The Greater Belhaven Foundation is trying to improve the Fortification Street corridor by getting streetlights that are not working repaired.
“Lighting is one of the most important things you can do for public safety,” said Mary Alex Thigpen, executive director of the foundation.
The foundation is asking the Mississippi Department of Transportation to repair the lights at the Fortification Street exit over the Fortification Street bridge.
Thigpen said she’s been told those lights are not maintained because thefts of copper have repeatedly occurred there.
Michael Flood, a spokesperson for MDOT, said MDOT paid a contractor about four years ago to replace the stolen wire on that bridge and unfortunately, it only made it a couple months before it was stolen again.
“That said, the bridge is included in a metro-area lighting improvement project.,” he said. “Garver is providing an inspection and analysis of the interstate lighting system. Once that is done, we’ll have a completed inspection, cost estimates, analysis and recommendations for the interstate lighting system on I-20 from State Road 18 to State Road 468, I-55 from Siwell Road to the Natchez Trace Parkway, and I-220 from I-20 to I-55. The recommendations will include rehabilitation and replacements and upgrades for lighting fixtures, wires, poles, and other hardware, along with anti-theft measures.
A design contract and construction plans are expected to be in place by the fall of 2025, which would put construction starting early next year, Flood said.
“Hopefully, this will be the long-term fix needed and more importantly, keep these lights on,” he said.
The foundation is also asking the city of Jackson to maintain the streetlights at Greymont and Fortification streets and Jefferson and Fortification streets, she said. The foundation paid for the installation of those lights and gave them to the city after Fortification Street was rehabbed.
“I got a private contractor to come and evaluate the lights, but he can’t access the box required to diagnose the issue,” Thigpen said. “We need the city to respond.”
The foundation pays for a lawn service each quarter to mow, weed eat and pick up trash on the median along Fortification Street from I-55 to State Street, and it would like the city of Jackson to take responsibility for that, she said.
Pete Perry, a Belhaven resident, said it’s not right that residents in the Greater Belhaven Community Improvement District contribute to the district through their property taxes yet the Greater Belhaven Foundation has to hire a lawn service to mow the median along Fortification Street, a task the city should handle.
The Belhaven business corridor includes about 250 businesses, with Fortification Street serving as a thoroughfare to New Stage Theatre and as the location of businesses that include an insurance agency, a dry cleaners, a wine shop, several service stations and a sports medicine clinic.
The foundation is working to establish the Belhaven Business Coalition, which John Scarbrough, vice president at Paul Moak Automotive, chairs, Thigpen said.
The foundation is trying to do its part to bring a grocery store to the English Village shopping center, located at Fortification and Jefferson streets, she said.
The Grocery Depot, which was the most recent grocery store to lease part of the shopping center, closed in mid-March, leaving Belhaven residents without a neighborhood grocery store. The shopping center originally housed Jitney Jungle 14, then McDade’s Market, then Corner Market and, finally, Grocery Depot.
The former location of Lou’s Full-Serv restaurant in English Village is also empty after Lou’s moved to Ridgeland.
The foundation provided Peters Real Estate, which is responsible for leasing English Village, with data about the neighborhood that could be useful in securing new tenants, she said.
The foundation recently hosted a meeting with about a dozen people, including business owners and property owners along Fortification Street, two city employees and a representative of the One Percent Sales Tax Infrastructure Committee to discuss what could be done to improve the Fortification Street corridor.
Improved lighting, beatification and panhandling and loitering were among the issues discussed.
One concern that businesses in the area face is the need for private security because customers believe it’s necessary for their safety, Perry said.
Businesses between Fortification Street and the University of Mississippi Medical Center spend a total of $6 million annually to hire private security, Perry said.
“The perception of business owners is that they have to have it so people will come,” he said.
