Best Cheap Web Hosting

At Monday's meeting of the Board of Mayor and Commissioners, the meeting was mostly business as usual. The only split vote during the meeting came near the end, when city clerk Cathy Clark presented a quote of $14,000 for web hosting and redesign of the city's website from aHa Consulting.

Clark said the bonus to the company was that they are with Municode, a system the city already uses.

"They're (Municode) the people who do our codebooks. It's a reliable source," Clark said, adding that with their prior web host, "we ended up with a web page and no access to it."

"This would give us access it, we could update it daily… They're not going anywhere, they've been around for years," she said, adding the $14,000 was a setup fee, not an annual fee.

Clark said she and David Fowler, the IT director for the city, had both looked at it. Mayor Bill Luckett asked about getting other quotes, and Clark said she did get another quote in the past that was about $15,000 to $20,000.

"I thought it was a little high… but for a dynamic webpage, you're going to pay for it," Fowler said of the aHa quote.

Commissioner Bo Plunk and Commissioner Ken Murphey, who both recently graduated courses at the Mississippi Municipal League (MML) meeting, said they were for accepting aHa's quote, especially since they learned how important social media and an accessible website was at the MML meeting.

"This is paramount," Murphey said. "…We need to jump into this. We're not selling ourselves like we should be."

Luckett asked Fowler's opinion, and he said it "seems a little high."

"I have some questions about the hosting," Fowler said.

"Municode would do the hosting," Clark said.

Commissioner Buster Moton voiced his opinion against it, mostly because of the cost.

"I'm not with it… so yeah, we want to try to spend $14,000 on this, but we're always hollering we're broke, we're broke," Moton said.

"What amount would the city of Cleveland's website cost? I mean, I'm just wondering, how does this $14,000 compare?" asked Commissioner Ed Seals. Clark said larger cities, such as Southaven, probably have their own IT department to handle such issues. Murphey pointed out that Cleveland just kicked off an advertising campaign.

 "Our website doesn't tell you anything to do in our town," Murphey said. "…This is a fair price. We still have a video on our current website of (former) Mayor (Henry) Espy welcoming people."

"Either we accept this and we continue to shop without rejecting this one," Luckett said. Seals, Plunk and Murphey voted to accept the quote, while Moton voted against it. Luckett said if it had been a split, he would have cast his vote with Moton to shop around, but since three commissioners voted for it, he didn't have to cast a tie-breaking vote.

Also, during his comments, Luckett addressed the rumors circulating Monday that a protest was going to be held in the city.

"I have personally received over 100 phone calls about public demonstration here in Clarksdale… the governor called and offered any assistance we need should we need it. I recognize every citizen's right to assemble and free speech… permits are no cost and are freely given, but they do give us the opportunity… to be prepared to any such event," Luckett said. "Frankly, I welcome such events… but we need them peaceful… and we'll do our best to see any such demonstration is monitored and contained."

He said he was disappointed to hear some downtown businesses may have closed early Monday because of fear of a violent protest.

"People have a right to publicly demonstrate, but those demonstrate should not take place on public streets… We are going to allow public demonstrations here in the city, if properly done," he said.

At the top of the meeting, during department head comments, police chief Whit Read said crime had gone down in the city compared to last year.

"It was a total breakdown of 43 percent reduction… 17 percent reduction in violent crimes, and I don't have exact number on the properties, but it was about 43 percent," Read said. "That speaks very well for the police department."

He added he'd pulled Fourth of July holiday numbers, and compared those with last year.

"Just through the breakdown of the holiday, the officers … answered 237 calls… initiated 26 arrests. … The wrecks had gone down over that weekend, and that weekend we had 10, last year we had 11, so that's pretty comparative," Read said.

During the commissioner comments, Moton asked people with pools in their yards to keep extra close watch on who enters their property.

"Make sure that they are extra careful (with pools) because it doesn't take but for a split second for something to happen," he said, adding that also goes for above-ground pools that don't have fences around them.

Murphey, during his comments, thanked Johnny Miller for helping out the city.

"He voluntarily has sprayed some city property for us at no charge," Murphey said. "Thanks to Johnny Miller."

Luckett said he'd sent a message to the head of AT&T in Mississippi to try to get the ball rolling on finishing the work on the Second Street Bridge.

"I have talked a couple of times with our city engineer, first to get to the bottom of what happened and the second to get a status," Luckett said. "…AT&T has subcontracted out the backfill… to where the bridge and sidewalk can be used. … I have not seen any activity in the past two or three days."

He said he was still waiting on a response from AT&T.

Luckett also said the city was the recipient of a $25,000 grant from the Walton Family Foundation to provide summer jobs to youth.

"The city will be taking on four persons at 20 hours a week," Luckett said.

Mac Crank, the city's economic developer, gave more of an update on the program. He told the board they were invited to apply for it last spring, and were one of 16 communities to get the grant—and, he said, he believes the only one in Mississippi.

"The idea of the program is to provide youth with employment for the summer and provide them with marketable job skills," Crank said, adding the other entities who will employ youth over the summer are Griot, Clarksdale Revitalization Inc., Mississippi Delta Council for Farmworkers Opportunities and Saf-T-Cart. Saf-T-Cart, Crank said, will pay the workers from their own pocket, while the grant covers the rest of the businesses, which will pay for 25 youth to work for four weeks at $7.25/hour.

Crank added that Clarksdale Revitalization Inc. will hold the grant funds and disperse it to the other nonprofits.

Also, Randy Scrivner with Watkins, Ward and Stafford came forward to give the board positive news on the city's audit.

"I want to compliment Cathy Clark and her staff. … I actually have auditors that want to work on the city of Clarksdale's audit and that doesn't happen often. … The 2015 audit was a clean opinion… we didn't have any report modifications," Scrivner said.

He said changes in the GASPE 68 plan "is something we're required to recognize on our financial standards."

"The city of Clarksdale's liability is $12.492 million; it takes you into an immediate deficit position… These numbers are just insane, how large they are," Scrivner said. "Not following GASPE 68 is not optional; the state will not accept your audit reports if you don't put GASPE 68 in there."

Scrivner said the Public Employees' Retirement System (PERS) "is a good sound system," although he said he thinks the city had issues with returns on their investments.

"I think we have issues with the way the cost of living adjustments are calculated. … You need to adjust it more to a private market-type system. That number for PERS is astronomical; it is recognized at the state level," Scrivner said, adding that if PERS goes down, Mississippi taxpayers would be on the hook for it.

Rebekah Yearout is the managing editor for the Press Register and can be reached at 662-627-2201 or at news@pressregister.com.

Source: City board approves $14K contract for new website host