JFP: ‘27 Lakes’ Plans Making Waves

Jackson Free Press reports:

A plan to flood the wetlands between Hinds and Rankin counties may get a new boost from a federal bill that makes it easier to include private funding in the venture. The U.S. Senate overrode President Bush’s veto of the U.S. Water Resources Development Act Nov. 8, setting the stage for a federal/private funding partnership for the development of the Pearl River.

“There’s a section of the bill that addresses the Lefleur’s Lakes project,” said John Waits, of Washington lobbying firm Winston & Strawn LLC, who represents the city of Jackson and helped in pushing the legislation.

“It’s called the Pearl River Basin section. … It specifically says that the ultimate plan to be agreed upon for developing the Pearl River can be some hybrid or combination of the original levee plan that the corps favors and the Lefleur Lakes Plan.”
(Read the full story here...)

Talk DANCE

JFP has this profile of Belhaven College professor Stephen Wynne and his new project for Jackson's dance and arts community: Talk DANCE.

Belhaven Prof Earns Humanities Teacher Award for 2007

The Northeast Ledger reports, Louis Campbell, "professor of theater and founding chair of the theater department at Belhaven College, recently received the Humanities Teacher Award for 2007. The Mississippi Humanities Council gives it to one humanities faculty member at each institution of higher education in the state...Campbell, 66, grew up in Colorado and attended Westminster College in Salt Lake City, where he met Laura, his wife of 43 years. He earned a master's degree at Brigham Young University, received a doctorate in theater from the University of Minnesota, then started a theater program at a Catholic school in La Crosse, Wis. He conceived and directed the first International Festival of Mime and Pantomime in 1974 in La Crosse. Later, he worked with Ohio State's theater program and consulted for 20 years in the United States and abroad before Belhaven asked him to start its program...His own books include Mime in Our Time, Biomechanics for the Actor and Mime in the Twentieth Century. He continues to be a consultant for theaters in the U.S. and abroad, having helped with more than 100 facilities. He's working with Jackson Academy and the Ruth B. Eckerd Hall in Clearwater, Fla. He and his wife co-founded The Joshua Squad, a missions-based physical theater performance team involving students in service and ministry through the arts. He also founded the Enclave of the Arts, an international performing arts networking organization." (Read the Full Story Here)

Belhaven College Singing Christmas Tree

Belhaven College will host the 75th Siniging Christmas Tree in the Belhaven Bowl this Friday and Saturday nights begining at 7:30pm. The annual event, started in 1933, is considered to be the world's oldest outdoor singing Christmas tree tradition. Read more about it this profile from Saturday's Clarion Ledger: Branching out: Singing Christmas Tree gets singers out of comfort zone.

27 Islands

Clarion Ledger: Northeast Jackson developer and oilman John McGowan has given the Rankin-Hinds Pearl River Flood and Drainage Control District board a new two lake flood control plan with 27 developable islands and almost 700 acres of waterfront property along the Pearl River to consider. (Read the Full Story)

Also in the Clarion Ledger: Bill gives flood control group OK to include economic boon in plans - The Rankin-Hinds Pearl River Flood and Drainage Control District has received more leeway to incorporate privately funded elements into a flood-control plan through the U.S. Water Resources Development Act.

The act's adoption last week gives the board the ability to advance a project that includes economic and recreational benefits as long as those costs are assumed by the local entities, said Lee Youngblood, spokesman for Sen. Trent Lott.

The act changes the way plans are evaluated in terms of cost benefit analysis. Until now, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers could not consider recreational or economic benefits when evaluating flood control plans, he said.

With the Water Resources Development Act, the Corps can consider these benefits and keep them separate from what federal tax dollars contribute to, he said. (Read The Full Story Here)

Fortification Street plans hit bump

From the Clarion Ledger: Plans to redesign Fortification Street will have to wait until the city of Jackson completes a survey of the historic neighborhoods in the downtown area. The survey is the latest setback for a 4-year-old project to rebuild one of the most frequently traveled streets in Jackson. The Federal Highway Administration called for the survey in the spring, after the city turned in its latest environmental report on the project for state and federal review. Until then, the city had been unaware the survey was necessary....The new requirement will delay the earliest possible date for a public hearing on the street's new design from November until February....The city plans to rebuild Fortification Street from I-55 to Mill Street. The downtown stretch from I-55 to State Street will be redesigned to possibly narrow the street from four lanes to two and include sidewalks and greenery. The stretch from State Street to the Mill Street bridge is to be rebuilt but will remain four lanes. Water and sewer lines will be replaced along the entire stretch of the project....The project will cost between $10 million and $12 million....Traffic studies have shown that a two-lane design, with either a median or a center turning lane, would slow but not back up traffic. Fortification Street sees 19,000 drivers a day between I-55 and State Street. Plans do not call for rights of way to be extended....(read the full story here).

Yardsales and Webpage

Yardsales on Saturday: Map

New: Greater Belhaven Webpage

Old: Greater Belhaven Webpage

Mix Use Development in Belhaven

Baptist Health Systems plans to develop 15 acres east of Baptist Medical Center, framed by Fortification and Poplar streets as well as by North State and Jefferson streets, into a mix use area possibly including retail, business and medical offices, a 90- to 100-room hotel and condominiums. The Greater Belhaven Neighborhood Foundation is partnering with the effort. (For more details in the Clarion Ledger)

Mary Alice White

The Northside Sun has a feature on Mary Alice White, director of the Eudora Welty House and niece of Eudora Welty.

Dos Lagos

From the Northside Sun: "A new 27-island proposal designed to control flooding and increase economic development along the Pearl River has drawn mixed opinions from the governing body overseeing the project. Northside oilman John McGowan recently presented his revised Two Lakes plan to the Rankin-Hinds Pearl River Flood Control and Drainage District board. While some levee board members say they will consider McGowan’s new plan, others aren’t biting. McGowan’s new plan includes two large lakes that run from the Ross Barnett Reservoir north of Lakeland Drive to south of I-20 near Richland....His plan, though, as well as the levee board’s similar LeFleur Lakes plan, has come under scrutiny from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers for being too expensive to build. The two massive plans have also been pigeon-holed by local environmentalists who say either one would be detrimental to the area’s hardwood bottomlands, wetlands and animal habitats....Earlier this year, the levee board hosted a week-long planning session in Jackson and created several different plans to choose from. After the corps studied the hydrology of the plans, the board voted to further study a smaller, lower lake plan that would cost around $300 million to build." (Read the full story)

Election and Yard Sale

Belhaven has a new state Senator, our neighbor David Blount. WLBT reports more about it.

Saturday November 17 is the Belhaven neighborhood yard sale.