What word does Mayor Walter Morrison use to describe Gluckstadt’s first year as an incorporated city? Working. Gluckstadt incorporated on June 6, 2021 and since then has made strides to build the city. City officials have been working and accomplishing but Morrison said there is still much left to do.
“I really cannot believe how much we’ve accomplished on one hand, but how much we need to accomplish on the other,” Morrison said.
Morrison said the biggest accomplishment they have had as a city is putting in place a structure and beginning to develop three departments: general administration, planning and zoning, and the police department.
The first department to be set up was the administration with City Clerk Lindsay Kellum being the city’s first hire. Morrison said the fact they have been able to implement the department from the ground up has been amazing.
“We have a fantastic administrative department being run by Lindsay, and she has done a fantastic job with staffing that administration,” Morrison said. “In one year, we have gone from having no administration to having an administration with a city clerk, deputy clerk, and an administrative person carrying out all sorts of the functions of the city that the general citizens just have no idea about how the work it takes to get that done. That is an amazing accomplishment.”
The city has also begun to take over all of the planning and zoning functions from Madison County who previously handled those tasks, including reviewing site plans, building permits and conducting inspections.
“Every decision to do with planning and zoning is not being handled locally,” Morrison said. “All of that is now being done, and we have a man, Jeff Williamson, who has been handling that department.”
On May 30, the board held a special meeting where they hired former Ridgeland Director of Public Works Mike McCollum. McCollum retired from the City of Ridgeland last year and will now join Gluckstadt to organize the planning and zoning department. He will put policies and procedures in place for the purpose of letting those who want to invest in Gluckstadt know what the city will require of them and how to provide the planning and zoning commission information so they can make “well reasoned decisions” to pass along to the board.
“He has every qualification and every certification necessary to work in our planning and zoning department,” Morrison said. “He is going to come in and really set in place a good, well organized structure for that department so that Jeff can focus on the boots on the ground type work.”
Morrison said that to have his organizational skills come to the City of Gluckstadt is an amazing feat.
The final big accomplishment in the first year of Gluckstadt being a city that Morrison said was the building of the Gluckstadt Police Department.
“In one year, we went from having grand ideas about all that we wanted to accomplish and all the things we needed to accomplish and we went from not having one cent to, by the middle of June, we will have five fully equipped police cars,” Morrison said. “Each one of them will have a fully trained, experienced police officer in it.”
By the fall, Morrison said he thinks they will have a municipal court system with a municipal court judge, a city prosecutor and a public defender.
“On top of all of that, I believe we have a $1,000,000 surplus in the bank,” Morrison said. “We have been able to do a lot in a short amount of time all well within our budget and all with the tax levee that we promised everybody we were going to work within, but we’ve accomplished about one percent of what we need to accomplish. That’s the real humbling part of all of this.”
This first year was focused on building the “skeleton” of the city and now it is about fleshing it out as time progresses, which each new hire contributes to. Going into the second year of being a city, Morrison said there are several goals he has.
“First and foremost, to further build out our three departments,” Morrison said. “We have a lot to do to make sure that our police department is up and running professionally, that it is well staffed, and that it can do all of the things it needs to do on a city level so that we can move away from relying upon the county. We have to implement really specific policies and procedures in our planning and zoning department so that people who want to invest in the city know what is going to be required of them. I think in the next year, you are going to see a much more structured department in that sense.”
As far as general administration, he said Kellum and her staff have a big task ahead of them for this next year.
“We purchased a very powerful, advanced municipal software program and getting it implemented is going to be a huge task for Lindsay and her staff over the next year,” Morrison said.
While those items are first and foremost, Morrison said there may be another department in the works for this second year.
“We did not have plans to implement a public works department until year three, but we have seen a lot of issues arise within the city that very well might require us to accelerate our plans in that regard,” Morrison said.
The city has seen issues arise with street repair, potholes, and debris cleanup, and Morrison said there is a great need to help solve these issues.
“We have a great need in the city for debris pick up, particularly in the spring or after a storm,” Morrison said. “We have had to rely upon the county for assistance in both of those areas and they’ve graciously agreed to help us, but I think that, to the degree that we can help at least supplement their efforts, that is going to be something that I really think we ought to focus on in the next year.”
Morrison said this first year has taught him first of all that there is so much he doesn’t know about municipal government, but he has also learned something else that helps him accomplish everything.
“I have learned that this is an immensely difficult job that frankly requires a full time effort from everybody involved, but the last thing I’ve learned is that when you put intelligent, well intentioned people together on task, the work can get done,” Morrison said. “I have a great board who is entirely motivated by doing what they think is best for the city. The insight they have given, the questions they have asked, the decisions they have helped me make, the discretion they have allowed me to exercise – demonstrates to me how well people can work together when they really have the best interest of the city at heart.”
