Lumberton Informer

On Sunday, May 31, 2015, the KeKe B Foundation will host their 7th Annual Walk Against Domestic Violence and Candlelight Vigil in honor of Kewaii Neivas Rogers Buckner and other victims of domestic violence in our community. The mission of the KeKe B Foundation is to promote and preserve non-violent, non-abusive family systems through intervention, prevention and education. To empower victims and their families to break the cycle of violence. To make the public aware of the resources available and to bring domestic violence out of the shadows and unite communities against it. The 7th Annual Walk Against Domestic Violence and Candlelight Vigil will be held at the Ben Barrett Community Center. Participants in the walk will start lining up at Lumberton City Hall at 4:30 pm. The foundation and other volunteers are taking orders for t-shirts. The pricing is as follows: Youth XS-Adult XL are $15, XXL-5XL are $18. Donations are also accepted to help make this event a success. All proceed

Yesterday, I told you about my attempt to view records held in a locked public records room. I wasn't expecting any problems but I'm learning to expect the unexpected. After leaving city hall, I received a call letting me know that I can view the public records on Monday, May 4, 2015. The reason given was "it's time for end of the month billing". I wasn't told it was due to an ordinance. So, I'm guessing, the water bills will not be delivered on the last day of April. As I stated, I never expected a road block on the road to freedom of information. Since I didn't know the exact laws governing public records in Mississippi, I decided to do a little research. §25-61-1. Short title This chapter shall be known and may be cited as the "Mississippi Public Records Act of 1983." It is the policy of the Legislature that public records must be available for inspection by any person unless otherwise provided by this act. Furthermore, providing

This is a first, even in the City of Lumberton. I go to city hall to review and possibly make copies of various minutes but when I arrived, the city clerk was out of the office and I was informed by the, you know what, I really don't know her title, I don't know if she's the deputy clerk or public works clerk but she informed me that the records room was locked and she does not have the key to get into the room. Now, are you having a now what now moment too? Well, first of all, the minute books are public records and are supposed to be accessible to the public. I have never had a problem going through the minute books before Merlene Wall became city ckerk. I didn't have a problem when JoAnn Ladner was in office, when Leonette Wynn was in office or when Stephanie Mullings was in office. Oh, wait a minute, I made an error. I don't think I ever requested to see the minute books when JoAnn Ladner was in office and when Leonette Wynn was city clerk she asked me to let

I don't know if I want to sing Elton John's "I'm Still Standing" or Jennifer Hudson's "And I Am Telling You." Either way, this blog is not going anywhere; you can either love it, leave it or lump it. I apologize to my readers for turning the blog into a private forum but it was a knee jerk reaction. I recall telling a friend that constantly addressing your haters devalues those that respect and support you because your attention is misdirected. What's that old saying, one monkey don't stop the show. I know I received a lot of email addresses and I've added them because I may change my mind again. In the meantime, I'm going to continue to do what I do and let my haters keep reading and getting tight in the face like they've been snacking on a bag of lemons. Hopefully, while reading and printing pages from my blog they'll learn something. One thing they're going to learn is I'm too fat to run so I guess I have to st

I wasn't planning on blogging today but I received an interesting tip. It seems that instead of doing her job as city clerk, Merlene has been on my blog. Allegedly speaking of course, she's hired William Ducker and is planning on serving me papers today. I hope I didn't spoil the surprise. It seems like it's official, we're going to court. Now I get the chance to subpoena all the records and minutes to defend what I've posted in the blog. I also get to subpoena the alderpersons to testify about things said in executive session. Apparently someone is bothered by the truth. For the record, the only people bothered by the truth are those living in a kingdom of lies. I wonder what story she concocted for her attorney? Was it the fact that she was trained twice and we're still paying BBI to do the work or maybe it's the facts about her lack of knowledge about the budget. Who knows? One thing for certain, as soon as Danny Edwards deliver the paperwork, I

On April 12, 2015, the lives of one family changed forever. The news traveled quickly from Medina, TN to Lumberton, MS about the tragic deaths of 15 year old twins, Shawn and Keyshawn Collier. I may not have known the twins personally, but I know their mother, Dorena "Evette" Collier, their grandmother, Mrs. Charlotte Edwards, their aunts, uncles and cousins. The Collier family has many ties to the City of Lumberton. After hearing the news, I prayed for the family and offered my support. I could never imagine or would want to imagine the toll the death of a child has on a parent but as I viewd the Homegoing Services, I vould tell that the twins, Shawn and Keyshawn, were loved and will be greatly missed. I read some post via Facebook and I can see that their mother is a pillar of strength and courage. Instead of being consumed by grief, she's rallying for the establishment of a community center in Medina, TN. The seed has been planted and now the work has begun to nur

As I was watching the news last week, I saw Lamar County Supervisor, Phillip Carlise, defending his district against the City of Hattiesburg's proposed attempt to annex the area. As I watched him vehemently defend his constituents or the money they represent, my mind went back to December, 2014, when this very board member addressed Mayor Winston's plea for assistance by saying "Before we ask our tax payers… to fork over and to give money for an effort, we have to make sure as the board of supervisors that the city has done all they could within itself to try to move forward" I'm sure Carlisle is well liked in his district but I wonder why the Lamar County Board of Supervisors are not willing to fight for Lumberton? Carlisle said "before we ask our taxpayers". That statement bothers me because the residents of Lumberton are taxpayers. As a matter of fact, for decades, the City of Lumberton was a major contributor to the tax rolls of Lamar County. I gu

Two weeks ago, the board approved the hiring of two seasonal employees to cut grass in Lumberton. Have you driven through Lumberton lately? If so, you would notice that none of the grass has been cut. The grass at the parks, medians and all cemeteries are in dire need of attention. At the regular board meeting, there were claims of budget shortfalls but somehow they had enough money to hire two additional employees for 40/hours week with full benefits to cut grass. However, for some reason, the grass is not getting cut. Now I know we've had a lot of rain last week but today it's sunny and I drove around but didn't see any city employees cutting grass. So why is the grass not getting cut when two people have a full time job to ensure that the grass is cut? I know they can't use the industrial mowers but couldn't they use the grass trimmers to maintain the medians and to clear the grass around the fences at the parks and the graves at the cemetery? What has the gras

How about having a sweet start this week! Over the weekend, I learned that Shirley White has entered the cake business. Everytime there was a dinner or function at the church, everyone wanted to make sure they got a slice of Shirley's buttery, delicious pound cake. Well, now you can have more than a slice; you can have the whole cake. I must admit, I never had the pound cake with cream cheese frosting but since I'm so dedicated to providing accurate information, I'm going to order one so I can share my review with the readers of the blog. Please keep in mind that I'm willing to order and sample this cake for research purposes. LOL! But don't wait and take my word. If you would like to see/taste for yourself, give Shirley White a call at 601-796-8028 or 601-270-3810 for ordering and pricing information. Please note, this is a local business venture that produces homemade pound cakes baked with love. Unfortunately, out of state delivery is not available at this tim

This has been a tough week on educators in Lumberton. There were 11 teachers laid off and the elementary principal is leaving for a better job. I haven't heard of the cuts made on the high school level. I don't know the last time MAEP was fully funded and we know there's not enough tax money generated in Lumberton to sustain anything major since our tax base is lacking. Based on the low number of students, its evident that people are either moving or opting to home school their children. For quite some time, I've been thinking that it's probably time to do like Baxterville, and focus on elementary school and allow students to attend middle school and high school in adjourning counties. As you know, I don't think like the herd and that's probably a reason why I'm not heard. Honestly, from a fiscal standpoint, can Lumberton sustain a high school? From what I've been told, there's only 148 students in junior/senior high school, we're now 1A in

Normally, I would wait to blog but based on the responses, I felt I should go ahead and address the matters now instead of allowing various opinions to fester overnight. I hope you know that I'm missing Scandal to compose this blog post. Don't cry for me because I have it recorded. I'll just be delayed a few minutes. Anywho, after a few calls, I discovered that most of the teachers laid off were first year teachers and the lay off were a result of budget cuts. As you may or may not know, MAEP has not been fully funded for years. The lack of funding coupled with the lack of local revenue has caused a budget shortfall that resulted in cuts in the number of teachers employed at Lumberton Elementary School. I'm not sure of the number of cuts made at the Jr./Sr. High School level but I'm sure there were cuts there as well. As for the principal, I'm sure his decision to leave was based on what's best for him and his family. He came to Lumberton from Hancock Cou

In addition to making custom wook products, renovations, implementing a new software design program and offering to help with the work on the Lumberton Museum, Chris Wright of Wright's Custom Woodwork is hosting a "Helping Thy Neighbor" Car and Bike Show. On Saturday, June 20, 2015, Wright's Custom Woodwork will host a car and bike show at Wood-Hinton Park in Lumberton, Mississippi. All proceeds will fund a renovation project for a person or family in need. There is a $20 entry fee for all cars and bikes with live entertainment by Bobby Buckalew and Temple. The show starts at 9 am and will end at 6 pm. All rides must be entered by 2 pm. Trophies awarded at 4 pm for the following: Best Paint, Best of Show, Best Classic, Best Hotrod, Best Bike, Best Bagged, Under Construction, and Club Participation. There will be raffles such as a custom piece of furniture from Wright's Custom Woodwork, 50/50 and more. There will be arts and crafts vendors, food vendors,

The days are getting longer and warmer days are ahead. Have you been putting off that construction project, room expansion/addition, wanting a new roof or just need that leaky faucet replaced? Well, the crew you need to call is Owen Construction. Here's a quote from their website. "Not every business starts at the top of its success. Everything that goes up must come down. We, at Owen Construction, know what its like to be at the bottom at some point because business does get slow. That is why we will never turn down a job because it's not what we prefer to do. So if it's just a single door, kitchen cabinet, or just a simple piece of screen that you need to have replaced, please don't hesitate to give us a call." Owen Construction is ready to tackle any of your home improvement needs. Give them a call and find examples of their work and contact information on their Facebook page: Owen Construction. No job is too big or too small.

Residents of Lumberton were shocked as news spread of the drowning of two Medina, Tennessee twin teens, Shawn and Keyshawn Collier. The young men are not from Lumberton but they have family ties to Lumberton. Their grandmother, Charlotte Edwards, resides in Lumberton and their mother, Dorena Collier (also known as Evette when she lived and attended school in Lumberton.) When a tragedy strikes Lumberton, the ripple effects of that tragedy touches us all either directly or indirectly because in one way or another, we're all connected. Although we might not know the twins Shawn and KeyShawn, personally, we know their mother, their grandmother, their aunts, uncles, cousins and friends. I can't imagine the grief of losing a child and I definitely can't imagine the pain of losing two at the same time. From the news reports, it's clear that the twins were well liked and respected by their friends, members of the community and by their teachers. They had a promising future

Lumberton is a small, once close knit community. With every election, the concerns of the community diminishes while self-serving agendas flourish. Hosea 4:6 says "my people perish for lack of knowledge..." Most people stop there but if you continue reading, the scripture goes on to say "because you rejected knowledge..." And therein lies one of Lumberton's major problems, those elected to represent the citizens of Lumberton are rejecting knowledge every month. At the recent board meeting, Chief Cowart explained, in terms a 5th grader can understand, the problems she's encountering because she does not have access to a full time court clerk. Unfortunately, most of those responsible for processing the information she presented are not smarter than a 5th grader. It was crystal clear that the court clerk was aggressively collecting old fines and payment when she was working 40/week. Since her hours has been slashed to 20/week, she's not able to devote

I was attempting to get the blog posted the night of the meeting. To my surprise, there wasn't an executive session. In my haste, I realized some essential moments were omitted. When Chief Cowart was presenting her report she showed the drastic drop in collection of fines once the court clerk hours were slashed. The chief also noted the extra work that was required to present the delinquent cases to a collection agency. Despite the additional assessment, money collected and presentation of records, the board refused to return the court clerk to a full time position. For some reason, the board think the same amount of work performed in 40 hours could be completed in 20 but they find it problematic to listen to citizens for more than 2 minutes. As the meeting progressed, there were two things I noticed from the other department heads (Danny and Merlene); their boldness in saying what they're NOT going to do. Here we have the Chief of Police practically begging to get more

The first agenda item was to allow Mayor Winston to sign a proclamation to declare National Association for Education of Young Children Week April 13-17, 2015. Next the board voted to declare the Lumberton Hospital surplus and advertise for bids. After a lengthy discussion, it's still not clear if they're including tne land. The board voted to allow Lamar County to take over the Lumberton Volunteer Fire Department. This new agreement terminates the contract with the Lumberton Fireproof Panthers. It should also put an end to seeing R1 (the fire department suburban) at tne local stores and 301 S 5th Street. In all fairness, the bags loaded into the truck and Ramey's and Family Dollar could have been supplies for the department but we no longer need to be concerned about how the vehicle is being used after tomorrow. The new contract with Lamar County includes a 10 year lease of the fire station and the transfer of $20,000 from Lumberton's fire department account to Lama

Spring is here and in Lumberton, that's an indication for more chaos. On yesterday, Richard Rose turned himself in to face the charges filed against him in Diamondhead. Rose has ties to the LVFD and was hired by McGraw, Crider and Dukes to prepare our current budget that didn't include any millege rste increases to help sustain essential city services such as adequate police protection. As stated in previous blog posts, Rose was never "officially" hired; meaning his name is not spread across the minutes but there's an endorsed, cancelled check with his name on it. Hopefully, one day, the cancelled check and the complaint filed with the ethics department will surface in lieu of an investigation. The Mayor of Terry was recently arrested for embezzlement and, in my opinion, the payment of Rose could be interpreted as a form of embezzlement or extortion since there's nothing in the minutes to explain why Rose was paid by the City of Lumberton and the city spe