March 9, 2008

Mostly spring-like weather dominated early in the week with highs ranging as far as 79 degrees. Lows covered a wider range, from 33 degrees to 58 degrees. A cool snap midweek and as the weekend approached indicated winter is still hanging on. Rain was measured on two days and totaled just over 1 inch.

The Mississippi River fell most of the week, starting at a reading of 35.6 feet on the Vicksburg gauge and dropping to 31.9 feet before reversing to 32.3 feet. The forecast for today was a reading of 34 feet.

Taxes imposed on four casinos in VIcksburg netted $910,203 for January. Overall, collections are down about 2 percent over the same point in the last fiscal year.

A suit against the city by former police officer Rudolph Walker was dismissed after a federal judge said Walker’s level of diabetes fell short of standards in the Americans with Disabilities Act.

Forty-five contestants who will compete here during the summer to become Miss Mississippi were in town for orientation sessions, informing them how to prepare for pageant week.

Nearly 750 people participated in events of the 29th edition of the Run Thru History. David Mealy of Vicksburg won the men’s 10K event with a time of 35:35. Heidi Melia of Madison won the women’s 10K at 43:30. Division winners of the 5K walk were Dave Smalley of Florence and Elizabeth Howard of Pearl. Twelve-year-olds winning the one-mile fun run were Barrett Teller and Tara Cook.

About 300 people participated in meetings and a trade show for professional surveyors.

City officials were reviewing state and local laws to see where changes might be made to curb alcohol-related crime.

Four miles of North Washington Street from Haining Road to U.S. 61 will be resurfaced under a city project backed by state funds. The Department of Transportation also has in process an overlay of U.S. 61 from Interstate 20 north to Blakely.

The top floor of Ameristar Casino was evacuated after a small fire in a restaurant located on that level. The damage was contained in a kitchen area.

There were still no takers for a U.S. Postal Service offer to pay someone to operate a contract postal facility downtown. The building on Crawford Street that once served as the city’s main postal facility is now privately owned and the buyers plan a hotel conversion.

City officials agreed to a deal under which a couple who purchased the Super Ten building on Washington Street for $20,000 under a city-sponsored renewal program will sell the structure to a new owner who pledges to complete promised work. A total of 48 structures were in the program, part of a downtown makeover. The city had paid $139,000 for the building in 2001 before reselling it.

Muralists began work on a design created to bridge the modernistic first mural painted on the floodwall at City Front with the history-theme murals painted since then.

A Pennsylvania man living quietly in a travel trailer on Rawhide Road was picked up for authorities in his home state where he will be returned to face 111 misdemeanor and felony charges of theft by deception.

Vicksburg voters prepared to participate in presidential primary voting. During her visit to Canton, it was announced that state Rep. George Flaggs Jr., D-Vicksburg, is co-chairman of Sen. Hillary Clinton’s campaign in Mississippi.

Warren County supervisors were disappointed to learn most of the $190,000 debris removal bill they submitted to state and federal authorities after Hurricane Katrina will not be paid. It turns out that regulatory authorities wanted trees and limbs measured and placed in approved landfills..

Deaths included Dewayne E. Palmer, Ervin Smith Jr., Rose Guercio Cozzani, Jesse Mae Anderson, Wardell Moore, Daniel Paul Blok, David Wayne Garrett, Laura Lowe, Annie Mae Dorsey, Katie Bass, Anna E. Herrington and Otho Thomas.