School consolidation, award-winning projects, an odd catch on the water, an expert speaking at Ole Miss and residents opposing a landfill in Oxford were all on the discussion block on this day in history. See these excerpts from 1986, 1990, 1997, 2004 and 2010.

April 20, 2010

Should districts combine?

Water Valley and Coffeeville have been recommended for school consolidation.

Colorado-based consulting firm Augenblick, Palaich and Associates released a recommendation Monday and it included Coffeeville as one of 18 school districts in the state to merge.

The two schools are just over 10 miles apart.

Coffeeville Superintendent Eddie Anderson said he had not yet received information on why his district was named.

April 20, 2004

Restored Depot gets statewide honor

The newly restored Oxford Depot is now on a list of 14 outstanding preservation projects from across the state.

The Mississippi Heritage Trust, a nonprofit historic preservation advocacy group, will hand out its Heritage Awards Friday in Hattiesburg, and Oxford is one.

Built in 1866, the Depot was badly worn and partially crumbling by the time the University of Mississippi  purchased it in 1993 and then restored it thanks to Mississippi Department of Transportation funds.

April 18, 1997

Man takes gator by the tail

Randy Sneed was fishing in Hurricane Creek, but a bass didn’t come out of the water on his hook.

“He came up hissing,” Sneed said of his six-pound catch, a two and a half foot alligator.

According to local wildlife officials, the reptiles are rarity in this neck of the woods, but a little more common in the middle part of the state.

April 24, 1990

Landfill proposal draws opposition

The city of Oxford and Browning Ferris Industries may be on the verge of reaching an agreement for the nationwide waste management corporation to operate the city’s landfill.

Area environmentalists fear a possible deal, because they have concerns Browning could use environmentally unsafe approaches.

Preliminary landfill testing procedures would cost $100,000 and be taken over by BFI and the company would accept maintenance costs for a 30-year period after the landfill closes.

April 21, 1986

Levin expresses fears for remaining hostages

When the body of Peter Kilburn was flown to America this weekend, the trip brought a cold message home to Jeremy Levin.

Kilburn, a former librarian at the American University of Beirut was taken hostage by a group of Shiite Moslems in retaliation for holding of prisoners convicted in the 1983 bombing of U.S. and French embassies in Kuwait.

“We may have lost the race to bring any more of the hostages home alive,” Levin said.

Levin was Cable News Network’s Middle East bureau chief when abducted. He later escaped. He spoke with University of Mississippi journalists about his escape and U.S. action on freeing the six Americans still held hostage.