2 who moved home to Port Gibson seek to be mayor|[11/11/07]

Published 12:00 am Sunday, November 11, 2007

PORT GIBSON — Two Port Gibson natives will vie for the Democratic nod when voters go to the polls Tuesday to elect a mayoral candidate to face the incumbent in the general election next month.

Amelda Arnold is seeking a third term in the general election on Dec. 4.

Candidates Charlene King, 44, and Fred Reeves, 60, have similar visions for the city, to which both have returned home.

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King said she felt called to move home in 2002 from Hattiesburg, where she worked as a psychiatric nurse practitioner for 16 years. Her mother and father, Charles and Perlie Davis, have lived in Port Gibson their entire lives.

Upon visits to Port Gibson, King noticed changes that she thought needed to be made. Therefore, her campaign is focused on education, elderly residents, health care and economic development, she said.

“This is home. I have a lot of passion for Port Gibson,” she said. “I know the potential Port Gibson has.”

To get the ball rolling, King has promised — if elected mayor — she will contribute her first year’s mayoral salary to establish an educational foundation for Port Gibson youths.

She said she will also rely on her networking — with people, such as Hattiesburg Mayor Johnny Dupree — to bring economic development to her community. Another element of King’s campaign is a four-year plan she has developed and presented to various local organizations. The plan touches on issues she feels are vital to Port Gibson’s growth. She promises to work to restructure the police department and “empower the police chief to do the job instead of the mayor,” she said.

Creating jobs for the young is another promise. “The people are ready for change in Port Gibson, and I think I’m the person,” she said.

King had been running the Claiborne County Hospital Outpatient Behavioral Health Clinic in Port Gibson, which recently closed because of financial problems at the hospital. She said she plans to open a private clinic Nov. 26 in her guest house.

The 1980 graduate of Port Gibson High School is married to Clarence King Sr., a 20-year employee of Fed-Ex. They have a son, Clarence King Jr., a student at the University of Southern Mississippi.

Her opponent, Reeves, said he has not seen change in Port Gibson since he moved away in 1973. He returned twice before to seek the mayor’s office, in 1995 and 1999.

“It’s still the same. The city is in worse shape than it was in 1995,” he said.

The biggest problem he sees is what he says is the city’s financial instability. “I will put the City of Port Gibson back in a good financial condition,” he said. “I want to get in and do an audit to see how deep in debt the city is. ”

He also said he would take a pay cut and use personal funds for city business if it means saving the city dollars.

“I will be the first to make the sacrifice to get the city in a good financial condition,” he said.

Like King, Reeves hopes to provide jobs for young people. To do that, he said, will rely on an emphasis on small businesses.

“The political climate in not conducive to a Nissan plant or Toyota plant. I want to stress entrepreneurship,” he said. “I want to rebuild downtown. As a student in high school, I was employed. High school students don’t have places (to work). They walk the streets.”

A co-op program is one way he hopes to accomplish opportunities for youths to have minimum wage-paying jobs. Eliminating dropouts and teen pregnancy are also issues he wants to address. And, housing is at the fore of his plan for the community.

“There’s so much I want to do,” he said.

Establishing health-related programs in local schools is on Reeves’ radar — a means to lowering negative statistics related to kidney failure, dental care and diabetes.

Visits to Port Gibson from Chicago, where he is a retired supervisor from the District 211 Illinois School District, gave Reeves a perspective on his hometown, he said.

“I saw what could happen here. I saw economic development, quality education. I saw tourism. I saw new hospitals being built,” he said. “My experience away from here really made a difference on where I want to take Port Gibson.”

Reeves is a 1965 graduate of Addison High School. His wife, JoAnn Reeves, a fellow graduate, currently works as a first-grade teacher at South Park Elementary in Vicksburg. They have two children, Jasmine Reeves and Jonathan Reeves, both college graduates.

Arnold, 53, said her efforts have been focused on bringing more money — mostly through grant opportunities — to Port Gibson to repair sidewalks and renovate downtown buildings. She said she and her board are currently trying to secure $1 million in rural development funds to build affordable housing. If re-elected, Arnold plans to stick to her annexation plan, which will increase the city limits from 2 square miles to more than 5 square miles. Once annexation is completed, she plans to increase the staff at the police department and run radar along U.S. 61, which runs through Port Gibson.

Other issues for Arnold are petitioning for legislation to allow a tourism district, working with Claiborne County, state delegation and federal government to ensure funds from Entergy Grand Gulf, focusing on housing and creating activities for young people.

Port Gibson has about 1,800 residents. The biggest taxpayer is Entergy’s Grand Gulf Nuclear Station, the state’s only nuclear reactor. Arnold said the city receives about $580,000 each year from Entergy. Talk of bringing a second reactor has been brewing for the past several years. If it is built, another reactor could mean an economic boost for both the county and the city. Officials have said a second reactor would employ 400 people, in addition to providing about 3,500 construction jobs.. Currently about 700 people work at Grand Gulf with a payroll of $64 million. A decision is about five years away, Entergy officials have said. Overall, Grand Gulf contributes $26.2 million in state and local taxes and gives back $3.3 million to the economy.

Although Arnold believes skepticism about her position and her board exist, she wants the voters to know that they are working.

“The city officials are out there working hard. We can’t do everything we want to do, because we don’t have the resources,” she said. “I’m always out there fighting, promoting Port Gibson,” she said. “I plan to continue to move this city forward. We can and we will do this.”

Port Gibson’s mayor, a part-time position, is paid $40,000, increased from $30,000 after Arnold was elected to a second term. The city’s budget is about $1.8 million.

Voters on Tuesday will also nominate three Democrats to head into the general election for aldermanic spots. Aldermen are paid $7,300 annually, which was increased from $100.

In Ward 1, Lula B. Buck and the Rev. Eddie Walls Jr. are competing; in Ward 3, Kenneth Davis and Lockhart Sylvester Jr.; and in Ward 4, Marvin Ratliff and Charles Stewart.