Video: Louisville’s Master Renovation Plan

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LOUISVILLE, Miss.(WCBI)–Next Wednesday marks the 9-month anniversary of a devastating tornado that ripped through Winston County and Louisville. Recovery is well under way as families and businesses turn from rebuilding to the future. The master plan for the city of Louisville is investing in local jobs, remembers those who died in the storm, and is expected to reshape the city’s landscape.

In a board room next to the mayor’s office at Louisville City Hall is a black board used by city leaders to come up with a master plan for the city’s long-term tornado recovery. A big part of it is rebuilding a plywood plant and industrial site. The original price tag for the work was 57 million dollars and that’s what federal law promised to repay.

“And with that 57 million and the procedure by which this legislation provided, we’ve looked at coming back with that facility much bigger, better, and more efficient. But at a lesser cost. And with that lesser cost we have, the project is underway, ceremonial groundbreaking is coming,” said Will Hill/Louisville Mayor.

Rebuilding the plant will cost about 44 million dollars. Mayor Hill has made state and federal offices almost a second home trying to work out all the details of insurance, state money, federal money and local dollars. In the end, the city will have about 13 million dollars left to shape it’s vision. That’s what is in the master plan thats being submitted.

“We’re going to be looking at a lot of street repair which we had a lot of streets in disrepair because of the storm or the effects of after the storm. Right of ways, signage to include a memorial courtyard and continued repairs to our cemetery. We really want to bring that back and to appropriately memorialize the day and the lives that were lost on April 28th,” said Mayor Hill.

Once approved, the city must perform. So the plan is pretty detailed, from new equipment, streets, to sidewalks, street connectors and parks. But city leaders say it’s a chance to turn tragedy into opportunity.

“It was a tragedy but yet we can’t undo it, we can’t reset it, but we have an opportunity and we have this once in a lifetime opportunity to make the most of this use of excess funds,” said Will Hill.

Both the county and Winston Medical Center are preparing their individual master plans that must be submitted by next week as well.

Categories: Local News

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