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Ever y day Si nCE 1883
Winfield plea to hospitality reps: Rec plan needs your backing By John Surratt jsurratt@vicksburgpost.com
END OF AN ERA
Poe fans call an end to ’Toaster’ tradition
B3 WEATHER Tonight: mostly cloudy, lows in the lower 50s Friday: partly sunny, isolated showers, highs in the lower 70s Mississippi River:
22.9 feet Fell: 0.7 foot Flood stage: 43 feet
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DEATHS • Evelyn G. Andress • Georgia Wilson
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TODAY IN HISTORY 1807: Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee is born in Westmoreland County, Va. 1861: Georgia becomes the fifth state to secede from the Union. 1937: Millionaire Howard Hughes sets a transcontinental air record by flying his monoplane from Los Angeles to Newark, N.J., in 7 hours, 28 minutes and 25 seconds. 1955: A presidential news conference is filmed for television for the first time, with the permission of President Dwight D. Eisenhower. 1981: The United States and Iran sign an accord paving the way for the release of 52 Americans held hostage for more than 14 months. 2007: Denny Doherty, a member of the 1960s folkrock group The Mamas & the Papas, dies at 66.
Mayor Paul Winfield made his case for a sports complex a bit more public Wednesday, telling a small group that a 130-acre site has been selected and Vicksburg’s voters will make the final decision on whether the hospitality industry will be taxed more to pay for the complex. “We’re at a point in time where we need to move forward,” Winfield told a group that included city and economic development officials and three representatives of the hospitality industry. “A sports complex will be a game changer. It will have an important economic impact for the city. “If we don’t present the best — not better — project (to prospective tournaments and sports groups) an alternative will be found,” Winfield said. “If we don’t look at our future and invest in our youth, we will perish,” he said at the Southern Cultural Heritage Center. “This is a bold project. I think it’s time.” Winfield said the proposed site is in north Vicksburg and in excess of 130 acres “that isn’t hidden from the world.” He would not say if it is inside the city limits. He said he will approach Aldermen Michael Mayfield and Sid Beauman in the first or second week of February with a proposal to seek legislative OK to increase the
From staff and AP reports NEW ORLEANS — The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers will get $55 million in emergency funds to pay for dredging the silting Mississippi River — a sum that will help the Corps maintain the river’s channel to depths ships need to safely navigate the waterway.
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www.vicksburgpost.com VOLUME 130 NUMBER 19 2 SECTIONS
The new funds are from an emergency spending bill allocated this week, U.S. Rep. Steve Scalise, R-La., said Wednesday. Rachel Rodi, a Corps spokeswoman, said the money increases the Corps’ ability to dredge the river and “eases concerns for the See Corps, Page A7.
Hospitals reverse stance on taxes for state Medicaid Brenden Neville•The Vicksburg Post
Mayor Paul E. Winfield explains a proposed tax measure to city workers and representatives of the Vicksburg restaurant and hotel industry. city’s hotel tax by 2 percent and add a 1.5 percent food and beverage tax to fund a loan to buy the land and develop the project. Winfield projected the new taxes will yield about $1.2 million annually, enough to pay off an $18.5 million to $19 million loan over 15 years. The taxes will expire when the loan is paid, he said. The city currently levies a 2
percent hotel tax to support the Vicksburg Convention Center. Warren County has a 1 percent tax on occupied hotel rooms and food and beverages sold in the county to fund the Vicksburg Convention and Visitors Bureau. Once he gets the board’s OK, the mayor said, he and city attorney Lee Davis See Mayor, Page A7.
By Emily Wagster Pettus The Associated Press JACKSON — The leader of the Mississippi Hospital Association says his group won’t fight renewal of a tax his members pay to help fund Medicaid. The association protested in 2009 when then-Gov. Haley Barbour pushed for the hospital tax. Now, the association’s president and CEO, Sam Cameron, says the tax gives hospitals something very important — predictability
in their expenses. “It’s no question that it has cost us some financial negative impact for some of the hospitals,” Cameron said. “But very honestly, without it, the funding of the Medicaid program would not be there.” Medicaid is a government health insurance program for the needy. For every dollar Mississippi puts into it, the federal government pays almost three. Some of the state’s portion See Medicaid, Page A7.
IN honor OF FREEMAN
The goal: ‘Artists on the street’ By Danny Barrett Jr. dbarrett@vicksburgpost.com
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Corps to get $55M more for silt fight
Brenden Neville•The Vicksburg Post
Annette Kirklin, executive director of the Southern Cultural Heritage Center, addresses a meeting of planners for the Hobbs Freeman Arts and Nature Celebration and Festival.
An art festival on the streets around the Southern Cultural Heritage Center planned throughout the year should rival some of the nation’s bestknown creative districts to highlight the life and work of Hobbs Freeman, executive director Annette Kirklin said Wednesday. “I envision Jackson Square,” Kirklin said of the famed New Orleans venue as members of Vicksburg’s artistic community met to fill the schedule of events for the Hobbs Freeman Arts and Nature Celebration and Festival. “I want to see artists on the street.” Freeman, a Fayette native, died in
2009 at 65. The multitalented artist and sculptor served on the boards of Vicksburg and Warren County Historical Society and the Southern Cultural Heritage Foundation, which governs the SCHC, and was a member of the Vicksburg Art Association. The center received a $24,200 grant from the National Park Service’s Lower Mississippi Delta Initiative to stage a series of naturethemed workshops and events to reflect Freeman’s passions. It kicks off Feb. 21 with a cooking workshop by local chef William Furlong in the center’s conference room with some of Freeman’s favorite herbs as its focus. Furlong is food and See Artists, Page A7.
DA seeks to seize home owned by physician nabbed for drugs By Pamela Hitchins phitchins@vicksburgpost.com The Vicksburg home of a Tallulah doctor charged last fall with 300 counts of prescription fraud is the target of a forfeiture civil suit brought by District Attorney Ricky Smith. Dr. Lawrence Chenier and the home at 100 Colonial Drive, along with lienholders State Farm Bank, Bloomington, Ill., and M&I Support Services Corporation, Madison, Wis., are named in the suit filed Jan. 6 in Warren County Court.
Chenier, 58, was arrested Sept. 29 along with Patti Carr, 41, whom investigators identified as his live-in Dr. Lawrence girlfriend. Chenier Chenier was picked up at his Tallulah office at 900 Johnson St. with assistance from the Madison Parish Sheriff’s Department, while Carr was served with arrest and search warrants by deputies and U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration
agents at the couple’s home. They are each accused of 300 counts of controlled substance fraud in acquisition and one count of conspiracy to commit controlled substance fraud in acquisition. They have not been indicted by the grand jury, but the January term meets next week and their cases could be among those considered. Smith would not comment on the specifics of the suit, citing “ongoing litigation,” but said if it is successful, the property would be sold See Chenier, Page A2.
Brenden Neville•The Vicksburg Post
The home of Dr. Lawrence Chenier at 100 Colonial Drive