Prentiss Co. Aldermen approve zoning change
McNairy Co. School board approves teacher hirings
Region Visitor center to host beaver program
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Saturday August 5,
Daily Corinthian
Mostly sunny
2017
75 cents
Vol. 121, No. 186
Today
Tonight
86
65
0% chance of rain
• Corinth, Mississippi • 16 pages • One section
Man charged with attempted murder BY JEBB JOHNSTON jjohnston@dailycorinthian.com
Several law enforcement agencies on Friday morning apprehended a Corinth man who is facing charges of attempted murder. Police Chief Ralph Dance said James Myers, 51, of Box Road, was taken into custody
without incident at a residence on County Road 738 west of Corinth around 9:15 a.m. He is the suspect in the July 29 shooting of Dawn Kiddy, 38, and Ryan Gahagan, 28. Gahagan remains hospitalized at Regional One Health in Memphis in serious condition, while Kiddy has been released from
Regional One, according to a hospital spokeswoman. Also involved in the arrest were the Mississippi Department of Corrections, the Alcorn County Sheriff’s Department and the U.S. Marshals Service. Dance said an anonymous tip to MDOC led to the arrest of Myers, whom the
police department had been seeking. Warrants had been issued for his arrest for aggravated assault. Dance said those charges are being upgraded to attempted murder. He will also face a grand larceny charge. “He was in possession of a stolen truck that came up miss-
ing the same night as the shooting, which we did believe was tied to that,” said Dance. Police hope to establish a motive for the shooting after questioning Myers. The shooting was reported at 12:52 a.m. July 29 at 907 West Third Street, where Gahagan resides.
Board to consider bus drivers policy BY ZACK STEEN
“I would like to ‘grandfather’ in the ones who are already driving, but for the future I don’t think we should allow any school or district office administrator to drive.”
zsteen@dailycorinthian.com
Staff Photo by L.A. Story
The 16th District of the Order of the Eastern Star celebrated the 102nd birthday of its oldest member, Leola Agnew. Her daughter, Barbara Young (right), was in attendance, along with other O.E.S. members and family.
Order honors oldest member BY L.A. STORY lastory@dailycorinthian.com
The 16th District of the Order of the Eastern Star held a small celebration luncheon to honor the 102nd birthday of their oldest member. Family members and other O.E.S. members were present at a luncheon held at Ruby Tuesday restaurant in Corinth
on Thursday to celebrate the 102nd birthday of Mrs. Leola Agnew. The honoree was all smiles as people greeted her. Agnew was born July 13, 1915 to the late William and Emma Shumpert of Prentiss County. She was the third of 14 children, and still has three brothers and one sister living. Her only living
sister, Velma Jones, 90, also attended the luncheon. Her daughter, Barbara Young, said her mother spent most of her early life in the Crossroads area and married Charles Young. They moved to St. Louis, Mo., during the Great Migration and remained there Please see AGNEW | 2
One Alcorn County school board member wants to stop administrators from driving school buses in the future. The request came from board member Daniel Cooper following the approval of two bus drivers at a recent Alcorn School District Board of Education meeting. “I think we should have a policy in place that keeps our principals, assistant principals and directors from driving school buses,” said Cooper. “These are important people that need to remain at school during these important times of the school day.” The District 3 board member requested the creation of such a policy appear on the Aug. 14 regular meeting agenda for discussion. Cooper also said current administrators driving buses should be allowed to continue. “I would like to ‘grandfather’ in the ones who are already driving, but for the future I don’t think we should allow any school or district office administrator to drive,” he said. Currently there are multiple school-level administration personnel who are also bus drivers.
Daniel Cooper Board member In other news, board members gave Superintendent Larry B. Mitchell the OK to move forward with planning a board training retreat. Mitchell said 16 hours of training is required for all school board members. He said he gained approval to host a training session locally after contacting the Mississippi School Boards Association. The board approved seven resignations including Alcorn Central Elementary School Please see DRIVERS | 5
Emergency communications technology to be tested BY L.A. STORY lastory@dailycorinthian.com
Always working to improve the ability to provide emergency communications, Alcorn County Emergency Management Agency will be taking part in a statewide test of new ham radio technology today. The Alcorn County Emergency Management Agency, located at the Justice Center on South Harper Road, in Corinth, will take part in a statewide check from 9 a.m. until 9 p.m. today to test the ham operators ability to provide emergency communications during a disaster.
Dr. John Shipp, M.D.
“We’ve found that word of mouth is not the best. There is a better way of doing things and it’s called digital communications.” Bob Sharpe Alcorn County amateur radio emergency services treasurer “We provide emergency communications to several agencies, one of those being FEMA. Being part of FEMA, the Emergency Operating Center (EOC) at the Justice Center, we will be operating from there. Another
agency we serve are the hospitals. We won’t be setting up at the hospital because access to the hospital is so restrictive, so we will go an operate from a mobile in the parking lot,” said Alcorn County Amateur Radio
Emergency Services Treasurer/ Member Bob Sharpe. The reason for the test is to try out new digital compatibility technology with ham radios. Sharpe provided some background as to the need for the new technology to work along with ham radios. He explained the last incident where emergency communications were really needed and provided by hams was Hurricane Katrina in 2005. He said everyone found out that, when all communications goes down, ham radio is the only viable option they had. However, they also discov-
ered a drawback. He cited the old communication game where a message is given to one person who then repeats it and so on down a line of people. Often, the final relayed message is no longer accurate. “We found this issue to be true in 2005. For instance, Does Hattiesburg Hospital have 16 beds or 60 beds? Do they have 60 beds or do they need 60 beds?” said Sharpe. Even with the issues, he said the word still managed to get out. Please see TECHNOLOGY | 2
25 years ago
10 years ago
Bids are accepted for the reroofing of Biggersville High School.
The county prepares to use additional voting machines to help cope with high voter turnout expected for the upcoming county election.
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