Beauty comes with cost
The owner of the Eastgate Shopping Center parking lot on University Avenue is in favor of adding foliage to his black-top lot but would like the city to consider giving him a couple extra years to come up to code with the landscaping ordinance. The request is the first for the city since passing the ordinance in 2006 that requires all parking lots with over 100 spaces to have one tree per every five parking spaces. (June 9, 2010, Page 1, 12)
UM gets $1M for energy research
The Department of Energy has awarded $1 million to the National Center for Physical Acoustics at the University of Mississippi.
The center has been researching the use of wind farms as an alternative for electrical power. A wind farm is a group of wind turbines in the same location. Individual turbines are connected with a medium voltage power collection systems and communications network. At a substation, the current is increased in voltage with a transformer for connection to the high voltage transmission system. (June 9, 2010, Page 1)
Former insurance agent sues county
A former insurance agent of record for Lafayette County is suing former and current county officials claiming they railroaded him into pleading guilty to crimes he didn’t commit.
The suit, filed May 27 by former insurance agent Ken Nowlin, also names attorney Tony Farese, whom Nowlin says failed to act in his best interest and coerced him into pleading guilty in 2007 to conspiring with former supervisor Gary Massey to scam the county. (June 9, 2010, Page 1)
Local PD flexes its muscles
The Oxford Police Department has some of the strongest and most fit officers in Mississippi — and they have the awards to prove it.
OPD joined 46 fellow law enforcement officers from Mississippi, Tennessee and Virginia for the first Southeastern Regional LawFit Challenge at Olive Branch High School. All four local officers taking part at the challenge took home awards. (June 8, 2010, Page 1)
City orders business’ lights removed
Lights placed outside Downtown Dezigns on the Square will soon be coming down, after the Courthouse Square Preservation Commission denied the company’s lighting request. The owner originally installed them without obtaining correct permissions. Owner Na-Ann Watts said she was simply trying to add antique character and charm to her business. (June 8, 2010, Page 1)
Clockmaker gets more time
Lafayette County supervisors are giving Lloyd Larish, master clockmaker, a few more days to finish the work he started on the Lafayette County Courthouse before searching for someone else to complete the job. (June 8, 2010, Page 1)
Another positive sign?
One traditional sign the economy is rebounding is when builders see more business. More building means an increase in the demand for more wood materials for this construction. The employees at Roseburg Forest Products in Oxford are tickled to be taking more orders for their products. (June 7, 2010, Page 1A)
Poor doesn’t equal failure
Telling people Mississippi is poor and needs to improve its educational system is one thing, but Eric Weber, a professor at the University of Mississippi, hopes to show them. Working on a three-year research project that will result in a documentary, Weber intends to focus on the connection between poverty and failure in education which more often than not is due to self-fulfilling prophecy. (June 7, 2010, Page 1A)
Summer camps for grownups
While there are no canoes, butterflies or swimming pools involved, the Yoknapatawpha Arts Council is offering adult summer “camps” that will help grownups learn more about their creative talents.
The classes include learning how to take photographs on black-and-white film and developing them in a dark room; how to convert your home movies to DVD; and an introduction to the basics of composition, light, sound and camera movement when filming with video. (June 4, 2010, Page 1A)
TV horror hearse or look-alike?
Is it the original creepy hearse used in a popular Memphis TV show in the 1960s and 1970s or just a nearly identical look-alike? That’s the question hearse owner Joe Willis hasn’t been able to answer about his piece of morbid memorabilia. Retirees Joe and Merrill Willis own and operate the Yoknapatawpha Heritage Museum on Highway 30 in Lafayette County and a hearse in their possession for the past 20 years, has recently come under question as to whether it may be the authentic item used in Sivad’s “Fantastic Features” and at the Memphis Malco Theaters. (June 4, 2010, Page 1A)
