Da Hut: Player's Paradise or Political Pawn
Today, for the first time, I visited 26 Hattie Winston Road and I must say it was not what I expected. According to the information that was published in the Hattiesburg American, I was expecting to see a modern day war zone. They reported that the building was literally falling down, there were wires hanging out of the walls, etc. The headlines from last Saturday's edition of the Hattiesburg American read "Party's Over: Building Condemned." The first lines of that article stated the following: "A stream of complaints from neighbors and law enforcement led to the board's unanimous decision to lock down the building at 26 Hattie Winston Road." For those of you not familiar with the area, the building located at 26 Hattie Winston Road is also known as "The Hut." Did you know that the 911 log of calls are public record? So I wanted to know how many calls did it take to be considered a stream of complaints. According to the information I received this morning, there were seven (7) calls made to the dispatch office in Purvis about the noise, etc. at the Hut. If you read the Hattiesburg American on Sunday, you would have noticed the report about the rowdy bar scene at Roper's in Hattiesburg. This year alone, there were 137 calls made to the Hattiesburg Police Department regarding the crowds at Ropers which resulted in 27 arrests. The Saturday edition of the Hattiesburg American stated that "Underage drinking, possession of alcohol, narcotics violations, disorderly conduct, prostitution" is common place at The Hut, but there were no record of arrests to support these claims.
Since the publication of the story, there has been a great deal of talk about the timing of the decision to close The Hut. Some are saying that the Board of Supervisors are doing this in an effort to make District 2 supervisor, Ben Winston, look bad, but the first line of the article stated that the vote to condemn the building was unanimous.(Which means that ALL the supervisors voted to condemn the building.) But I don't the recent decision to close The Hut was an attempt to target Ben Winston. I think it was a bit of political grand-standing by judicial candidate, and Lamar County Board of Supervisor attorney, Tony Mozingo. In case you didn't know this, Tony Mozingo is seeking election as a Chancery Court Judge, and this would be a good time to get his name in the paper. I believe that he did not consider the votes of those that frequent The Hut. In other words, the ones the go to the hut are not likely to vote in the upcoming election so why should he worry about how they feel about condemning The Hut. There were some very harsh things said about The Hut, but I remember that there are some good things that took place within the walls of that VFW building. For as long as I can remember, the members of the VFW building located at 26 Hattie Winston road sponsored Easter egg hunts, held Christmas parades every year and gave out gifts, fruit baskets, and candy to everyone in attendance. They held fund-raisers and other activities to help the youth of the community. I just don't understand how, during a recession, they are voting to close a building that,as they stated, draws a crowd of at least 200 people every time they hold an event. I would think the best solution would be to find a way to obtain some revenue ortax dollars from that crowd.
When I reviewed the call log regarding 26 Hattie Winston Road, the phone numbers associated with the calls were blacked out. But I guarantee you that the calls were made from someone that used to frequent TL's, Big Pete's , Lil Joe's or Noonie's back in the day. Now that they have gotten older, they have a problem with this generation doing some of the same things they used to do when they were that age. Whatever the case may be, again, we have officials that are forcing the people of Lumberton to look elsewhere to spend their time and money.
regardless they were breaking the law !!! this is a dry county !!!! as far as serving underage everyone knows this was going on . as far as fights this was a regular event . as far as shooting does anyone rember paris henry shooting @ nut ? and how about the stripper poles were they their just for decore . so lets be real , if they would of operated as a vfw they would still be open .but i doubt if 10% of their customers could even spell army let alone pass the drug test to get in !do you remember when the lamar sheriff raid the place last time ? their was more weed on the floor than out at the aldermans hunting plot ! as far sex for sale you don't evem have to travel to the hut for that just go to shell or big k and you can get what it is you want !!good bye hut you will not be missed !!! maybe now our property value will start to go back up out here in wellstown ,all they need to do now is patrol out here more often
ReplyDeletea concerned citizen of wells town who has had enough ,let the drug dealers party else were and the gansts party elsewer besides in my back yard
How soon do we forget where we have been. I don't go to The Hut and don't plan on going. But I don't see nothing wrong with it. I heard the person that is really complaining is the biggest dope smoker in L'ton and he's his nephews main buyer. Ain't that some mess. He also used to be at every party in L'ton. Then there is the other person living with a man, suppose to be a big time Christian, and loan sharking money. What the hell? I guess you call me a prostitute because I got a pole in my bedroom. HA HA. Paris shot in Turnkey but did they close it down. NO. Let these people party and whoever is sponsering hire security. I heard Chad from Purvis has a security company. Rodney and videll suppose to working Ladrick for security. Let them do it. Sit your a** down. You know you went to the Hut sometime or other. If it wasn't there it was Big Pete's or Lil Joe's.
ReplyDeleteI think the last line of your post says it all. The people of Lumberton are being forced to spend their money elsewhere. I think Lumberton city really needs to consider the sale of beer in the city limits. Maybe if Ramey's could sell beer, they wouldn't have to hike up the price of groceries. Maybe restaurant owners could make a decent profit if they could serve alcohol. Lumberton would be the local Mecca, people would come here to spend thousands in beer money rather than driving through Lumberton to go to Forrest county. Folks from the Poplarville area would spend here instead of driving to Picayune. It isn't like anyone in Lamar County or Lumberton is under the presumption that a dry county means no one who lives in the county drinks. I challenge you Jonathan, who looks at public records: find out just how much sales tax money the beer store just over the county line on 13 pays in. You would be suprised at how much money Lumberton is losing in sales tax on beer. Unfortunately, the US has not figured out that they could also profit tremendously if drugs were legalized, regulated and taxed by the Feds. The war on drugs is a failure, prohibition was a failure and limiting alcohol sales only helps the neighboring counties that do sell it.
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