Each year the Mississippi Municipal League holds a convention for elected officials in the state where they can attend workshops and gather ideas for future projects.

This week, members of Poplarville’s Board of Aldermen participated in the annual event, gleaning information that they feel can help the Board achieve several things in the coming year.

Mayor Rossie Creel said one of the things he was excited about was to hear that CSpire will be installing fiber optic cable in the city in the near future that will be capable of providing customers with 100 mbs Internet service.

Creel said he also attended a workshop that provided details on how a municipality can procure loans for use in the repair of infrastructure.

One of the things Creel would like to accomplish in the coming year is to improve the city’s roads. During the conference, he said he learned how the city can take out a general obligation bond to conduct those repairs without raising taxes.

A priority list of the streets in the most need of repair has already been compiled with the help of the city’s engineer, Creel said.

Board member Anne Smith said she got a lot of worthwhile information about how to best market Poplarville. In addition to having a growing agritourism effort, she feels the city can find other marketing avenues.

Additionally, Smith said she received some information that could identify avenues to address blighted properties, possibly with grant funding through the Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality.

While none of the ideas established during the conference are set in stone, the town’s elected officials plan to discuss their findings during an upcoming meeting to get a consensus on the projects to tackle.

Creel said he will suggest holding those meetings during the budget workshops planned for next month.