Mayor Barker says 'team building and new ideas' is underway in 2018

HATTIESBURG, Miss. - A Meridian native, Southern Miss alumnus and 10-year member of the Mississippi House of Representatives 102 district. Hattiesburg Mayor Toby Barker has a true calling for public service.

“There’s so much opportunity that exists for Hattiesburg to really take. Those opportunities are in education, they are in health care, they are there culturally with the arts. We are capable of so much and we have the talent here to do that. It’s just a matter of can we get everyone on the same page. Can we paint that horizon and all take a step forward towards that?” said Mayor Barker.

Serving as mayor for nearly six months, he said his responsibilities and service to residents are nothing short of a great honor.

“We have some great employees here that handled that transition incredibly well. Some of the challenges we did not foresee, but we’ve navigated those thus far. The folks of Hattiesburg have been great and they have been patience with us as we have taken those [problems],”

That coming year is 12 days away and with that in mind Mayor Barker said the hospitality of Hattiesburg continues to flourish.

“I’ve seen such a generous spirit from across neighborhoods over the past five months. I think people want the best for every other neighborhood. It is just a matter of us making it a discipline to seize opportunities,”

He said those opportunities are embedded in the school system, customer service and infrastructure. there’s more team building to be done along with implementation of big ideas.

“We are going to continue to recover financially we are not in the strongest position right now. We received an Audit for fiscal year 2015 that was not exactly ideal. So as we clean up processes and how we operate, but we also try to make sure we are building up our cash reserves – being prepared to take on the kind of investments we’re going to have to make,”

(Photo Source: Facebook)