Lumberton Informer

There will be a blood drive today at the Lumberton Elementary School. Every minute of every day, someone needs blood. That blood can only come from a volunteer donor, a person like you who makes the choice to donate. There is no substitute for your donation. The need is constant. The gratification is instant. Give blood.

A note from the Director concerning proposed cuts to the Mississippi Library Commission's funding: I wanted to take a moment to share with you how decreased funding at the Mississippi Library Commission will affect Lamar County Library System patrons. Currently 21% of the personnel expenditures at Lamar County Library System come from grants we receive from the Mississippi Library Commission. We are currently serving over 15,000 patrons a month with a staff of only 15 full time employees. Our smaller branches only have 2 full time staff members. Reducing staff hours would also mean reducing the hours that we open for business. When staff members are sick, it might mean closing the branch because there would likely be no extra staff to send to cover the branches. It would also mean cutting programming out almost completely, save for storytimes and maybe one adult program per branch because we could simply would not have the staff available to conduct them. Staff would have less t...

A troublesome portion of Highway 11 will be getting some needed repairs. Those traveling that portion of highway between Lumberton and Purvis will need to make adjustments to their travel route over the next few months. M-DOT is getting ready to start a road project on the Highway 11 underpass. John Walton Construction, based in Mobile, Alabama was awarded the contract Wednesday. A few months ago, Mayor Holder announced that the funding was available to make repairs and possibly expand the area, but they are still waiting for the railway company to approve the expansion. The crews are slated to address the drainage system that runs under the area, but there was no word on when the expansion of the area will begin. In other news, Ben Winston, District 2 Supervisor, is fighting to have an independent corporation come into Lamar County to address the re-districting issues. 2011 census data showed that over the past 10 years the county has seen a 42% increase in population. Winston made a ...

In his book "At the Hands of Persons Unknown: The Lynching of Black America," author Philip Dray wrote that "lynching became the means of killing any African-American whose status, actions or attitudes challenged white supremacy." Back in 2007, the Jena 6 were plunged into the headlines because of their response to white students who thought hanging nooses on the tree they frequented was a joke. Thankfully, the matter in Lumberton didn’t go this far, but I am certain that the students wanted some fairness to be shown in how the matter was handled. So, when you have the complexion for the connection and a mother that’s an administrator at the school; you can pretty much do and say anything (including filming a teacher’s derrière and posting it on facebook) Right before spring break, a teacher separated her students into groups and they were supposed to tell the class about their favorite hobby that started with the letter N. Well, when it came to one particular group...

A half-truth is a deceptive statement that includes some element of truth. The statement might be partly true, the statement may be totally true but only part of the whole truth, or it may utilize some deceptive element, such as improper punctuation, or double meaning, especially if the intent is to deceive, evade, blame or misrepresent the truth. Anyone that called city hall asking about their water bill deposit refunds were told that the mayor would not sign the checks. That was a half-truth. It was never mentioned that the checks were not signed because the matter was never placed on the agenda for board approval; therefore, the mayor could not sign the checks until the board approved the water bill deposit refunds. The purpose and or consequence of a half truth is to make something that is really only a belief appear to be knowledge, or a truthful statement to represent the whole truth, or possibly lead to a false conclusion. According to the justified true belief theory of knowl...

There has been quite a bit of talk that our officers are not patrolling like they should' especially since there has been a lot of distrubances taking place over the last few weeks. I am one of the last ones to take up for a Lumberton police officer, but they are doing what they can with what they have. Most of the time, there might be one officer on duty and it's impossible for them to keep up with all that's going on in this city. But the aldermen can put an end to the shortage by voting to extend the officer's hours (and ensure that they are actually paid for the hours they work), hire some part time officers or do a combination of both.I know that people like to complain about the fact that we have quite a few officers that are from Marion County. Well, the application process has been open and no one from Lumberton is applying for the positions. As many of you know, Lumberton’s 2011 Fight Season has officially begun. Now, the question is, will the board of al...

Generally, I don't respond to comments made to this blog, but I felt the need to address this comment since I am being credited with making comments about the Louisiana Club. The comment was as follows: "Johnathan, I was told something yesterday that truly hurt me. I was told that you have made ugly and quite serious comments about the people living in Lumberton, who are from Louisiana. My husband and I moved here 2 years ago and truly love it here. We've made many friends from both La and Ms, and plan to live the rest of our lives here. We're also very involved in this community...... very caring and giving. I have never had a long conversation with you, but any time I went into the library and saw you, I always said hello to you, and I enjoyed the couple times you participated with us in the cooking club. Maybe your comments might have been prompted by someone from La who said or did something personally to you. BUT please don't judge every person from La to be...