ITTA BENA, Miss– Swimming in a near million dollar debt, Itta Bena was forced in July to close their police department and hand all garbage services to the county. But solar power could be the saving grace.
IRS debt, unpaid bills and accounting records–or the lack thereof– were all over the desk when Itta Bena Mayor Thelma Collins took office in 2013. Immediately she had the task of rebuilding the financial ruined town.
A year later, closing the police department and moving sanitation services to the county had to be done to save money.
But at an board of alderman meeting this week, one Florida man named Lazaro Sanchez suggested that a solar power plant could save the city’s finances.
“It was suggested by a former resident,” says Mayor Collins,”she made the connection in Florida and he presented it at the meeting.”
The board hasn’t acted on it yet, because they’re having to look over the legalities of the process. Mayor Collins thinks it’s a good shot.
“It’s a potential that this could happen,” says Collins,”it would revitalize downtown economic growth.”
The meeting hasn’t been planned yet, but News Mississippi will continue to follow this story.
