JPS Mulls Lake Hico’s Future, Proposes Advisory Committee

JPS Mulls Lake Hico’s Future, Proposes Advisory Committee

by Kayode Crown

0s Entergy’s lease of Lake Hico as a cooling pond for its electricity plant located between Northside Drive and Watkins Drive ends Sept. 30, it presents an excellent opportunity for its beneficial re-purposing, Jackson Public School District Superintendent Errick L. Greene said last weekend.

JPS organized a virtual town hall meeting on Zoom, which brought together Jackson citizens as a first step in figuring out the lake’s future, with the need for an advisory committee stressed.

The end of Entergy’s lease means the district loses more than $300,000 a year which is the most 16th-section income JPS draws from any lease. The Mississippi secretary of state manages 16thsection lands leased to generate funds for the state’s school districts.

“Entergy has held a lease with them for the past 30 years,” Greene said. “They indicated to us that they do not intend to extend that lease. As much as we hate to lose them as a tenant, this does provide for us a wonderful opportunity to rethink the use of Lake Hico.”

“There is a lot of history and a lot of context around Lake Hico,” the JPS superintendent added. “It is very important to us as a school district.”

Previously Segregated

In Lake Hico’s early history, which predated the opening of the Ross Barnett reservoir in Madison County, it was a popular lake and park for boating and other recreation and was the home of the Jackson Yacht Club—but it was segregated with only white people allowed to use the lake and park. The name “Hico” came from combining “Hinds” and “County.”

Power company Entergy will end its lease of Lake Hico as a cooling pond at the end of the month. The question now is what to do with the lake and park.

File Photo Stephen Wilson

Aliyah Veal of the Mississippi Free Press reported that in the 1960s, in the midst of the Civil Rights Movement calling for integration of all public facilities, the yacht club moved to the new reservoir in Madison County. The then-white-led City of Jackson then closed the lake in 1969, as well as the City’s public swimming pools, to avoid integrating them. It then closed the park in 1975 for the same reason, but it is now reopened.

It took a lawsuit by Jackson mother and civil-rights activist Flonzie Brown- Wright for her then-14-year-old son to be allowed to play softball in the untilthen segregated park. Now, a walking trail is named for her son, Edward Goodloe Jr., who died in 2014. The late Mayor Chokwe Lumumba led the naming of the trail in Goodloe’s honor.

Creating the ‘Wow Factor’

The Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality granted Entergy the permit to use the lake as a cooling pond—it is now known to be too hazardous to use for recreation—and it requires a new permit for any other use.

The JPS superintendent said that he is hopeful for the next phase for the lake.

“We certainly as a school district want to create the wow factor, the wow experience for those living immediately around the lake, and again for the city and beyond it,” he said. “It does everyone justice, benefits everyone to the extent that we can create something at Lake Hico that is a jewel for the city, and I certainly see an opportunity for it here.”

Possible future uses mentioned at the town hall include for a housing development, retail facilities, entertainment projects, a water park, water sports, solar field or a lake. The project needs the community’s buy-in and expertise, necessitating an advisory committee’s formation.

“We definitely want and need help to make sure that we create something that the community actually wants, that the community will be proud of, in the city and in the neighborhoods just outside of Lake Hico and that property,” Greene said during the virtual town hall.

Edward Goodloe Jr. stands next to the walking trail named for him at the park near Lake Hico to honor his contributions in helping to integrate the park.

courtesy Flonzie Brown-Wright

“We would likely need someone who has done this kind of work to lead us through that exploration, to get some professional support around development and land use and all sorts of things.”

“These are the kinds of things that we are going to need help exploring to get to the thing that really resonates with our community, benefits our community most,” Greene added.

‘Significant Decisions to Make’

Suggestions at the meeting include having the committee consist of Jackson residents who will bring in property developers and identify government, quasigovernment, and private developmental partners.

It will include those living around the lake, with at least one person with an environmental background. They will develop a project timeline and map out a financial plan.

“We want to create something that the community actually wants,” the JPS superintendent said. “That the community will be proud to have in the city, in those neighborhoods.”

Greene said people can share other ideas by calling JPS Executive Director of Public Engagement Sherwin Johnson at 601-960-8935.

Mayor Chokwe A Lumumba, who was at the meeting, highlighted the importance of the lake.

“This is a very important discussion,” he said. “It is not only important for the school district, but it is important to our communities, it is important to things like property value; it is important in terms of the future for our city.”

“What we have in the short term are significant decisions to make,” Lumumba added. “I think that if we can develop a plan and the community is in lockstep with the plan, in the long term, not so distant future, there is an immense opportunity.”

Email story tips to city/county reporter Kayode Crown at kayode@jacksonfreepress. com. Follow him on Twitter at @kayodecrown.