Lumberton Informer

One month ago, I was assaulted by a City of Lumberton employee that was on duty and one week ago I was assaulted again by more City of Lumberton employees. I'm still trying to get over the shock that no one other than my alderman, Quincy Rogers, had the integrity to call for the suspension of Daniel "Danny" Davis. Thankfully, others were in attendance to see the miscarriage of their duties take (that's one reason why I didn't blog a review of the meeting). Moments before Kent Crider laughed at a citizen when she was asking for an explanation about the desecration of her father's grave, he yelped like a kid that had his candy taken from him at recess, when he said "you didn't do anything when he was saying all those things about us in his blog!" Bingo. In that moment, it was clear that these elderly people had the mindset of an elementary student. Crider's cry explained their votes without them saying ano...

After I heard that the Governor of the State of Mississippi, Phil Bryant, declared April as Confederate Heritage Month I was prepared to get my flag, block and delete button ready because I knew those who claim it is heritage not hate were going to have a hoot nanny about this announcement. Then I thought about it and realized that they are entitled to their beliefs. I've been blogging for quiet some time and I know people will easily believe a lie before they believe the truth. We live in the age where information is not researched but shared at the click of a button without vetting any of the information contained in the link that was shared. If Bryant thought his declaration was such a grand accomplishment for the State of Mississippi why did he opt to announce the pseudo-celebration via the Sons of the Confederacy website instead of the Official State of Mississippi website or the Governor's website? I guess it's the same logic that have legislators fighting against a...

Hoyt Tyner is one of the many candidates seeking the position of Lamar County Circuit Clerk. Tyner's campaign tagline is Honesty ● Integrity ● Trust. On a campaign flyer, Tyner stated that the voters of Lamar County deserve honest, trustworthy leadership in the Circuit Clerk's office. In case you didn't know, some of the duties of the Circuit Clerk are: to serve as Registrar of the County and Circuit County Courts, to receive and file all lawsuits, indictments, motions in civil and criminal cases, to maintain docket books, issue jury summons, issue marriage licenses, secure private documents, to serve as a notary and to register citizens to vote. Tyner said "In addition to hard work ethics, I have REAL goals for the office, mostly as it pertains to digitizing the records and transactions of the office, and making public records available to the public online. I'm very passionate about voter registration drives. I want citizens of all ages to participate in the e...

Over the next three days, there will be three Meet the Candidates events in Lamar County; giving Lamar County voters the opportunity to hear from candidates running for state and local offices. ★ On Thursday, July 16, 2015, Super Talk WFMM 97.3 will host a Lamar County Old-Fashioned Meet, Greet and Speak at the Lake Serene Clubhouse. Doors open at 6pm with speeches beginning at 7pm Each candidate will have a booth and give a five minute speech. If you can't attend, you can hear the speeches broadcast on 97.3. ★ On Friday, July 17, 2015, the Lamar County Board of Supervisors will sponsor a Meet and Greet at the Oak Grove Senior and Veterans Center. The event is set for 11am to 1 pm. Thirty-two candidates are expected to attend, including those running for supervisor, justice court judge, constable and county attorney. Lunch can be purchased for $4. ★ On Saturday, July 18, 2015, the Lumberton Economic Development Council is hosting a political rally from 10am to 3 pm at W...

This was probably the shortest meeting ever hosted by this adminstration. Either they received their agendas in a timely fashion or they're trying to be somewhat efficient. Whenever I see alderpersons or department heads going on for extended periods of time, it's a clear indicaton that they didn't get their information prior to the meeting. The first order was to discuss and vote on the scope of work for the 2015 FAA-AIP Project. The board decided to proceed with the construction of another airplane hanger instead of constructing a new beacon. It seems that the airport manager has compiled a waiting list of at least 11 people that want to store their airplanes at the Lumberton airport, despite the fact that our airport does not have a fueling station. Keep in mind, the waiting list was required to justify the construction of a new airplane hanger. The City of Lumberton will be responsible for 5% matching funds for this project. The total cost is not known at this t...

Just last week, we all witnessed Mayor Winston cooning for County support. There are some that feel the Lamar County Board of Supervisors should step in and take over but I'm not in that group. What was made clear during the exchange between Winston and the Supervisors was the fact that they offered some advice on how to correct this matter. It was also clear that Winston had no intention of raising taxes, per the supervisor's recommendation. The question remains, why ask for advice if you're not going to follow it? Are you that much of a block head? According to Winston, "I hoped y'all, especially with the season we're in, would dig into your hearts and find a reason to help others and not find a reason to not help others." In other words, a person that allegedly threw away all the Christmas decorations at his former church because he didn't want them celebrating Christmas, wants the Lamar County Board of Supervisors to play Santa Claus for the Ci...

The other day I blogged about the placement of the waste site and it caught the attention of News 7. The board meeting was filled with people concerned about the proposal. The mayor and several board members tried to say that the matter was blown out of proportion; saying the waste site will be located on Yawn School Road and not in the South Lamar Industrial Park. Well, I gave the wrong location but I was blogging on very limited information. I apologize to my readers for the misinformation but the fact that the "owner" of Rolloff Recycling Center does not know the location of the site raises some red flags as well. I was working with limited resources but how in the garbage truck can a person purchase a plot of land, have the deed to the land and not know the address or location of the land that he purchased. Fred Martin, the owner of the Rolloff Recycling, LLC, does not know if his so called recycling center will be on 380 Yawn School Road or 489 Yawn School Road. Also, ...

What happened to the City of Lumberton? When did the shift take place? When did elected officials become more concerned with their own motives instead of looking out for the best interest of their constituents? The City of Lumberton deserves full representation from the mayor and the board of alderpersons; competent and spirited leadership that’s driven by bold ideas and grounded in good judgment. This is how the American dream is built. As I reflect on the past, I will try to show where the paradigm shift occurred. THE GARRAWAY ADMINISTRATION The other week, I starting reading the blog of former mayor, Bobby J. Garraway. By most accounts, he is probably the most admired mayor to ever serve in Lumberton. I did not know he was the one that went out and garnered support and resources for the facility that we now know as Cooper Industries. What happened to mayor's of this caliber? Here's an excerpt from his blog post regarding his quest to bring industry to the City of Lu...

There may be a few glitches on the site today. I am updating the SEO and RSS feeds. I will be blogging more frequently once the updates are completed. The posts for this week will be Monday, Wednesday and Friday. The following week, the blog schedule will be Tuesday and Thursday. I would like to thank those that subscribed to the RSS feed and thank you for your feedback. I would also like to thank those that inboxed me photos from CiCi's Pizza yesterday. I'm glad you recognized people from the blog. I don't think I'll be able to use the photos but thanks for fanning out and keep up the good work. Before closing, does anyone know who planted those beautiful arrangements in the planter boxes along Main Street? Good job. That's all for today. Please log on for tomorrow's blog: From Greatness to Grazing: An Analogy of Lumberton's Mayors.

Shooting the messenger" is a metaphoric phrase used to describe the act of lashing out at the (blameless) bearer of bad news. In earlier times, messages were usually delivered in person by a human envoy. Sometimes, as in war, for example, the messenger was sent from the enemy camp. An easily provoked combatant receiving such an overture could more easily vent anger (or otherwise retaliate) on the deliverer of the unpopular message rather than deal with the source that led to the message. That's a major problem here in the City of Lumberton; too many want to focus on the messenger instead of dealing or addressing the message. The information I post on the Lumberton Informer was not created by me; instead, it's a review of the matters that have been witnessed. Often times I wonder if I'm the only one that sees or am I the only one that's willing to address the concerns. Over the past few weeks, I have been trying to wrap my brain around the series of events that...

The other night at the regularly scheduled board meeting, Kent Crider, Alderman/Self-Appointed Chair of the Lumberton Fire Department Board, gave a report that 19 firefighters responded to a recent fire in the City of Lumberton. A police officer in the audience also chimed in saying "that was the quickest response he ever witnessed." Kudos to the volunteers that responded to the fire. Now for the rest of the story. The ones responding to the fire were from surrounding counties. Also, the fire happened during a training session and the fire fighters were already at the fire station when the call came in regarding the fire. I'm sure Crider wanted to use the incident to show that the fire department is doing well without the assistance of the former members of the fire department, but if you're going to give kudos; provide the audience with the rest of the story. In other fire department related news, there was a meeting of the fire board last night. From what I ...

The first item on the agenda was to allow Ms. Debbie Luther to speak with the mayor and board regarding a water survey. She spoke ad nasuem for about 15 minutes, outlaying the reason why the board needed to raise the water rates. After she addressed the board, Mayor Winston went on to say that he appreciated her suggestion and they wanted to look into other avenues to see if they could maintain the water system without a water rate increase and before he could complete his train of thought, he was asking for an amendment to the agenda so they can hold a public hearing to raise the water rates. At the suggestion of Luther, the board plan to raise the water/sewer rate by 7.5%. They will hold a public hearing on July 1, 2014 at 5:50 p.m. to receive citizen's input but more than likely, despite input from the citizens, they will raise the water rate again. Now, I know the board is regulated by law to make sure the WSOM is able to sustain itself. The problem I have with the rate incr...

This post is a review of the regularly scheduled board meeting. This post is for those that are not able to attend the meeting due to their job schedules, health issues or any other reason that may prevent you from attending the meeting. This blog post is written by Jonathan F. Griffith and will include his perspectives. So, for those of you that have a problem with the way I blog, you may log off now. Now that I am speaking to those that are actually concerned about the City of Lumberton, the board meeting was as follows: The first person on the agenda was Mr. Russell Heidelberg, member of the Prichard, Alabama water board. Heidleberg addressed the board on issues that he felt could help the City of Lumberton regarding economic development. Heidleberg will meet with board members again to give more details about his plan of action. The board voted to discuss and receive quotes for appraisal services for the 2014 FAA-AIP project. The board accepted the quote from Lightsey &...