Tuesday July 3,
2012
50 cents
Daily Corinthian Vol. 116, No. 159
Partly sunny Today
Tonight
102
72
• Corinth, Mississippi • 16 pages • 1 section
Supervisors seek infrastructure grant BY JEBB JOHNSTON jjohnston@dailycorinthian.com
Alcorn County is seeking a $500,000 grant to provide road improvements in the area of Caterpillar’s planned warehouse facility on South Harper Road. The Board of Supervisors on Monday agreed to apply for a Development Infrastructure Program Grant for the project, which has a total estimated cost
of $615,256. The county and city will cover the additional cost. Improvements to Manpower Road and its intersections at South Harper and Cardinal Drive are planned. “We’re having to widen both intersections to make the turning radius where trucks can turn with the longer trailers,” said County Engineer Kent Geno. The project will also add an acceleration lane parallel to
Harper so that trucks exiting the facility can merge into the traffic as they head toward U.S. 45. In other business: ■ The board received a petition containing the names of more than 200 people who support the bridge replacement project on County Road 346 in the 2nd district. Plans are moving forward for a two-lane bridge with construction possibly starting by the first quarter
of 2013. ■ Supervisors appointed Tonya Butler-Farris to complete the term of the late Wayne Butler on the Northeast Mississippi Community College Board of Trustees. She is his daughter. Butler was reappointed to a five-year term in January 2011. ■ The board received the resignation of Don Rinehart from the Tombigbee River Valley Water Management District
Board of Directors and will be considering his replacement. ■ The board accepted Commerce National Bank’s financing bid of 1.55 percent on a $125,000 negotiable note for district 2. Supervisor Dal Nelms said the need for the note stems from debts in the district prior to his taking office. ■ Supervisors received fiscal year budget requests from several outside agencies.
Blaze destroys ATV business BY BOBBY J. SMITH bjsmith@dailycorinthian.com
A Corinth ATV and motorcycle dealership was destroyed in a fire that began late Sunday. The Corinth Fire Department received a call about a fire at T & R Polaris Suzuki shortly after 11 p.m. on Sunday, said Fire Chief Rob Price. All four fire trucks responded to the business on U.S. 72 East but the fire had already spread throughout the building. “It had a pretty good head start on us,” Price said. “When we got there it was full of smoke and under pressure — trying to push out every crack in the building.” Price said the building and its contents were “a total loss.”
Staff photo by Reece Terry
T & R Polaris Suzuki was destroyed by a fire late Sunday night. All four Corinth Fire Department trucks responded to the business on U.S. 72 East. The cause of the blaze has not been determined. The fire was brought under control but the building continued to burn
on Monday. Price said it will probably continue to smolder through the first days of the week.
“It’s going to be a couple more days before we can really think about getting in there,” he said.
Minor cracking Bridge repairs needed before road opens
T & R Polaris Suzuki is described on its website at “the Largest Volume Polaris Dealer in Mississippi.”
Heat blamed in man’s death BY STEVE BEAVERS sbeavers@dailycorinthian.com
BY JEBB JOHNSTON jjohnston@dailycorinthian.com
Some “minor cracking” in a large bridge on the Kimberly-Clark industrial access road is set to be repaired this week, likely setting the stage for the road’s opening within the next couple of weeks. The recent delay in the road’s opening has been the result of cracks that formed in the bridge over the Redmont Railroad. County Engineer Kent Geno said a thorough analysis of the bridge has given it an all-clear for safety. “Everything is as we have assumed it would be — it is structurally sound,” he said. “The steel is correct. The
“Both entities agree that it was just a combination of ambient conditions — wind, temperature, that sort of thing, that caused this minor cracking on the bridge.” Kent Geno County engineer concrete is correct.” Eutaw Construction had an analysis completed by a testing firm, and Geno said a concrete industry association also looked at the cracking. “Both entities agree that it was just a combination of ambient conditions — wind,
temperature, that sort of thing, that caused this minor cracking on the bridge,” said Geno. It is a 28-foot by 40-foot section of the bridge on the road connecting U.S. Highway 72 and Kendrick Road for the benefit of truck traffic to the KC plant.
Both entities recommended sealing the cracks to solve the bridge problem. “The contractor wants to begin immediately with this sealing process, and hopefully, by week’s end, we’ll be trying to get together a final inspection of the project,” said Geno. The sealant is an epoxy that will prevent water from seeping into the concrete and getting to the rebar, he said. The supplier, Sika Corporation, guarantees “it will seal the cracks forever,” he said. In an additional step to help the project move forward, the engineer said the Please see BRIDGE | 2
BURNSVILLE — The extremely hot weather was the cause of death of an elderly Burnsville man over the weekend. Wayne Lambert, 72, 11 Turnpike Mountain Road, collapsed in his driveway after walking to the mailbox on Sunday, according to a Tishomingo County Sheriff’s Department report. A family member saw him lying in the driveway and called 911. Family members got Lambert out of the heat and in the shade before medical assistance arrived. Lambert, who suffered from dementia, was ruled to have died due to the hot environment by Tishomingo County coroner Mack Wilemon. The Burnsville resident was county surveyor for Tishomingo County for 34 years.
Spence named assistant superintendent BY FLOYD INGRAM Chickasaw Journal
The Houston Board of Trustees has named Chad Spence to the district’s No. 2 spot. Spence will take the assistant superintendent job formerly held by Israel Lee, who retired this month. Spence will move into his office at the Houston School District Central Office this week. “I am very excited to be here and look forward to the start of school,” said Spence. “While this is a new position for me, I do have a history with this dis-
trict and I’m glad to be back here in this new role.” Spence, a Corinth native, was Houston Middle School Principal from 2006 to 2008 and played a key part in moving that school from a Level 3 to Level 5 school. Spence was hired by the Pontotoc City Schools as principal of D.T. Cox Elementary School in summer of 2008. Spence holds a Bachelor of Arts in Elementary Education from Alcorn State and a Masters degree in Education Leadership from Ole Miss. Spence said he plans to seek his doctor-
ate and his career goal is to be a school superintendent. Spence’s first teaching job was with the Tupelo School District where he taught sixth graders reading and English for five years. Spence and his wife Verlena, who is an assistant school principal in Tupelo, are expecting their first child in July. “We accomplished a lot with the team we built at the middle school,” said Spence. “I had a lot of success early in my career
Index Stocks........7 Classified......14 Comics...... 11 Wisdom...... 10
Weather........5 Obituaries........ 3 Opinion........4 Sports........8
Please see SPENCE | 2
Photo courtesy Floyd Ingram
Chad Spence has been hired as the new assistant superintendent at Houston schools. Spence is a former Houston Middle School principal and was most recently employed at Pontotoc City Schools.
On this day in history 150 years ago Gen. Earl Van Dorn takes command of the District of Mississippi, essentially the western half of the state. His promotion elevates Gen. Sterling Price to the head of Army of the West.