PICAYUNE — Three outgoing council members took a moment to reflect on their accomplishments during their varying years of public service.

Council members Jerry Bounds, Anna Turnage and Leavern Guy all focused on their achievements while in office and have high hopes for the incoming administration.

Bounds plans to remain active in the community even though he no longer holds public office as of Monday. He said he chose not run for re-election to spend more time with his family.

“I supported events when I was a council member and I’m going to continue to support them when I’m not a councilman,” Bounds said.

His continued support of the downtown area recently won him the Mississippi Main Street Association Public Official Special Service Award. He was nominated by Picayune Main Street, Inc.

The new train depot now houses Picayune Main Street offices. Bounds said he was pleased to give that organization a new place to work out of.

Bounds said he is proud of the work his administration put into developing Industrial Park. That area started with only one business and one full time job. Now about 15 companies occupy the area and offer more than 100 full time good paying jobs.

Bounds said when he ran for office in 2001 he ran on three things, economic development, public safety and recreation. Currently he is proud of the city’s public safety departments. He said growing up in a police family, his father was a previous police chief, and working for a volunteer fire department in his youth gave him vision on that topic.

Currently the fire department is in the process of building a new station, the first in about 20 years.

“I’ll tell anybody that our fire department is one of the best in the state,” Bounds said.

Bounds is also proud of he local police department, which is nationally and state accredited. That department has also won the last six of the city’s seven consecutive Mississippi Municipal League awards. Bounds said Picayune’s Police Department is recognized as one of the best in the state and the nation.

When Bounds came into office he said the city did not have its own website. Now the website features updated information about the city and its services.

On the recreation side he said the administration worked to secure funds to do a number of improvements to Friendship Park, such as new tennis courts, fences and baseball fields. The bulk of that work was done with a $3 million bond issue. FEMA also gave the city an additional $1 million to install concrete light poles to the fields after Hurricane Katrina. The city now has a premier park that is capable of hosting national and state baseball tournaments. This month one such tournament is planned, with a Picayune team participating.

Bounds is also proud of the work the city did with the airport, which now has 25 hangars and three full time companies stationed there. He is also proud of the downtown revitalization project that will soon inject some new life and work in to that area. That work includes major paving, park work, sidewalk repairs and fixes and the addition of some walking tracks in locations away from traffic.

Bounds thanks the citizens for allowing him to serve the past eight years. While he does plan to take a break and spend more time with his wife and daughter, he said he may get back into politics at a later date.

Turnage said she is most proud of the city’s ability to keep residents with water and sewer services in the aftermath of Katrina.

During her term she worked to reduce flooding in the Woodglen Cove area by getting key drainage areas, such as Monroe Branch, cleaned.

“I did it because I cared about my community,” Turnage said.

She too is proud of the impending work that will come with the Downtown Revitalization, which includes the long awaited repaving of East Canal Street. The completion of the train depot and the work conducted at Friendship Park are also things that Turnage is proud of.

During her administration she said she worked for citizens who had flooded homes and severe sewer problems. This past election she even fought for the citizen’s right to vote when several citizens were turned away from their polling place. She said she knew she would not win in the resulting re-election, but she fought the battle anyway.

She said even though it may not have been the popular thing to do she stood up for the public’s concerns, such as encroaching development,

Turnage plans to spend time with her family and focus on her career at the local school. She said she might run for public office again but wants to get her health back on track before hand.

As for the incoming administration she hopes they are successful.

“I want them to succeed so the city succeeds. I’m part of the city,” Turnage said.

Guy said when he first ran for office 24 years ago he stood up for equality, both in respect and access to city services. He said his aggressive approach to get things done may have been misinterpreted but he has always been honest and up front with his fellow council members. While those aggressive actions may have held his family back from getting local jobs, and forced him to become self employed, he said it was all for the best.

“I’m glad that it happened that way,” Guy said.

One of those actions involved a march on the city when public housing had to deal with faulty sewer services. After much debate and many calls to the city and the public housing authority it was finally determined to be due to collapsed clay sewer pipes. His effort helped to fix that problem so sewage no longer builds up in those yards, he said.

Guy said he was also involved in the Westside Development project that helped to provide better housing for some residents. He said he and Barbara McGrew helped to secure the match the city needed to get the grant funds.

Guy also worked to reduce flooding in prone areas, such as in the Martin Luther King, Pinewood and Brookdale areas. Flooding still occurs in those areas but Guy said it is not as bad as it used to be.

Industrial Park’s success is also a high point for Guy. He said the park is now almost full of businesses and he is proud that those businesses are not hazardous to the citizens. Also in that same area he said he worked to install street lights along Martin Luther King, Bruce Street and Main Street.

Guy would not say directly if he would run for public office again, but did say, “We live our lives like a story that is told and this chapter of my life is coming to an end. It’s not the end of my life it’s the end of the chapter. Who knows what is in chapter four. The story may begin again.”

Guy had a comment concerning his attempts to enact an indecent exposure ordinance that focused on young men wearing their pants below their waistline. He said his aim in establishing the ordinance was to help the youth form a positive future and higher self worth.

Guy thanks his family, city employees and the citizens for their dedication, hard work and support during his administration.

Council member Donald Parker and Mayor Greg Mitchell declined to comment for this story.