Town Hall, open all night.
Pay a water bill, start a building permit, read the minutes or report a street light. Everything the Town does, in one place, at any hour.
Coming up
Board of Aldermen
Tuesday 1 September · 6:00 p.m.
Town Hall, 352 Fourth Street. Open to the public. The agenda is posted ahead of the meeting and the minutes follow within thirty days.
Miss. Code § 21-35-5 requires a public hearing at least one week before the Board adopts the budget, held outside normal working hours and no earlier than 5:30 p.m. Because Lula has fewer than 1,500 residents the adopted budget is posted in three public places rather than published in a newspaper. This site is a fourth, permanent, date-stamped place.
Latest
Public notices
- 26AugBoil-water notice liftedFourth Street and South Front Avenue
- 21AugPublic hearing — FY2027 budget and tax levyTown Hall, 5:30 p.m.
- 14AugBrush and bulk pickup rescheduledMoved to Thursday this week
- 07AugInvitation for quotes — drainage clearingThird Street, quotes due 21 August
- 31JulNotice of intent — CDBG Public FacilitiesApplication to the Mississippi Development Authority
The Planning Desk
A planning office that never closes
Type an address and find out what your property is, what you can build on it, what it costs and where your application stands. A person still decides. You just never have to guess.
Look up a lot
Zoning and use from Town records, plus flood zone, elevation, wetlands, soils, seismic and disaster history, each read from its own federal source.
File and pay online
The application will not submit until it is complete, which is what makes the ten-day decision keepable.
Follow the clock
Every case gets a number the moment it is filed, and a status you can check without calling.
Around town
Government
Mayor and Board of Aldermen
Lula operates under a code charter as permitted by Miss. Code § 21-3-3, the form used by roughly ninety-three per cent of Mississippi municipalities.
How the Town is governed
The mayor has superintending control of the officers and affairs of the municipality and is charged with seeing that the laws and ordinances are executed. The mayor presides over every meeting of the Board, votes only to break a tie, and may veto an ordinance, resolution or order the Board adopts.
The Board consists of five aldermen. Municipal terms run four years. The Board acts on its minutes: if it is not on the minutes, the Board did not do it.
Contacting the Board
The Town Clerk is the first point of contact for the mayor and every alderman. Correspondence for the Board is received at Town Hall and placed before it at the next regular meeting.
Open meetings
Agendas and minutes
The Board sets a standing schedule on its minutes and needs no further announcement for a regular meeting. A special meeting requires notice posted publicly at least one hour beforehand. Minutes are recorded within thirty days and are open for public inspection.
| Meeting | Date | Agenda | Minutes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Regular | 1 September 2026 | Posted | Due 1 Oct |
| Budget hearing | 25 August 2026 | Posted | Due 24 Sep |
| Regular | 4 August 2026 | Posted | Posted |
| Special | 21 July 2026 | Posted | Posted |
| Regular | 7 July 2026 | Posted | Posted |
| Regular | 2 June 2026 | Posted | Posted |
The thirty-day minutes clock is tracked automatically and flags at day twenty-one.
Transparency
Where the money goes
Cash receipts and disbursements for the fiscal year ended 30 September 2021, as filed with the Mississippi Office of the State Auditor.
Receipts — all funds
Disbursements — all funds
The audit finding, in full
The agreed-upon procedures noted that the May 2021 sales tax payment was not posted to the general ledger. Every other payment traced to a deposit, purchasing procedures agreed with Title 31, and the compliance questionnaire showed no instances of noncompliance with state law.
Planning & Development
The Planning Desk
Find out what your property is, what you need, what it costs, and where your application stands. Open every hour of the day.
Step one
Look up a property
Enter an address in the town limits. The desk returns what the Town has on file, plus a constraints screen read from federal sources.
Step two
Do you need a permit?
Yes, for
- New buildings, additions and structural changes
- Moving or demolishing a structure
- New or replacement roofs
- Decks, carports and accessory buildings over 120 sq ft
- Fences over six feet, and any sign
- A driveway cut onto a town street
- A new water or sewer tap
- Opening a business inside the town limits
No, not for
- Painting and interior finishes
- Replacing like for like
- Ordinary repairs and maintenance
- A storage building under 120 sq ft on an existing slab
- Landscaping and garden fences under six feet
Fee schedule
| Permit | Fee | Decision within |
|---|---|---|
| Residential building permit — under $10,000 of work | $45 | 10 business days |
| Residential building permit — $10,000 and over | $45 + $4 per $1,000 | 10 business days |
| Accessory building, deck or carport | $30 | 5 business days |
| Demolition or moving a structure | $60 | 10 business days |
| Sign permit | $35 | 5 business days |
| Driveway cut onto a town street | $40 | 5 business days |
| Water or sewer tap | Set by the Board | On scheduling |
| Privilege license — new business | Per state schedule | 5 business days |
| Variance or rezoning request | $150 + notice costs | Next regular meeting |
Step three
Track an application
Every application gets a case number the moment it is filed. Try LUL-2026-0143, LUL-2026-0139 or LUL-2026-0128.
How it works
A machine takes the paperwork. A person makes the decision.
Filed at any hour
The form is a scope document, not a payment. It will not submit until it is complete, which is what makes the ten-day promise keepable.
Screened the same day
The desk attaches the constraints screen, checks the fee, and flags anything that needs a hearing before it reaches a person.
Decided by the Town
The mayor, the Board, or whoever the Town designates approves or denies. Nobody else issues a permit or sets a fee.
It is not the Town’s record of legal record — the minute book stays that. It is not a code interpretation service, and it does not replace a licensed inspector where one is required. It is a counter that is open when Town Hall is closed.
Water, garbage, streets
Water & services
The Town operates its own water system as an enterprise fund. Bills, service changes and problems all start here.
Pay a water bill
By card or bank transfer through the Town’s own payment account. Bills are due the 15th of the month.
Pay now →Start or stop service
New tenant, new owner or moving out. Deposit and final-read information included.
Open the form →Report a leak
A running meter, wet ground, low pressure or discoloured water. Reaches Town Hall with an alert.
Report it →Payments run on the Town’s own merchant account, in the Town’s name.
Anything else
Report a problem
One form, four fields, a photo if you have one. It reaches Town Hall within the minute and gives you a reference number you can quote.
Streets & drainage
- Potholes and broken pavement
- Stopped ditches and standing water
- Missing or damaged signs
- Overgrown right-of-way
Lights, animals & nuisance
- Street light out
- Stray or aggressive dogs
- Abandoned vehicles
- Overgrown lots and illegal dumping
For fire, medical or police emergencies dial 911. For a burst main outside office hours, call Town Hall on (662) 337-4579.
Collection
Garbage and brush
Transparency
Records & notices
Every document the Town is required to make public, in one place, with the date it was published and no quiet edits afterwards.
Document library
| Document | Covers | Published |
|---|---|---|
| Compilation report & agreed-upon procedures | FY2021 | 13 Jun 2025 |
| Adopted budget & statement of revenues | FY2026 | Sep 2025 |
| Tax levy resolution | FY2026 | Sep 2025 |
| Code of ordinances | Current | — |
| Water rate schedule | Current | — |
| Permit fee schedule | Current | — |
| Board minutes archive | 2023– | Rolling |
Request a record
The Mississippi Public Records Act gives you a right to inspect and copy the Town’s records. File a request and you get a reference number, a written acknowledgement and a visible clock.
Accessibility
Built to the standard, not retrofitted to it
ADA Title II
The Department of Justice requires state and local government web content to meet WCAG 2.1 Level AA. In April 2026 the DOJ extended the compliance dates by a year; entities serving fewer than 50,000 people now have until 26 April 2028.
This site meets that standard from the first page: real text instead of pictures of text, contrast that passes at AA, every control reachable by keyboard with a visible focus ring, and motion that stops when a visitor asks it to.
A .gov address, at no cost
CISA waived the $400 registration fee in 2021, and .gov is free to verified U.S. government organisations. It requires a signed authorisation from the mayor, enforces multi-factor authentication on the registrar, and is preloaded so browsers force an encrypted connection.
It is the cheapest single thing a small town can do to stop being impersonated.
Analytics here set no cookie, so there is no consent banner and nothing to disclose.
U.S. 61 — the Blues Highway
Livin’ at Lula
Between Memphis and Clarksdale, ten miles from the Helena crossing, a town of two hundred people put its name in two Charley Patton records.
In 1930 Charley Patton was living in Lula with the singer Bertha Lee Pate when Son House arrived in town. With Willie Brown, Louise Johnson and the Delta Big Four they travelled from Lula to Grafton, Wisconsin to record for Paramount. Mississippi Blues Trail marker — “Livin’ at Lula”
Patton named the town in Dry Well Blues, cut in the drought year of 1930, and again in Stone Pony Blues in 1934. Bertha Lee sang of livin’ at Lula town in Mind Reader Blues. Frank Frost lived here through the 1960s and ’70s and played with Sam Carr and Big Jack Johnson in the Jelly Roll Kings.
Also from Lula
While you are here
The Blues Trail marker
In town, two minutes off the highway, and the reason most visitors stop.
Mississippi Welcome Center
On U.S. 49 north at the Helena bridge approach — the state’s front door from Arkansas.
Clarksdale, 20 miles
The Delta Blues Museum, Ground Zero, the Crossroads and the Sunflower River Blues & Gospel Festival.
Helena, Arkansas, 10 miles
Across the river on U.S. 49. King Biscuit country.
Tunica, 18 miles north
Straight up the Blues Highway on U.S. 61.
Moon Lake
The oxbow east of town, in Tennessee Williams country.
Restricted
Staff desk
What the Clerk sees. Access is issued by hand as a code and PIN — no self-serve sign-up and no password database.
Operations — week of 24 August
| Item | Reference | Clock | State |
|---|---|---|---|
| Building permit — 118 S. Front Ave | LUL-2026-0143 | Day 3 of 10 | Awaiting review |
| Sign permit — 220 Third St | LUL-2026-0139 | Day 4 of 5 | Due tomorrow |
| Accessory building — 41 Magnolia | LUL-2026-0128 | Closed | Approved |
| Records request — FY2024 minutes | PRR-2026-0011 | Day 2 | Acknowledged |
| Minutes — 25 Aug budget hearing | MIN-2026-0812 | Day 3 of 30 | Drafted |
| Notice — brush pickup change | NOT-2026-0044 | — | Published |
Behind the desk
Four platforms, nothing else
The one line this build adds
A mail-sending service. Cloudflare’s email routing forwards but does not send, and a permit acknowledgement, a records receipt and a boil-water alert all have to be sent. A free tier of roughly 3,000 messages a month covers Lula many times over; the real work is an hour of DNS records done properly.
Everything else runs on infrastructure NESO already pays for.