Bridge, Phillips, Elam Drainage District News From the desk of Milton Sandy Jr
March 12, 2012
Vol 2012-2
This newsletter is directed to friends and supporters of our efforts to get something done about the repetitive flooding in Corinth and Alcorn County which on May 2, 2010, caused loss of life, public and private property and threatened public health and safety by the massive release of raw sewage into flood waters. If you have news, questions or comments, please fire away.
One Down, Four to Go The Tombigbee River Valley Water Management District (TRVWMD) finished their first project here in the City of Corinth for the Bridge Phillips Elam Concurrent Drainage Districts and moved on to other projects in Alcorn and Tishomingo County. The pictures tell the story.
Flood Threat for March
Contact: Milton Sandy Jr 662-286-6087 - Fax 287-4187 - E-mail mlsandy@tsixroads.com
It has been a long and anxious wait for me since our flood of May 2, 2010. Fortunately, with the work that has now been done by the TRVWMD and the City of Corinth, I can sleep much better when it rains. I still rely on the engineering data on the importance of clearing ditches published in 1941 by the USDA, Soil Conservation Service and United States Army Corps of Engineers contained in my newsletter V2010-7. According to that data, clearing overgrown drainage ditches increases the water carrying channel capacity by as much as 75 percent. While this is in no way a permanent solution to the problem, it is a significant first step. On Monday, February 27, 2012, we had a luncheon honoring my “drainage heroes” with the Tombigbee River Valley Water Management District. I was specially honored by the attendance of two men in particular. Steve Wallace, Executive Director, and Richard Bryant, Chief Engineer, came to our first public meeting after the reactivation of the historic Bridge, Phillips and Elam Drainage Districts by the Alcorn Board of Supervisors. Steve and Richard have always been supportive, understanding and extremely helpful in working to address the problems with flooding in the City of Corinth. While many Federal and State agencies have given lip service to “flood mitigation” and flood prevention, I consider the TRVWMD to be the only agency which has actually done anything about reducing the risk of future damage from flooding in Corinth, Mississippi.
Steve Wallace, Richard Bryant standing on CR402 bridge over Bridge Creek, 2/27/2012 In addition to Steve and Richard, we also were honored by the men shown on our last newsletter who actually do the dirty, damp, dangerous drainage work- Dale Franks, Tommy Jaggers, Michael Burk, Tommy Lindsey, Lee Graham, Jim Mullins, and field supervisor Mike Phillips. These men follow in the footsteps of those rugged pioneers who originally dredged the canals here in Alcorn County and turned swamps into the land where we live today. I totally failed to mention the snakes and fire ants they also encountered in their line of work.
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My special thanks to Scotty and Amanda Little who allowed us to use their banquet facility to stage our luncheon for the TRVWMD folks. Our menu featured a “Taste of Corinth” which wouldn't have been complete without some local tamales and “slugburger bites” provided by local chef John Marsh of the Slugburger Cafe, whose grandfather we've previously mentioned was an early (1938) Elam Creek Drainage District Commission. Some blockbuster homemade deserts including Nanner Pudding, Fresh Coconut Cake, and Bourbon Pie rounded out the menu. When I begin to think back over the incredible journey since the flood of May 2, 2010, there are a lot of people to credit and thank for their contribution to what progress we have made so far. Foremost among them are my fellow commissioners, John Warren Henson and Hull Davis. Our attorney, Chad Borden, forged thru uncharted legal territory pursing reactivation of drainage districts dormant for over 60 years- certainly a first for this century. My old friend Bobby Scott drew on years of engineering and local survey experience to help recreate the maps necessary to reactivate the historic drainage districts. I've mentioned that nothing would have ever gotten off the ground without the Alcorn Board of Supervisors taking action to reactivate the drainage districts. Along with the supervisors, our local chancery court clerk, Mr. Bobby Marolt, helped and encouraged us at every turn and used his considerable contacts with other clerks around the state to ease our search for historical records of other Mississippi drainage districts. Our two local representatives on the TRVWMD Board of Directors, Brett Marlar and Don Rheinhart were always supportive of our projects from the beginning. Our new Mayor Tommy Irwin has been at the forefront of the battle focused on flooding in Corinth and encouraging at every step along the way. Tommy is probably the only person I know who has less patience than I do about getting something done about flooding in our community. With his support, I have always felt that the Mayor and Board of Aldermen were committed to the cause of reducing repetitive flooding in Corinth. Ms. Sandy Mitchell with the SCS and Mr.Tom Heard with the NRCS have been Informative, supportive and encouraging from the very start of our efforts. Early on, Tom probably drove me harder than anyone else with his comment that I wouldn't see our flooding problems solved in my lifetime. While I first took it as a pretty pessimistic outlook and a challenge, I've come to appreciate more insight into what I think he meant. We all live in this great alluvial valley of the Mississippi River where men from the days of the earliest settlers have been fighting flooding for well over 150 years. Because all the means of fighting flooding have been man-made, they all require constant maintenance to work effectively. This means that for the next 150 years men will probably still be fighting flooding as they struggle to find a way to insure that the maintenance gets done. Which brings me to a stopping point although I still have a long list of people to thank for all their help, suggestions and support. You can find their names in the newsletters I've published for the last year and a half along with Stephanie who has been my closest adviser and most hardworking researcher. We hope our greatest contribution for the future will be to write this stuff down so its not forgotten again. In the coming weeks, I'm planning on pulling all of last years newsletters together to publish Vol. 2 of our Corinth and Alcorn Drainage History. Page 3/7
JIMBO MATHUS – “Hatchie Bottoms” I've mentioned local Corinth and Alcorn native Jimbo Mathus and his band the Tri-State Coalition in our newsletter before. A week or so ago, I received a rather unique invitation and request for support for a project on which Jimbo is currently working. Jimbo's latest project due for release later this year is a new music CD to be titled “White Buffalo”. He expects to debut his song about Alcorn County “Hatchie Bottoms” on this CD. I would invite you to take a look and if you can support him with a little or a lot, help a local young man launch this ambitious music project:
Jimbo Mathus and the Tri-State Coalition
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/jimbomathus/jimbo-mathus-and-the-tri-state-coalition-white-buf
What struck me as unique was the project was being offered through a new internet service called Kickstarter.com. Kickstarter is focused on helping artists, filmakers, musicians, designers, writers, illustrators, explorers, curators, performers and others bring projects, events and dreams to life. The service focuses on “projects”- each project has to be discrete, with a clear beginning, defined goals, and a target end date. If the funding goal is not reached by the target date, none of the pledges are collected. Rewards and incentives are offered to participating sponsors commensurate with the pledged level of support. People in the arts have often had difficulty in financing their dreams and projects and this seems like a great service, particularly in these trying economic times. In the past, a person who supported or championed an activity, cause or creative project may have been known as a benefactor, contributor, friend, patron, sponsor, supporter, guarantor, surety, underwriter, or "angel". Now with the convenience of the internet, you can consider yourself all of the above just by supporting a Kickstarter project. Many of the Kickstarter projects have made national headlines because of their creativity and successful launches of innovative projects. Just look at this as one of those once in a lifetime opportunities to say you helped launch a new music career. After all, Tupelo has Elvis to brag about, we need to support our own Jimbo. Target date is April 7, 2012, so please don't delay.
WHAT'S IN A NAME? - TAREBREECHES CREEK On Thursday, March 1, 2012, Stephanie and I attended a local meeting hosted by the NRCS for property owners within the Tarebreeches Watershed in Alcorn County. We were invited by Mr. Eddy Sanders, one of our newsletter readers, and I thought it might have something to do
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with flooding. Turns out it did not, but I was glad for the opportunity to meet Eddy and visit with some of the other landowners along Tarebreeches Creek. The purpose of the meeting was to offer property owners within the Tarebreeches Watershed the opportunity to share in project funding of around $600,000 including matching funds provided by MDEQ. The purpose of the grants are to fund Best Management Practices (BMP's) which hopefully will help improve water quality. The quality of the water from the headwaters of Tarebreeches Creek is shown on the MDEQ's Mississippi 2010 Section 303(d) List of Impaired Water Bodies as biologically impaired. I assume this means excessive fecal colliform but the report is somewhat cryptic. Property owners who wish to take advantage of the program should contact Sandy Mitchell or Justin Presson at the local NRCS office (662-287-5752). Tarebreeches Creek starts on the hillsides past Goose Pond on the east side of the Hatchie and runs easterly along the south side of Hwy 72 until it crosses under 72 turning in a northeastern direction just before the hill past Rainey's Sod Farm. Continuing northeast, it crosses under Smithbridge Road and joins the Tuscumbia Canal. Tarebreeches Creek was dredged from its confluence with the Tuscumbia Canal back to Smithbridge Road as part of the Tuscumbia Canal project around 1906. In 1930, Tarebreeches Drainage District was organized, presumably to channelize from Smithbridge Road all the way to Goose Pond. Records show the Drainage District never completed any dredging and the district is still dormant today. I do not know whether easements were secured for the work to be done or whether, most likely, it was killed by the Great Depression. Stephanie and I enjoyed visiting with Thomas and Mary Francis Coleman, property owners in the Tarebreeches Watershed, during a meal catered by Mr. Brian Coleman (665-5508) who cooks a really fine hamburger steak with all the fixings. Any landowner who didn't attend missed a fine dining experience. One of our topics of conversation during dinner was our desire to know the origin of the name Tarebreeches. The name doesn't seem to fit any of the Chickasaw Indian sound patterns we were familiar with so we were open to any explanations. Two dominant theories have been offered, both involving britches which were once commonly known as “breeches”: 1. Someone once “Tore their britches” along the creek and hence Tarebreeches (tear is pronounced locally as “tare”) 2. Someone once got “Tar on their britches” during construction of a bridge along the creek and hence Tarebreeches Both these theories seem to be based more on speculation than documentation of any kind. Stephanie has dealt with some pretty obscure handwriting and oral tradition interpretation over the years. A little of her research indicates that native Americans and possibly pioneer settlers used tar derived from burning wood for waterproofing and as an adhesive. Birch bark was known to be Page 5/7
burned by Indians to derive tar which was used as an adhesive for arrow heads. Her speculation is that perhaps early native Americans or pioneer settlers could have used birch bark from trees along the creek to produce tar and “tar birches” could have morphed into Tarebreeches. Mr. Bud Scott who is a Tarebreeches property owner and a well known authority on local trees has identified birches for me growing near local creeks. Birches typically shed their bark which contains resinous oils which prevents its deterioration. Tar which later became available as a byproduct of petroleum could have been made in pioneer time from burning resinous woods or birch bark. In this area, we have a long history of oral traditions that never got written down and have been largely lost. Perhaps the real origins of the name Tarebreeches Creek will never be known. If anyone has any historical information about the production of tar locally, we would love to hear about it.
Our Urban Wildlife This past Saturday as I was driving by the detention pond across from the Kroger parking lot, I noticed a couple of different ducks than the Mallards I have been seeing resident there. Having stopped and taken their pictures, I set out to identify them. Fortunately, I was able to call on a local young man who has been reading our newsletters for some time, Michael Jones. Michael was able to help me with their identification. Michael works with the United States Army Corps of Engineers, Vicksburg Division, at Sardis Lake. American Coot, Kroger detention pond, 3/10/2012
Turns out only one was a duck, the other was an American coot, member of the rail family Rallidae. The bird looks like a duck, swims like a duck, but isn't a duck. It's a pretty cool looking bird, feathered in ninja black all over except for his black head. His feet which I didn't get a look at have lobed claws instead of webs like most ducks. The claws can be used to do battle as well as run on water which the bird occasionally has to do to become air borne. Turns out the expression “bald as a coot” comes from this bird, dating back in English literature as early as 1430. I suspect many people in town know a few old “coots”.
Male Bufflehead duck, Kroger detention pond, 3/10/2012
The other was in fact a small American sea duck, a male Bufflehead. This duck makes a very striking appearance with his big head and distinctive white marking on the crown of the head. The Bufflehead
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nests in holes made by other birds including woodpeckers. Unlike most ducks, the Bufflehead is mostly monogamous, remaining with the same mate for many years. Apparently the Coot and the Bufflehead were pretty cool with hanging out together in Corinth, Mississippi as they harmoniously swam together in formation around the detention pond
Male Bufflehead duck, American Coot, Kroger detention pond, 3/10/2012
Kansas City Southern in the News The Wall Street Journal just released a list of the top 10 performing stocks for 20 years since April 1992. Totally shocking to many people was the top performer was none other than the Kansas City Southern Railroad which operates right here in Corinth. KCS acquired the the old GM&O rail lines here from the ICG when they were abandoned and in 1994 acquired the operations of the Corinth and Counce Railroad. KCS stock has risen 19,030% since 1992. I hope they recognize how fortunate they are to have located here in Corinth. Anyone who invested in their stock and held it has also been fortunate. Apparently KCS at one time was an odd conglomerate which included the railroad and a money management firm which included Janus Mutual Funds. Janus was spun off into a separate company in 2000 and KCS has continued to increase in value since that time. KCS is unique as one of the only major railroad lines in the US with lines primarily running from North to South.
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