Starkville taxpayers deserve the city they pay for

Days after Starkville voters resoundingly rejected a referendum to build a new police headquarters, witnesses reported Starkville Mayor Parker Wiseman and Police Chief David Lindley looking around the city, scouting vacant properties.

Wiseman

 A first-term mayor not too long out of law school, Wiseman seems to have underestimated this community’s unflinching ability to reject radical, left-wing ideas such as providing law enforcement with adequate facilities that appropriately reflect the city’s growth.

 If citizens telling him months ago to move the city’s police headquarters to a trailer park didn’t sound an alarm for how this community values needed public services, then perhaps the 55-percent of voters who rejected the $8.45 million bond proposal woke him up. 

The city of Starkville’s history of actions—or more appropriately inactions—reflects the community’s indifference for providing appropriate facilities and resources for public safety. Wiseman, a seemingly eternal optimist, would probably disagree with the assertion that the community doesn’t value a first-class police force, but reality speaks for itself.

 Reflecting on his sophomore year at Starkville High School in the late 1990s, Wiseman recalls the city trying to relocate police facilities into a former Wal-Mart building, now home to a bowling alley. More than a decade later, his hometown still can’t find a better alternative location than the rundown former National Guard armory donated to the city in 1968, a building no longer able to keep up with police staffing that has more than doubled in more than 40 years since the city inherited it.

 Starkville police have urgent needs for additional workspace. One valid reason includes an evidence storage area vulnerable to water exposure during heavy rains. Low morale and retention also result from taxpayers refusing to provide a decent work environment.

 Wiseman and Chief Lindley cite poor working conditions as contributing factors to officers deciding to find police work in communities that better value them.

 Each time the city loses a police officer to another community, it costs taxpayers invaluable experience and thousands of dollars invested in training. Additionally, living in a community that doesn’t provide police with proper working conditions can’t hurt the confidence of someone considering committing a crime.

 After citizens rejected the bond referendum that required a 60-percent supermajority to pass, local pundits began predictable speculation of whether Wiseman can win reelection, if he chooses to seek the office again. However, a larger issue looms for the city that hosts one of Mississippi’s largest public universities.

 Starkville’s decade-long failure to support resources for adequate public safety reveals something more concerning than wondering who will sit in the mayor’s office. It suggests a community that doesn’t care about essential public services communities need to properly function.

 For decades, Starkville has had an inferiority complex with other cities such as Oxford, Columbus and Tupelo. After visiting other places, Starkville residents complain about what our city doesn’t have. Looking at Starkville’s hostile attitude toward funding city necessities, few should wonder why we miss out on amenities other communities enjoy.

 As Starkville residents and visitors drive through downtown and other parts of the city, here’s something to consider: Taxpayers get the community they pay for. Nothing comes free, including public safety.