfare Committee were on hand Tuesday during the informational meeting at City Hall. A major phase of the program, the Northern Loop, was recently completed and opened to traffic. There is still work to be done for the East Main Street project.

The program is funded with a 10 mill tax and provides about $4.4 million annually for road improvements throughout the city.

“It’s primarily a convenience for the citizens of Tupelo. We want to make travel easier in Tupelo and that’s what we really focus on.But we believe it is an economic driver, we believe it’s increasing the retail, that it’s increasing commercial business,” explained Thoroughfare Committee Chairman Greg Pirkle.

The next Major Thoroughfare Program will go before Tupelo voters in 2016.

Before focusing on the next five-year phase, the MTP committee and City Council have to reach consensus on spending $1.9 million left after paying $9.8 million toward the five-lane East Main Street project from Highway 45 to Veterans Boulevard.

MTP projects standing out as most important include adding right turn lanes along North Gloster Street shopping areas near the Barnes Crossing Mall, $1.5 million; expanding Eason Boulevard to five-lanes from Veterans Boulevard to Brian Ridge, $1.9 million; and connecting connecting newly opened Highway 6 to the south with a three-lane extension of Thomas Street to Cliff Gookin Boulevard, $2.1 million.