MON DAY, MArch 8, 2010 • 50¢
Vicksburg tourism
Bill seeks courses for career track, not college By Shelia Byrd The Associated Press
The project Five journalism students from the University of Mississippi spent two days in Vicksburg last month — to gather and report on the future of tourism in the area. Their stories, directed by reporter Steve Sanoski and Executive Editor Charlie Mitchell, are being published today through Friday.
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A tourist from Essex, England, photographs cannons at Battery De Golyer.
Military park looks ahead to 150th anniversary These stories are the second in a series by staff writer Steve Sanoski and journalism students from the University of Mississippi. On Tuesday: the need for public transit; and the lodging role in Vicksburg.
Aline Carambat
Andrew Mullen Scott
Elizabeth Pearson
Donica Phifer
By David Hopper For The Post The American Civil War took place from 1861 to 1865, with the Siege of Vicksburg, a major turning point, occurring about halfway through. Today, officials of the Vicksburg National Military Park are expecting 150th anniversary events, which will also continue for four years, to renew interest in the era and pique the next generation’s interest in history. More tourists would be welcomed, especially since Hurricane Katrina almost
halved park admissions. “This park is not a destination park,” Chief of Operations Rick Martin said. “It’s a park that
people see if they’re going between Dallas and Atlanta. Vicksburg is midway.” People en route South
to New Orleans would also stop, he said, but leisure travel in that direc-
David Hopper
See Park, Page A7.
Vibrancy for residents might hold key to city future By Elizabeth Pearson For The Post The future of tourism in Vicksburg might be found closer to home than many residents realize. To succeed as a tourism town, Vicksburg needs to a good place for people to live, said Nancy Bell, executive director of the Vicksburg Foundation for Historic Preservation. And people who live here
need to remember that visitors want to see and experience history — and that requires more than markers telling where structures used to be. “Vicksburg has a Nancy bright future,” said Bell Bell, who has served in many capacities in nearly 30 years
Video The best kept tourism secret/ www.vicksburgpost.com as a Vicksburg resident. She’s been president of the Chamber of Commerce, president of the Southern Cultural Heritage Foundation and developer and operator of the preservation foundation’s main property,
the Biedenharn Candy Company Museum, where Coca-Cola was first bottled. “I think that more buildings will be rehabbed and more people will want to come here because it will look more like a vibrant city,” Bell said. Few, if any, know more about Vicksburg’s eclectic architecture See Home, Page A7.
JACKSON — High school students who don’t want to go to college would have an option to pursue career-track studies under a bill being considered in the Mississippi Legislature. The House bill up for debate this week in the Senate outlines 20 course unit requirements for the socalled career track curriculum. Students who choose to go that route would still have to earn four units of English and at least three in math and three in science. “We’re not trying to dummy-down the curriculum,” said House Education Committee Chairman Cecil Brown, D-Jackson. “The whole (educational) system is focused on trying to move kids in a path to get a fouryear degree in college, but a number of kids don’t want to do that.” It’s a concept that’s been discussed for a while. Gov. Haley Barbour has said not all public school students should be encouraged to go to college if they’re not interested in pursuing a four-year degree. Some school districts already offer such curricula under the state Department of Education’s high school redesign program, which is still being expanded. Senate Education Committee Chairman Videt Carmichael said he’s hoping the changes could reduce the state’s 16 percent dropout rate. He said students often drop out of school because they’re bored, and not necessarily because the coursework is too difficult. “We’re talking about courses that are rigorous, but relevant to careers,” said Carmichael, R-Meridian. For instance, some English classes in the career track might focus on reading and See Careers, Page A8.
Fire injures woman, two children
Vicksburg firefighters work to extinguish a blaze on Oak Street Sunday afternoon that sent a woman and her two grandchildren to a burn center in Georgia.
Oak Street blaze destoys three homes By Tish Butts tbutts@vicksburgpost.com Two children and their grandmother were at a Georgia burn center this morning after a roaring blaze Sunday afternoon shot flames high into the sky, destroyed their home and two of their neighbors’ homes on Oak Street.
Barbara Evans, 57, Stephon Evans, 8, and Robert Evans, 4, were flown to the Joseph M. Still Burn Center in Augusta, transferred from River Region Medical Center. A spokesman for the burn center, Anne Cordeiro, said all three were in serious condition this morning. “They were burned pretty bad, most of the body on the
children,” said Vicksburg Fire Chief Charles Atkins. “That’s pretty bad on a child.” The fire at their home at 2314 Oak St., was reported at about 2:30, and it quickly spread to homes just feet away north and south, at 2312 and 2316 Oak. The three were among See Fire, Page A8.
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1960: Democrat John F. Kennedy and Republican Richard M. Nixon are the victors of the New Hampshire presidential primary. 1965: The United States lands its first combat troops in South Vietnam as 3,500 Marines are brought in to defend the U.S. air base at Da Nang.
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