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Winfield wants to spend millions on rec complex By John Surratt jsurratt@vicksburgpost.com
Still Rocking
Dick Clark to mark 40 years of New Year’s show
Ev ery day Si nCE 1883
With Mayor Paul Winfield’s plans to build a recreational complex for the city of Vicksburg, the playing field has expanded. Winfield will ask the Warren County delegation to the Mississippi Legislature to introduce and shepherd a bill that would allow the city to increase two taxes to
build baseball, softball and soccer fields and a walking trail at a location he declines to identify. The bill would allow the city to borrow $18.5 million to $19.5 million, which would be repaid over 15 years with increased taxes on hotels, restaurants and bars. The current tax on hotels is 2 percent, and Winfield wants that tax to rise to 4 percent. On restaurants
and bars, the current rate is 1 percent; Winfield wants that to be raised to 2.5 percent. The increases would be removed once the loan is paid off, he said. Rep. Alex Monsour, R-Vicksburg, said he is working with Winfield to prepare the local and private bill seeking the increases, adding he wants to talk
See Rec, Page A10.
Eli Baylis•The Vicksburg Post
A gate off Fisher Ferry Road blocks access to the once-proposed recreational complex where dirt work was halted when money earmarked for the project was moved.
neighbor ‘hit the ground’
Winfield axed as attorney in Port Gibson
B6 WEATHER Tonight: partly cloudy, lows in the mid-40s Saturday: mostly sunny and clear, highs in the mid-60s
By John Surratt jsurratt@vicksburgpost.com
Mississippi River:
37.4 feet Fell: 0.4 foot Flood stage: 43 feet
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DEATHS • Charles Henry Johnson • Robert Earl Parker Jr. • Margaret Gray Ramsey • Sarah Lois Teeter • Larry Donnell Whitaker
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TODAY IN HISTORY 1813: The British burn Buffalo, N.Y., during the War of 1812. 1860: 10 days after South Carolina secedes from the Union, the state militia seizes the United States Arsenal in Charleston. 1903: About 600 people die when fire breaks out at the Iroquois Theater in Chicago. 1936: The United Auto Workers union stages its first “sit-down” strike at the General Motors Fisher Body Plant No. 1 in Flint, Mich. 1972: The United States halts its heavy bombing of North Vietnam.
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www.vicksburgpost.com VOLUME 129 NUMBER 364 2 SECTIONS
Eli Baylis•The Vicksburg Post
Vicksburg Police Department Investigator Robert Whitten, left, places shell casings into an envelope on Patton Street Thursday after an 18-year-old woman was injured in a crossfire of bullets.
City woman shot in crossfire on Patton Street By Danny Barrett Jr. dbarrett@vicksburgpost.com A Vicksburg woman was shot in the hip when she was caught in what was described as a crossfire of bullets on Patton Street Thursday afternoon. Shirel Hall, 18, 1200 Mission 66, was treated at River Region Medical Center and transferred to University Medical Center in Jackson, said Lt. Sandra Williams of the Vicksburg Police Department. A UMC spokesman said Hall was treated in the emergency room and released later Thursday. The shots on Patton, a neighborhood east of Washington and Clark streets, were fired at about 12:30 p.m. Details from Lt. Williams were few, but a neighbor, who was in his yard picking up pecans, said he was forced to “hit the ground like it was Afghanistan” when he heard the shots. Theyappeared to have been fired from See Shooting, Page A9.
A shooting suspect who later was released from custody is loaded into a Vicksburg cruiser after a bullet was found in the pocket of his pajama pants.
Vicksburg Mayor Paul Winfield is being replaced as attorney for the town of Port Gibson following a decision by that town’s seven-person Board of Mayor and Aldermen. “The board decided to seek a replacement, that’s their prerogative, and they asked for his resignation,” Port Gibson Mayor Fred Reeves said late Thursday, hours after Winfield made his resignaPaul tion public. Winfield Reeves did not cite a reason for the change, and board members were not available Thursday night or this morning. Winfield, elected mayor of Vicksburg in 2009, has been attorney for Port Gibson for six years. Reeves said the Port Gibson board has begun interviewing candidates to replace Winfield, but their names were not made public. Winfield, who is paid $89,340 as Vicksburg mayor and was paid at least $30,000 annually as Port Gibson attorney, said he will pursue unspecified opportunities, adding he might serve as a publicfinance consultant to other Mississippi cities. “I’ve been working with other cities in the state on public financing, both before and since I’ve been elected mayor,” he said, adding he maintains his private law practice, which specializes in public finance. He said he has worked on publicfinance projects with the Jackson Public School District and the city of Canton, but declined to give details. He said he also has worked in government relations helping cities with grants and issues involving See Mayor, Page A9.
U.S. funnels $802 million to Corps for 2011 flood areas By Danny Barrett Jr. dbarrett@vicksburgpost.com About $802 million in emergency repair money approved by President Barack Obama will be directed to areas along the Mississippi River hit hardest by last spring’s historic flood, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Mississippi Valley Division said Thursday. The money is part of a $1.7 billion appropriation to the Corps in the Disaster Relief Appropriations Act signed by the president a week ago, though no specific projects have been listed publicly.
The Mississippi River and Tributaries System — a series of levees, floodways and control structures between Cairo, Ill., and the Gulf of Mexico — prevented more than $120 billion in damages during the Great Flood of 2011, the Corps said.
“This funding represents a vital investment in the most valuable flood risk reduction system in our nation, perhaps in the world,” said Maj. Gen. John Peabody, president-designee of the Mississippi River Commission and Commander of the Mississippi Valley Division, in a statement. “Since the Mis-
sissippi River and Tributaries program was conceived in 1928, this comprehensive flood risk management system has earned its value many times over, representing over a $30 to $1 return on investment for American taxpayers today.” MVD money in the legislation will address needs
in the 14 counties in Mississippi declared disaster areas during the flood, which reached 57.1 feet in Vicksburg — 14.1 feet above flood stage. Stages were above the 43-foot flood mark for 46 days. A new high mark was also set at Natchez, where the river crested the same day at 61.9 feet. Peak daily flows topped 1927 levels at Vicksburg — where more than 2.2 million cubic feet of water were measured — and at Arkansas City, Greenville and Natchez. Costs for documented damages in the Mississippi Valley alone approach $1 billion, the
release said. More than $3.1 million in reinforcements to the mainline levee north of Vicksburg at Buck Chute and Lake Albemarle are expected to wrap up by late January. The Mississippi River and Tributaries System — a series of levees, floodways and control structures between Cairo, Ill., and the Gulf of Mexico — prevented more than $120 billion in damages during the Great Flood of 2011, the Corps said. Despite the new funding, the Corps expects it will “take years to restore the system to its pre-flood levels,” the release said.