Week in Vicksburg
Published 12:00 am Sunday, June 29, 2014
Daytime temperatures remained in the low 90s and upper 80s despite occasional showers in Vicksburg and Warren County. Scattered showers and thunderstorms remained in the forecast this week with nighttime lows in the 70s.
The Mississippi River was at 32.36 feet on June 22. It down to 27.1 feet Friday. Flood stage is 43 feet.
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The Board of Mayor and Aldermen hired the Jackson engineering firm of Allen and Hoshall to review the city’s gas, water and sewer rate structure to determine if the city’s rates are viable and able to support the systems’ operations.
• In another city matter, Mayor George Flaggs said the board will hold a special meeting July 1 to discuss a pay raise for city employees.
• Former North Ward Alderwoman and mayoral candidate for mayor Gertrude Young was hired by the board as they city’s new housing director replacing Leona Stringer, who retired May 31.
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The Warren County Board of Supervisors approved property tax exemptions for International Paper and Cameron Inc. International Paper received an exemption on more than $26 million in new equipment and upgrades to its Redwood plant. Cameron, formerly LeTourneau Technologies, received an exemption on $2.3 million in improvements from an expansion at its plant.
• In other county news, the supervisors directed the county’s engineers to prepare a contract to repair erosion problems on Haining Road, the lone access road to the Portof Vicksburg. The board in March moved $500,000 left from a $3.9 million grant to clear bayous of debris from Hurricane Katrina to the road project.
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Alcorn University President Alfred Rankins Jr. met with city officials at Alcorn’s Vicksburg campus at the Vicksburg Mall.
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The Vicksburg Housing Authority saw a 14-point increase on its 2013 Public Housing Assessment System score, its board of commissioners learned. VHA had a score of 86, putting it just short of being considered a high performance housing authority.
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Bryan Morton, 33, of Port Gibson, who was wanted in the May 4 home invasion on Warriors Trail in which a 70 year-old woman was severely injured, turned himself in to sheriff’s deputies. He is accused of attempted murder and is being held without bond in the Warren County Jail.
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The Vicksburg Warren School District Board of Trustees approved a 4 percent increase in the school system’s millage rate as part of a $77.5 million fiscal 2015 budget.
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The Mississippi Department of Transportation selected NRoute as a model subcontractor for a Federal Transportation Administration state management review of MDOT.
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About 10,000 people attended the 2014 RiverFest, about 3,000 more than the 7,000 who attended the music and arts festival in 2013, the Vicksburg Convention and Visitors Bureau Board of Directors learned. The numbers were part of an update on the annual festival by RiverFest organizers.
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Local deaths included Lorraine Wood Hamilton, Mary Ellen Groome Nelson, Dorothy Rowell, Delores Lewis, Helen L. Thompson, Henry Lee Trevillion, Tracy Lynn Crumb, Jean Penell Cole, Daisy Mae Smith, Raiford Hathcock, Pauline Melsheimer, Terry D. McCloud, Clara Christine Cobb, Charles Louis Piazza Sr., Julia Be Jones.