Week of September 18, 2000

Temperatures were mild, with only a couple of days in the 90s. Highs ranged from 83 degrees to 95 overnight lows from 48 degrees to 71. Rain was recorded one day and amounted to 0.54 inch.

The Mississippi River rose from a reading of 1.5 feet on the Vicksburg gauge to 3.7 feet by week’s end. Forecasters believed the trend will reverse and the river would fall back to 3 feet by today.

Shell Beach is a popular eating place on Eagle Lake, but a fire and changes in operators left it closed most of the year. George and Rita Butts changed that, to the delight of Eagle Lake residents and outdoorsmen who frequent the lake.

The Mississippi Bureau of Narcotics opened an office in Vicksburg on Mission 66 and will ultimately have up to seven or eight officers under the command of Master Sgt. Lester Williams. The bureau plans to used the office to target drugs that move along Interstate 20.

A group of residents of the Bovina community pitched in to contain and halt a trash fire that turned into a small forest fire. Isaiah Charleston got the hero’s credit for discovering the blaze beginning to do what he could to help the Bovina Volunteer Fire Department put it out.

Vicksburg officials said they’ve had few homeowners sign up for a buyout program for residential property located in frequently flooded areas of the city.

Warren County officials will begin after Oct. 1 on a project to add a third floor and put a new roof on the Warren County Jail. A line item of $1 million was placed in the Fiscal Year 2001 budget for the work.

County supervisors eliminated Johnny Brewer from the Nov. 7 ballot for the post of District 1 election commissioner. They said he may have met the filing deadline, but the verification of signatures on his petition was not completed by county personnel until after the deadline.

The Vicksburg Warren School District Board of Trustees announced it had reached a settlement with the federal Office of Civil Rights over how boys and girls sports programs are to be treated. A major change is that money raised by booster clubs must be shared by all sports other than football.

Vicksburg officials said they may have to resort to eminent domain proceedings to get some land needed for widening the intersection of Clay Street and Mission 66. They said dealings with owners of land where a McDonald’s and Rite Aid stand have been too slow.

The United Way of West Central Mississippi kicked off its main fund raising drive with the announcement the Pacesetter Division had raised 50.1 percent of the $1.8 million goal with several members still working on campaigns. The kickoff used auto racing as a theme and featured a race won by the entry from International Paper Co.

Norman Ford, interim executive director of the Vicksburg Convention Center, made a pitch for local operation of the center with the receipt of a full-color brochure and more aggressive promotion. At the same time, others were pushing to put the center in the hands of a private management company.

Vicksburg Warren School District officials said a new policy went into effect this school year specifying parents or guardians are the only ones who can pick up high school students from school. They said people named on a leave permit would be allowed to pick up students in an emergency.

The U. S. Postal Service cut the hours at the Post Office on Crawford Street, saying there was not enough business to justify longer hours. Businessmen who have used the facility in downtown Vicksburg for years were upset by the change.

Entergy Wholesale Operations, a division of Entergy Corp., broke ground for a new $140 million, 300-megawatt gas turbine generating plant here. The project is scheduled to be complete and operating in the summer of 2001.

Local economic developers offered to help trustees of the Vicksburg Warren School District develop an incentive pay package to be offered when they hire a new school superintendent.

Carolyn Shanks, president of Entergy Mississippi, told a meeting of local elected and business leaders deregulation of the electric industry is coming. In preparation, she said Mississippi should study deregulated states to pick what works and avoid what doesn’t.

City work crews moved to demolish dilapidated houses on Grammar Street. The Inspection Department has deemed many of the houses as unfit to live in.

The local public elementary and intermediate schools have been recommended for continued accreditation by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools.

Local deaths were Millie Bea Carter, Sylvia Lee Joyner Wilson, Juanita Hadaway, Jerry Wayne Kirk, Virginia G. “Mama” Hannah, Louise Jones Sanders, Matilda Bynum, Frances Cole Keen and Henry Ladd Lazarus.