Inside today: Delinquent county taxes — pages 4-16B Saturday August 11, 2012 50 cents
Daily Corinthian Vol. 116, No. 193
Partly sunny Today
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• Corinth, Mississippi • 30 pages • Two sections
City continues storm cleanup
Staff photo by Steve Beavers
This property at 216 Penn Street is scheduled for a hearing on Sept. 4, when the Board of Aldermen may consider having it demolished.
Corinth takes tough stance on unsafe property cleanup BY JEBB JOHNSTON jjohnston@dailycorinthian.com
Two more Corinth properties are set for demolition. In property cleanup actions this week, the Board of Aldermen adjudicated for demolition properties at 1409 East Fifth Street and one at the corner of Ross and Hawkins with no house number available. The property at Ross and Hawkins is boarded up and falling in. Code Enforcement Officer Kim Ratliff said the owner has made some effort to clean up the yard, but the city has been unsuccessful in getting the owner to deal with the dilapidated structure. On the East Fifth Street property, the last resident is deceased, and the city has had no response from surviving family members. The board gave another property at 216 Penn Street a final continuance. It will be on the
board’s agenda again on Sept. 4 to consider for demolition if no action is taken by the owner. Ratliff said the property needs to be demolished because it is not secure and has attracted vagrants. It also has an old cellar in the back that is filling up with water and is a health hazard. The owner had been working toward a sale of the property that hasn’t come to fruition, he said. The board also adjudicated one other property at 1521 Jackson Street for cleanup only. Other cleanup actions: ■1301 East Waldron Street — Continued to Sept. 4. The owner has completed some cleanup and the house is repairable. ■1308 Waldron Street — Continued to Sept. 4. Some cleanup has occurred and the city is waiting for probate issues to clear. ■608 Wenasoga Road and 1123 Madison Street — The
ACHS dance team hosting fundraiser BY STEVE BEAVERS sbeavers@dailycorinthian.com
The Alcorn Central dance team is ready to clean up and clean out. Central's squad is having a car wash and garage sale to raise money for a trip to nationals. The multi-purpose fundraiser is scheduled for today at Farmington Town Hall from 8 a.m. until 3 p.m. “The girls have been working all summer to condition, learn dances and plan fundraisers,� said dance coach Rebecca Lewis. “The deposit for the nationals is due the middle of October and the balance will be due in December.� AC earned a berth to the national event with an impressive showing at the Mississippi
State Camp in June. “They worked tirelessly the entire week and earned a superior trophy,� said Lewis. The superior performance qualified the unit for a trip to Orlando, Florida in February. In addition to the superior rating, Central won spirit sticks each day. The group also was awarded the Super Spirit Stick and Coaches Leadership Award. On Saturday, the first of the fundraisers needed to reach the nationals is set to have plenty of nice items. There will be TVs, computer and desk, metal and marble dining table along with chairs. Home decor items along with toys and exercise equipment will also be available at the garage sale.
board authorized reentry on these previously adjudicated lots for additional cleanup. ■Lauren Drive and Forest School Road — Dismissed. ■1613 Jackson Street — Dismissed. The board scheduled new public hearings for nine properties for 5 p.m. Sept. 4, coinciding with a regular board meeting: 714 Dale Street (Ferguson), 1005 Tenth Street (Hamm), 1005 Blasingame Street (Dengler), 402 Penn Street (Crump & Foster), 1605 Fifth Street (Griffin), Dale Street (Bostic), 100 Montgomery Street (Holloway), Victory Properties LLC on Highway 72 West and 815 Sixth Street (Warren). The Victory Properties building is a former Shell gas station that was closed when a new station was built. In zoning matters, aldermen approved a variance at 1215 West Clover Lane for a garage/ shop near the rear property line.
Comparing the severe wind storm of the night of July 30 to others, Bynum said it produced about one-third the debris seen when Katrina moved through but about double the debris of the big spring storms of 2010 and 2011. Coming at the end of the city's fiscal year, it is presenting a budget challenge, he said. Officials are looking at property damage to determine if a disaster declaration might be possible for Alcorn County. On another note, Bynum said the city is seeing a problem with grass clippings and leaves being blown into the streets and gutters. “This will end up in our storm drains, and they will become stopped up,� he said. “It is also a safety hazard to have slick grass clippings in the street.�
Park, shelter seek funding increases BY JEBB JOHNSTON jjohnston@dailycorinthian.com
Numerous agencies made budget appeals before city aldermen and county supervisors during the past week, with the majority requesting level funding and a few seeking increases. Park Director Todd Witt told both boards that the park is seeking a 5 percent budget increase this year. The park had a $573,000 budget for the current fiscal year. In the request, he cited rising costs, staffing requirements and general needs, such as paving the parking area at the tennis courts. “We’ve got so many differ-
ent issues out there. It could be better and it takes money to do it,� he said. Youth softball and baseball had booming participation for the summer, and adult softball had 48 teams. The Alcorn County Youth Football League brought 315 players and cheerleaders to the park. The Corinth-Alcorn Animal Shelter is seeking level funding of $67,500 from the city but is asking the county for a bump from $25,000 to $60,000. Volunteer shelter manager Charoltte Doehner told supervisors the shelter faces a shortfall, partly because of payroll Please see FUNDING | 2A
Brice’s Crossroads author signs books BY BOBBY J. SMITH bjsmith@dailycorinthian.com
Stewart L. Bennett, the author of “The Battle of Brice’s Crossroads,� will sign copies of his new book today at Books-a-Million. The books is the story of the soldiers who fought the battle, the brilliant and not-so-brilliant officers who led them, and the land — an obscure crossroads just west of Baldwyn that would become the scene of one of the South’s most one-sided victories in the western theater of the American Civil War. Bennett, the department chair of social and behavioral sciences at Blue Mountain College, said he wanted his book to help visitors of the battlefield better understand what happened on the site on June 10, 1864. “I want to find a way to make it come alive,� he said. Extensively researched and highly detailed, Bennett’s book was written to be informative enough for a serious student of the war without getting bogged down in the minutiae that would alienate more casual readers. He covers the strategic side of the battle and all the forces involved, but the book is primarily a human interest story that is often focused on the men fighting on the ground. “Using a wealth of first-person soldier accounts, Dr. Bennett’s account of Brice’s Crossroads is highly Please see SIGNING | 2A
Index Stocks...... 7A Classified......1B Comics....13A Wisdom....12A
By Jebb Johnston jjohnston@dailycorinthian.com The City of Corinth is asking for patience as the street department works to clean up the large amounts of storm debris. Street Commissioner Jim Bynum said his department is working hard to keep up with the tree debris that residents are leaving at the curb for pickup. “People are still dragging a lot of stuff out of their backyards,� he said. “We’re trying to get to all parts of the city on an equal basis. While we work on the cleanup, we still have to provide service to the whole 30 square miles of the city.� The eastern side of the city took the brunt of the wind damage — generally east of Madison Street, Bynum said.
On this day in history 150 years ago
Weather......5A Obituaries......3A Opinion......4A Sports....10A
From his headquarters at the Whitfield House south of Corinth, Gen. Grant orders all runaway slaves entering his lines to be given employment in various departments of his command. Many are put to work on the new fortifications surrounding the depot.
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