And the race is on ...
Published Saturday, March 8, 2008
The deadline to qualify for upcoming city elections was Friday, so we stationed a reporter and a photographer at City Hall to see just who the stragglers might be.
With a few last minute additions Friday, the city ballot is complete.
And it's a big one. Three candidates are running for mayor, 21 for aldermen.
We attempted in today's edition to give you all a little snippet about each candidate.
But as the weeks progress, we'll be diving in deeper. We want to begin gathering a list of the issues important to you now, though, so we can ask the questions you want answers too.
So, what's on your mind? What are the biggest issues facing the city?
Comments
Point #1 Leadeship, Point #2 Economy, Point #3, City Structure, Point #4 Education! Good article Julie! Thanks to all at the ND!
Biggest Issues in my mind
1) Something NEW- a theme park- The Mighty Muddy Mudslide Park with slides down the bluff splashing into a safe enclosed lagoon, much like the ones the casino boats float in.
2) A NEW Bypass CRUSADE- being a bypass crusader I have noticed that the old bypass has now become the main artery of city traffic and is overused. It needs relief from heavy truck traffic and thru traffic which a new bypass maybe linking a part of Kingston Rd over to Hwy 84/98 would do.
3) More flowers, flowering trees, color around town. Inmates could plant them as well as the litter pickup they do.
4)Demolition of abandoned and condemned buildings, especially along St Catherine St.
5) A more efficiently organized transit system that more people utilize, currently people have to wait long periods for a ride and the shuttles go back and forth to pick up individuals in a random and inefficient manner
6) Repossession of our trolleys from Vidalia, I don't know why we were so stupid to sell them to Vidalia
7) Development of an industrial zone along with the new bypass East of town which would be downwind from town so we don't have to smell air pollution from any smokestacks should we ever be so lucky as to obtain another industrial source of employment
8) Improvement of the public school performance, which includes teacher , principal, and administrator evaluation and pay based on performance. Put in place bathroom monitors, hallway security, and a disciplinary method of corporal punishment which includes parental approval. If certain parents are against spanking and nonabusive corporal punishment then their kids should be in classrooms seperate from kids whose parents that do approve. I think you would see a new respect for learning and a new respect for the teachers. Currently teachers are not allowed to do what is necessary to keep order in their classrooms. Eliminate an appointed school board and elect a new school board that only serves one year terms. Let's make our school personnel accountable from top to bottom.
That'll do for now, those are my initial thoughts on major issues we need to address.
Good ideas Kroger, I'd like to respond one by one starting with No. 8.
What would be the incentive for someone to expend their own funds to run for a one year term on the school board that pays little? It is a thankless position at best and can be aggravating and frustrating to the extreme. There aren't many folks in this world that are that altruistic.
I agree, appointing committee members can lead to cronyism, but wouldn't making them elected only politicize it further?
The basic problems are that we are throwing an enormous amount of money at the school district and: legislators aren't overseeing, the administration isn't administering, teachers aren't teaching, parents aren't parenting, students aren't learning, buildings are decaying, white folks aren't participating...obviously the money isn't being spent responsibly and none of the folks mentioned above are being held accountable.
Instead of throwing good money after bad, reduce funding proportionately to lack of performance...I think the threat of losing funds will get someone's attention...we in the real world don't get raises for poor work...let some incumbents be voted out, let some administrators and teachers get fired, let some disruptive students be corporally punished or sent home permanently, let DHS get involved with parents who refuse to parent, let white parents and students be lured back by building new magnet schools.
Kroger...items 2, 5&6 are transportation issues.
Regarding the bypass, the problem has been around for years and was well recognized during previous administrations. The current (and any future bypass) is a State highway and thus fall under the perview of MDOT.
State legislators usually have to present the project as part of an appropriations bill. MDOT projects typically take several years to get into the pipeline. If a new bypass hasn't been put into play, blame your past and present local governments for not pressing the past and present local state legislators to get it accepted by the legislature at large.
BTW, both Mayor Philip West (former state legislator) and former Mayor Larry L. "Butch" Brown (current head of MDOT) had their oportunities as have several other past and present legislators.
Regarding the public transit system and trolleys...the trolleys were probably sold because they were being under utilized in Natchez. The current system is, from what I've seen, basically a public chauffer service.
Unless the local population supports the trolleys with their patronage there won't be enough tourist traffic to justify the expenditure on the system. Natchezians are loath to walk or use trolleys from a public parking area a block away from their own business, but would rather park in front of it denying customers.
Mayor Brown didn't recognize this when he planned and spent millions on the Intermodal Transportation Facilitiy, which was to be the hub, and on customized trolleys which no one would use, thus they were sold to someone else.
Kroger...3&4 are beautification issues.
Using inmate labor to plant and MAINTAIN landscaping around town is a great idea, except that someone has to pay for the plants, planting materials, tools and yes the inmates...while they don't get paid very much, they still get paid for work...beautification projects are notoriously far down on most politicians lists. The only way this would work would be for someone to donate materials.
Demolition of condemned buildings is bailiwick of the City with the costs, hopefully, being back charged to the property owner. I doubt Philip West is going to be very gung ho about demolition considering his recent faux pas with the Pecan Factory...LOL. Besides, didn't we try this with the "Urban Renewal" programs of the 70's? Seems like that led to a great loss of significant history and led to vast areas of empty "no-man's land".
There should be a plan for repair/replacement of the structures prior to any mass demolition save for those found to be a danger to public health or safety.
Kroger...items 1&7 are development issues:
The smoke stack labor intensive and union controlled industries are basically forever gone. We have some newer industries such as DynaSteel, MRC, Rentech, Denbury, Bad Boy, and others that have come in and there will hopefully be others, but until we put in place the quality of life components companies look for we won't be able to attract them. I might add that we currently have an industrial area south of town, but it is currently under-utilized.
I love the idea of the mud slide...can you imagine if it was a real mudslide...hoooweeeee!!....a 200 foot muddy slip slide, what fun! Kids would love it even the older ones like me...LOL. Something like that would probably be best folded into one of the casino developments, but would be hard to get past the aesthetic hurdles for a bluff development.
I hasten to add that I'm not trying to be a naysayer...many of the ideas are good, but there are hurdles and they must be identified and then the people who can solve them must be identified and urged to act!
Inmate (chain gang) labor needs to go. Its been an issue for me for a long time. It looks BAD for the town. Tourists DO NOT want to see them or walk past them. Women walking the streets in the morning, alone and with children, do not want to pass this. If you gotta use them, put them in areas other than downtown. Honestly, I can't think of any town I have ever visited that had their criminals out working in such public view. The savings, whatever they may be, must surely be offset by the people that get turned away and give bad word-of-mouth reports about us.
Riverfront development. All our politicians do is sit and wait for gambling boats. But worse, they ignore the Mississippi and somehow think they can fill up St. Catherine creek and make some form of stagnant bayou out of it. And then develop IT.
All towns wanting tourists and shoppers develop their riverfronts.
Casino payoffs. I saw other towns become boomtowns when casinos moved in. Natchez got a casino and . . . . well, I guess we’re still waiting. Sorry. I have no faith that another casino (or even two) will help us. I figure the other towns had politicians that were honest or were not yet corrupted absolutely.
Any new casinos should be providing visible and tangible benfits for the community. And not just new houses and cars for the politicians.
And their riverfront development SHOULD NOT take the place of development for the wider public. Our riverfront should not be 100% casino.
Aldermen salaries. I'd still like to know if the current salaries of our aldermen are the highest in the state or the 3rd highest. Or other. But to vote themselves such huge raises when the police were asking for a raise (and being denied) was outrageous. Voting time should be payback time.
Dilapidated buildings all over town. The only one that was taken care of was the one belonging to the mayor's sugar daddy. But maybe we could all chip in and throw a few dollars to PW and he'd clean the whole town up.
Honesty in city government. Open meetings. Adequate time given for people to address their concerns.
I don't believe it is the responsibility of government to give us "recreation". But they can certainly make it easier for private enterprise to do it. Our gambling boat being an example.
So consider this - Our bluffs have the potential to hold a thousand different routes of rock climbing trails. Thats a big draw for out-of-towners. It works elsewhere.
On the north side of the north bridge, build some struts out from the bridge and make a walkway, away from the traffic, for walking and running. Locals and tourists would both use it much.
OldGrandDad- now that is an idea, bluffclimbing, that might be fun, and I like the idea of being able to walk, run, or bike across the river AWAY from the cars- cool idea!
SAM - come on man, be positive will ya please!!!
Sam - thanks for the responses -
my response to your response to item #8
Improved School System Performance
ok- the school board works for free which makes them entitled to our sympathy for lack of performance???
Well then, let's make it a REAL JOB and pay them and demand performance and limit their term of service so that elections would mean something in regards to our approval or disapproval of their said service. If we care about our schools, then let's put our money where our mouth is and pay them for a job well done, and get better schools.
Morris and the School Board have performed poorly
someone must be held accountable
These are the people who are supposed to make the schools as good as they can be and make sure the teachers do their jobs, and involve parents and other agencies as needed. The ideas you have should be in action, and could very easily with a phone call from the school board.
I like the idea of budgets that are reflected by performance that is they way it should be, but then what would you do if the schools cannot operate, what would we do with the kids, state law says they must attend school.
At least pay the teachers according to classroom performance, (get the teacher's union OUT!!) and give the teachers real means of enforcing rules of behavior -i.e. - SPANKING!! We all know that is what is missing from the school system. It worked for us back in the 60's as I have said before I remember looking at Principal Bob Dearing's paddle every morning and that put the fear in me!!
Kroger:
I agree with your last two missives...see, I am positive...LOL.
In response to: "what would you do if the schools cannot operate..."
Vouchers...yes, the dreaded "V" word...give EVERY CHILD a voucher...close the public schools...let parents vote in the child's interest by spending the voucher at a private school of their CHOICE!
This helps the child trapped in poor public schools and it eliminates the necessity of parents of current private school students from having to pay for both public schools, through taxes, and private school through tuition.
Competition, supply and demand, accountability in one swell foop!
yeah right, the private schools couldn't handle the stampede.
and the courts would be full of lawsuits from parents whose kids were not allowed to enter the private schools that could not accept them due to the sheer numbers
that whole scenario of vouchers here would be a disaster.
better just to toughen up the discipline, cut out the trouble kids and put them in a boot camp school, allow the good students to pursue advanced studies, more PE, more mandatory shop classes like we had. I remember at Montebello we had shop class in the 7th grade!!! Pay the teachers according to the performance of their students, along with the principals and the administrators,elect and pay the school board and let their salary be tied to school performance, limit their term of service so that elections would be meaningful. It wouldn't be hard to clean up the school if our administrators would just WALK TALL and CARRY A BIG STICK and whoop those bad kids. Instead of trying to be so damn scientific and smooth talking trying to please everyone and be so politically correct. Let's just have some old fashioned RESPECT & OBEDIENCE to your parents and instructors.
Kroger...I think on the contrary, you would see a building surge, employment surge, educational surge, economic surge, etc. all with fair market controls and without governmental interference...it may take a little time, but business is business and private schools would invest, catch up, excell and prosper. If your school isn't teaching your children well you vote with your dollar and feet!
I agree with your opinions about discipline, merit pay, removal of the unions from inhibiting our kids prospects, but parents today don't demand respect from the kids and don't instill a WORK ETHIC in them. Unfortunately, many of the parents feel like they are ENTITLED and, therefore, teach their children that they are ENTITLED! No wonder they are then at a loss to control their own children.
Holding Morris, who has been superintendant for 3 ½ years, accountable for Mississippi’s failing school system is not the answer. We need to pull together but it will not happen overnight.
Please, please resurface the streets. Different utilities have dug up streets and left them in horrible shape, you could lose control of your car in some places. Homochitto for one, 1) in front of Natchez Mattress and 2) in front of the Malt Shop. Canal Street for another, several spots that have needed repairs for a long time. Franklin Street should have been done a long time ago. As well as Devereaux/St. Catherine coming into town. These are some of our main arteries going in and out of the CBD.
Did we have grant money to do this? What happened to the money? Don't tell me you can get it fixed, if you are in office now and want to stay there ---- then fix it now.
Post a comment