Every year, city council members brush up on knowledge in how to run a city. Last week, they road-tripped to Biloxi, attending the Mississippi Municipal League Conference, a conference for state leaders heading city and town governments.
“Continuing education is vital to the success of any organization, any business, anything, and that includes the city of Meridian,” said Ward 4 City Councilwoman Kim Houston.
Instead of sitting in their normal city council seats, council members were in class gathering ideas to bring back and implement in the city.
“I took classes regarding community development, economic development, and learning more about our water supply. A lot of times we buy the bottled water, but those bottled water companies are getting that water from municipalities. We need to do a better job about marketing our water and help people save money,” said Houston.
She explained that the progress residents see happening around the city isn’t by chance.
“One of the things we brought back before is our adopt-a-lot program. It’s one of the things we got from attending these types of conferences.”
Awards were also given at the conference, and this year, Meridian won a $25,000 grant for having a healthy community.
“There was one city that received the healthiest city in the state. They received a $50,000 grant, so our goal now is to become the healthiest city,” said Houston.
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