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Future fuzzy for LeFleur Lakes.

Article Excerpt
JACKSON -- Leland Speed, executive director of the Mississippi Development Authority, who announced November 21 that he will be returning to the private sector at the end of the year, remembers what he told Gov. Haley Barbour when he was appointed to his current position in 2001.

"I told the governor I considered the LeFleur Lakes project the No. 1 economic development project (in the state). I still feel that way," said Speed.

He explained: "Water is magic. You see what San Antonio (Texas) was able to do when it concreted the downtown. This (LeFleur Lakes) will completely change the character of the metro area."

Speed believes "drastic changes" being discussed for the plan need to be justified. "I am not convinced the changes are appropriate." He is also a member of the Rankin-Hinds Pearl River Flood and Drainage Control District.

Jackson businessman John McGowan conceived the LeFleur Lakes project originally known as Two Lakes a decade ago. In April 1979, more than 2,700 homes and businesses were destroyed and over 15,000 citizens were evacuated from their homes when the Pearl River flooded. In 1979 dollars, damage was estimated at more than $233 million. If the 1979 flood were to occur today, damages to homes and businesses would he estimated at $1.1 billion, according to a briefing paper issued in November by the Rankin-Hinds Pear River Flood and Drainage Control District.

McGowan's interest in flood control evolved from land he owned at the end of Meadowbrook Road in the flood plain. There were ordinances to prevent building there, said McGowan. "We designed a lake system (to handle flooding). We realized that it would work...

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