Saturday Sept. 22,
2012
50 cents
Daily Corinthian Vol. 116, No. 229
Partly sunny Today
Tonight
81
46
0% chance of rain
• Corinth, Mississippi • 16 pages • One section
‘The engine quit’ Plane crash lands in soybean field; pilot, wife walk away BY BOBBY J. SMITH bjsmith@dailycorinthian.com
A pilot and his wife walked away uninjured after a small plane crashed in southern Alcorn County on Friday afternoon. The single-engine Cessna 150 went down in a field in the Hinkle community around 4:30 p.m. “The engine quit,” said 63-year-old pilot Ron Noland, of Hermiston, Ore. “I had plenty of fuel. It started coming down and I circled around looking for a place to land. These soybeans didn’t look as deep as it is.” Noland’s plane met the earth in farmer Brandon Moore’s soybeans in a field a little over a mile from County Road 518. The plane’s landing gear caught in the tall soybeans and the plane flipped — tail over head — and came to rest upside down. Noland and his wife, Cindy, crawled out of the plane and walked to the nearest house. The plane had been purchased only a few hours before the crash in Atlanta, where the Nolands took off heading for Memphis. Noland has been flying planes since 1968, he said, and Friday’s crash was his first. Several local rescue agencies responded to the crash, including the Pisgah Volunteer Fire
Staff photo by Bobby J. Smith
Pilot Ron Noland of Oregon and wife Cindy (left) look over their crashed plane in the Hinkle community. The plane left Atlanta before it crashed. Department, Biggersville Fire & Rescue, the Alcorn County Sheriff’s Department and the
Alcorn Emergency Management Agency. “The main thing is they didn’t
get hurt,” said EMA Director Ricky Gibens. “It’s almost a miracle.”
The crash is under investigation by the National Transportation Safety Board.
Corinth leaders look to development Church hosts drama BY BOBBY J. SMITH
bjsmith@dailycorinthian.com
Standing in a field south of Corinth on Friday, a group of local civic leaders looked to the future. They met at a gently sloping, open field at the intersection of U.S. 45 and Camp Warriner Road, a site purchased by The Alliance five years back to be improved and marketed to industries that are looking for a good place to build. They were there to mark the final steps of a project that will make the property more alluring to industries looking to build a new facility. “It’s always a great day when we’re doing work to make improvements to our economic development,” said Mayor Tommy Irwin. “This is the future home of an employer and a good-looking piece of property.” The City of Corinth, the Alcorn County Supervisors and The Alliance were all represented at the gathering, standing at a place where one day — hopefully — an industrial building will provide jobs and a boost to the local economy. The improvement project to the almost 50-acre site is almost complete. The project involved filling an old, semicircular ditch on the south side of the land and building a new ditch that runs parallel to Camp Warriner Road, as well as filling gullies on the north side of the
BY STEVE BEAVERS sbeavers@dailycorinthian.com
Phase I Environmental Assessment, geotechnical report including soil borings, cultural resources survey and more. “It’s an ongoing effort to make this site more marketable,” said Alliance President Gary Chandler, while standing near a bulldozer from Pittman Construc-
Heaven or hell? Where people spend eternity is all up to them. West Corinth Baptist Church wants individuals to make the right choice and have eternal life with God. The church will present “Heaven's Gates & Hell's Flames” on Sunday night at 6 p.m. Presentations are also set for Monday and Tuesday night at 7 p.m. The dramas involve seven skits each night and takes about a hour. “We wanted a signature for our church to impact the community with Christ,” said church pastor Seth Kirkland. “Our whole church has bought into it and this is something a lost person needs to see.” “One of the best ways to be a witness is when a Christian brings a lost person to something like this,” added associate pastor Jacky Ward. Reality Outreach Ministries has been working with churches for over 30 years in presenting the drama. Using elaborate
Please see PROJECT | 2
Please see DRAMA | 2
Staff photo by Steve Beavers
Tyler Pittman with Pittman Construction explains to Corinth Mayor Tommy Irwin, Board of Supervisors President Lowell Hinton and Alliance President Gary Chandler the work completed by the construction company. property. Lowell Hinton, president of the Alcorn County Board of Supervisors, said the improvements to the site do much to open up the area. “This adds several more acres where it was divided by the big ditch,” Hinton said. “When industries come in, it’ll be prepared. This opens up new op-
portunities for this piece of property.” The land was bought by the Alliance in 2007. To date, roughly $890,000 has been spent on the site. This includes purchase, land clearing/grubbing and a variety of necessary studies — a boundary survey, drafting a topographical map of the site at one foot intervals,
Board, commission seats coming up Medicaid office hosts BY JEBB JOHNSTON jjohnston@dailycorinthian.com
A number of board and commission appointments are set to come before county supervisors and city aldermen in the next few weeks. The terms for three seats on the Corinth Area Convention and Visitors Bureau Board of Directors will expire on Oct. 17. These include a city appointee, Jason Grisham, and
two joint appointees — Melissa Carson and Luke Doehner. Carson’s seat is designated as a restaurateur slot, and Doehner’s is designated for a hotelier. Terms on the board are four years. At its next regular meeting, the Alcorn County Board of Supervisors will consider an appointment to The Alliance Board of Directors and the Alcorn County Human Re-
source Agency Board of Directors. Others coming up include a joint appointment to the Magnolia Regional Health Center Board of Trustees for a term expiring Nov. 15, a seat on the city planning commission and board of adjustment expiring Oct. 15, and a seat on the board of the Corinth Housing Authority expiring Oct. 1.
Index Stocks........7 Classified......14 Comics...... 13 Wisdom...... 12
Weather........5 Obituaries........ 3 Opinion........4 Sports...... 10
United Way walk BY BOBBY J. SMITH bjsmith@dailycorinthian.com
A local office is stepping up some support for the United Way of Corinth & Alcorn County. The Corinth Regional Office of the Division of Medicaid will host a 5K Walk for United Way on Saturday, Sept. 29. All funds raised at
the event will go to the local United Way chapter. “When an organization like Medicaid hosts official events, it provides additional funds that will enhance United Way of Alcorn County’s ability to fund local
On this day in history 150 years ago President Abraham Lincoln announces the Emancipation Proclamation, which promises freedom for all slaves held in the Confederacy. The announcement virtually ensures there will be no foreign intervention by England or France which had already banned slavery.
Please see WALK | 3