Itta Bena officials have given the go-ahead for a New York City-based company to assess Itta Bena’s electrical infrastructure and develop solutions to improve it, all for free.
During a special called meeting Friday, the Itta Bena Board of Aldermen unanimously approved a letter of intent to allow the company, Uncharted, to conduct the assessment, known as “Project Smart City,” City Clerk Barbara Applon said.
A team from Uncharted will examine the city’s electrical infrastructure, Dr. Christina Jordan, owner and CEO of Jordan Analytics & Research, LLC, told the board earlier this month. That infrastructure will then be replicated in a “digital twin,” or software program, with the findings from the assessment plugged into the program to help determine solutions.
Jordan and her Jackson-based research lab, as well as Dr. Nashile Sephus, a tech evangelist for Amazon Web Services and CEO of The Bean Path, a Jackson-based nonprofit, are working with Dr. Jessica Matthews, the CEO of Uncharted, on the Itta Bena project.
The team will work on securing grants and fundraising for the project so that the city will not bear any costs, Jordan said.
After the assessment, the board could choose to utilize Uncharted to develop solutions for the city’s electrical issues, which at that point would cost the city money, or go another route.
An initial assessment determined that Itta Bena has an outdated energy infrastructure that increases its energy costs, Jordan told the board earlier this month.
At that time, Jordan told the board the deadline for the city to enter into a partnership with Uncharted was Jan. 6. Given that the board approved the project more than a week later, apparently the deadline was extended, though Applon was not able to say why.
Neither Mayor Reginald Freeman nor Jordan could be reached for comment Friday.
The project will be “a great help to the city, and we’re hoping that we can get some things accomplished to provide better (electrical) services to the citizens of Itta Bena,” Applon said.
Freeman has been discussing the project with Jordan since August, Applon said.
“It seems like this will be something that can help the city in reference to the financial debts to the (city’s) electric provider,” Applon added, referring to the approximately $653,000 that Itta Bena owes to the Municipal Energy Agency of Mississippi.
Following MEAM’s threat to cut power off to the city by Dec. 1, 2020, due to the city’s failure to pay its bills in full, a previous Board of Aldermen voted that year to transfer the city’s electrical services to Entergy. The current board has not acted to proceed with the transfer.
- Contact Gerard Edic at 581-7239 or gedic@gwcommonwealth.com.
