T

he theme of the week in Warren County was groups coming together for the common good of the community.

Monday, the Warren County Board of Supervisors approved a motion to donate the building that once housed the justice court facility on Adams Street to the Heritage Guild of Vicksburg-Warren. The non-profit organization wants to refurbish the historic structure so that it can be sold with the funds used as seed money for other properties in the city the organization would like to rehabilitate.

The property has been vacant for more than a decade and the Heritage Guild believes it will take at least $125,000 to bring it back to code requirements.

“We think it will be a win-win situation if you would consider deeding us that property, so that we can rehab it, sell it and put it back on the tax rolls,” Dinah Lazor, one of three members representing the guild, told the board during their work session last week.

Then Thursday, the Mississippi Department of Marine Resources donated a 33-foot long boat to the Warren County Sheriff’s Office.

“This will be the first all-weather patrol boat the Warren County Sheriff’s Office has ever had,” Sheriff Martin Pace said. “It will allow us to provide law enforcement as well as search and rescue capabilities on some 40 miles of the Mississippi River and 30 miles of the Yazoo River that we’re responsible for.”

The boat has a cabin and can carry up to 10 people and is powered by two 300-horsepower outboard motors capable of producing a speed of 30 knots (34.5 mph). It is equipped with the MSWIN statewide radio system, and has GPS and radar, “So the sheriff and his men will be able to see what’s in front of them, underneath them and behind them,” Keith Davis, chief of marine patrol for DMR, said.

The Board of Supervisors couldn’t afford to rehab the house on Adams Street and the Sheriff’s office didn’t have the budget to purchase a boat capable of fully patrolling the rivers, but by groups coming together, problems were solved and everyone benefited.

Continued cooperation between likeminded entities with the same goals in mind is just what Vicksburg and Warren County need to continue to take major steps in the right direction.