MPA/MPS Press Releases

Contact Information:
Bruce C. Alt, Executive Vice President, Mississippi Forestry Association
601.354.4936
balt@msforestry.net

Monday, May 12, Governor Barbour signed the water quality and private lands trespass bill advocated by Mississippi Forestry Association and conservation partners. Due to widespread ATV riding in streams and trespassing without permission from landowners, Mississippi land and aquatic ecosystems have suffered needless damage. “Education of the public, especially young riders, on responsible ATV use is an essential part of addressing this problem. Stream riding is not a legal water sport. Fish habitat in public waterways is a public resource. Sediment and stream bottom disturbance from ATVs and other motorized vehicles in the beds of streams and rivers is harmful to fish reproduction and the insect larvae and small organisms that feed newly hatched fish. The Mississippi Forestry Association and its partners opened a much needed discussion on a change in the law and the effort was a success,” said Andrew Whitehurst, coordinator, Mississippi Scenic Streams Stewardship Program.
House Bill 1357 seeks to:
1.    protect private property rights;
2.    decrease the widespread practice of trespassing on private lands by all-terrain vehicles (ATVs), especially in Mississippi’s public waterways;
3.    prevent the associated destruction of aquatic ecosystems and fisheries habitat; and
4.    increase the penalties for trespassing on private lands.

This bill, HB1357, was proposed during the 2008 legislative session by Mississippi Forestry Association (MFA) and forestry community partners in order to protect the aquatic ecosystems and improve the fisheries habitat of the state’s  public waterways. To strengthen Mississippi’s public waterways statute, the law was changed to prohibit all types of vehicles, including ATVs, from operating within the bed of our public waterways and trespassing on private land. However, it is legal to ford streams for  recreational, agricultural, forestry, or other lawful purposes.

What is a public waterway? Mississippi Code defines a public waterway as those portions of all natural flowing streams in this state having a mean annual flow of not less than one hundred (100) cubic feet per second, as determined and designated on appropriate maps by the Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality (MDEQ). The law states that citizens shall have the right of free transport in the stream and the right to fish and engage in water sports. By law, citizens are not allowed to disturb the banks or beds of such waterways because the banks and beds are private property. “This is really good news that the governor and legislators recognize the importance of protecting the streams. The problem is that the public is ignorant of the law. Trespassers have caused considerable damage on my land; one time I had to pull a pick-up truck out of my stream with a bulldozer,” said Jim Currie, landowner and vice-president of Harrison/Hancock County Forestry Association. A map of all the state’s public waterways can be viewed on the MDEQ website at http://www.deq.state.ms.us/MDEQ.nsf/page/L&W_pub_waterways?OpenDocument

MFA wishes to gratefully recognize and thank our forestry community partners who joined with us to pass this landmark environmental and private property rights legislation. The Miss. Dept. of Wildlife, Fisheries and Parks, Miss. Museum of Natural Science, Wildlife Mississippi, Miss. Farm Bureau Federation, Miss. Wildlife Federation, and the Miss. Chapter of the Sierra Club worked together during the 2008 legislative session. “Without the support and advocacy efforts of our coalition partners, these strategic goals of preserving and protecting water quality, improving fisheries habitat, and providing stiffer penalties for trespassing on private lands would not have been possible,” stated Bruce C. Alt, executive vice president, Mississippi Forestry Association.
MFA was formed in 1938 to guard and grow Mississippi’s forests and that is still the association’s mission today. Celebrating 70 years of service, MFA is the only organization in Mississippi that represents every segment of the forestry community. MFA leads the effort to protect private property and landowner rights, to improve the forest products economy, and educate the community about the environmental benefits of healthy, renewable, and sustainable forests and a vital forest industry. MFA is a private (non government), nonprofit association. To learn more, please visit www.msforestry.net.

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For Immediate Release
Contact:   Jennifer Beasley
601-613-0678
mmdajenn@aol.com
The Mississippi Metropolitan Dance Academy will host their 16th
Annual Summer Dance Intensive June 9-20 at their state of the art facility located in Homestead Park in Madison.  Dancers ages 8 and up from the metro area as  well as neighboring cities and states will participate in daily classes conducted by some of the nation’s finest teachers.  Students will participate in classes in ballet, pointe, classical variations, pas de deux, jazz, modern, and pilates.

The 2008 Summer Intensive Guest Faculty includes:
Sarah Schafer-Dancer, Chicago Lyric Ballet
Leah Cavier-Teacher, Louisiana Delta Ballet
Adam Sage-Artistic Director, Virginia School of the Arts
Jane Wood-Smith-Former Dancer and Teacher, Ballet West

Additional faculty will be announced at a later date.  The Mississippi Metropolitan Ballet Resident faculty including Artistic Director, Jennifer Beasley, Assistant Artistic Director, Erik Kegler, and Ballet Mistress, Crystal Skelton will also teach at the workshop.

“We are so honored that our Summer Intensive has grown and begun to attract dancers from other parts of the state and even from out of state.   At MMDA we have many students who go away to large summer programs connected with professional companies such as Boston Ballet and Joffrey Ballet in  New York.  These programs are very expensive when you
factor in room and board and not all families can afford to send their children away  for summer study.  Therefore, we strive to bring the same caliber teachers here to Madison so that the students in our area can have the opportunity to train with the best.”  said Jennifer Beasley, Artistic Director of the Mississippi Metropolitan Dance Academy.

The Mississippi Metropolitan Mississippi Metropolitan Ballet Company is a 501C3 non-profit organization that serves the Metro Jackson area as a presenting and performing ballet company.   MMB presents the annual Nutcracker performance in Madison as well as a spring performance in Jackson at Thalia Mara Hall.  The Mississippi Metropolitan Dance Academy is the official school of the Mississippi Metropolitan Ballet Company.

Both the Mississippi Metropolitan Dance Academy and the Mississippi Metropolitan Ballet have been under the Artistic Direction of Jennifer Beasley for the past ten years.

Candidates for the Summer Intensive are accepted by teacher recommendation.  For more information about registration for the Mississippi Metropolitan Dance Academy’s Summer Intensive call 601-853-4508 or visit their website at www.msmetroballet.com.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Josh Huff, 601-985-4104                              josh.huff@butlersnow.com

Butler Snow has created a Public Policy and Strategy Team to advise clients on public initiatives that affect their interests.  Charlie Williams, a veteran legislator and recent Chief of Staff to Gov. Haley Barbour, will lead the 11-member team.

With years of government experience, the team offers clients special insight on how to manage public policy challenges. Joining Williams are two other former gubernatorial chiefs of staff: Mark Garriga, who served with former Gov. Kirk Fordice and also as a state legislator, and John Henegan, who worked for former Gov. William Winter.

The Public Policy and Strategy Team will help clients navigate the legislative and regulatory maze.  Williams and his team will develop a strategy to meet a client’s public policy goals at the local, state or federal level. With bipartisan contacts, the team can be effective on both sides of the aisle. “We’ll keep clients informed about initiatives that impact them,” Williams said. “We’ll help them take advantage of opportunities, overcome hurdles, and educate decision-makers about their issues.”

Williams, from Senatobia, served in the Mississippi House of Representatives for 24 years, chairing the Ways and Means Committee for eight years. “We’re excited to have someone of Charlie Williams’ caliber leading our team,” said Don Clark, Chair of Butler Snow. “His extensive legislative and executive branch experience will benefit clients.”

In contrast to other public policy groups, representation by Butler Snow’s team can extend beyond the policy and strategy areas to legal representation, if needed.

The team’s knowledge about how government works will benefit businesses and other private-sector clients on issues ranging from economic incentives to compliance to regulations.  The team is also able to advise counties or municipalities on state policy. “Whoever the client, whatever the public policy problem, we can help solve it,” Williams said.

Clark noted that the three former chiefs of staff represent significant eras in Mississippi. Henegan served with Winter during passage of the landmark Education Reform Act in 1982. Garriga served with Fordice, elected in 1992 as the state’s first Republican governor since 1874. Williams was on board during Barbour’s widely praised response to the test of Hurricane Katrina. “They’ve built solid relationships on both sides of the aisle,” Clark said. “They’ve been present when state history was being made.”
The new team will begin as part of the Public Law and Finance practice group. “We’ve always offered public policy advice to clients,” said Tommie Cardin, Practice Group Leader and member of the policy team, who practices in administrative law, election law, environmental law and government relations. “This new team lets us offer our clients enhanced strategic advice in the policymaking arena.”

In addition to Williams, Garriga, Henegan and Cardin, members of the Public Policy and Strategy Team include:

Lucien Bourgeois – served in executive branch, practices in municipal bonds, public finance, economic development incentives.
Michael Caples – a trained engineer whose practice emphasizes environmental law and government relations, has represented public utilities.
Julie Ellis – a former attorney with FedEx who practices in transportation & logistics, aviation, business planning and operations, government relations and administrative law.
Chris Espy – practices in administrative law, constitutional law, governmental litigation, public finance and product liability.
Nick Manley – practices in governmental relations, banking law, business operations and administrative law.
Leslie Scott – a former state Asst. Attorney General and attorney for City of Jackson, practices in administrative law, government relations, election law and civil rights defense.
Jason Yarbro – represents local, regional and national developers in real estate, corporate and securities and commercial lending.

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Butler, Snow, O’Mara, Stevens & Cannada, PLLC, is a full-service law firm with more than 150 attorneys representing regional, national and international clients from offices in Jackson, the Mississippi Gulf Coast, Memphis, and the Greater Philadelphia, PA area. For more information, visit www.butlersnow.com.
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Media Contact:
Sam Johnson
(601) 362-4322

Legislature passes measure to expand “One Call” network
The State of Mississippi has taken a major step to increase public safety and decrease costs associated with construction project accidents by passing a law to expand the state’s “One Call” network. If the bill is approved by the Governor, effective July 1, every private and public entity in the state that operates underground facilities will be required to join the Mississippi One Call Network.

“This law is good for the safety of our citizens and it makes good business sense as well,” said Sam Johnson, Executive Director of Mississippi One Call. “Now there is no excuse for not knowing where underground utilities are located in an area where anyone is digging - just dial 811 and get the area marked.”
The bill was passed overwhelmingly by the Mississippi Legislature in April and Governor Barbour has until mid-May to sign it. The Governor has also declared May “Safe Digging Month in Mississippi.”

“Each year, people are killed or injured and millions of dollars of property is damaged or destroyed nationwide because digging devices come into contact with gas, electric, water or other lines that are buried in the area where work is being done,” said Johnson. “The strong support for this law shows that safety is a bipartisan issue.”

Calling 8-1-1 before starting a project connects the person digging to the Mississippi One-Call System (MOCS), a computerized information center located in Jackson. MOCS then determines what entities – public and private - have underground utilities in the area. After MOCS contacts all of them, the individual companies send crews to mark their
lines on the property, enabling the person or crew digging in an area to steer clear of underground pipes and wires.

“More and more states are considering laws similar to what we have just passed in Mississippi,” said Johnson. “Until now, membership in Mississippi One Call was voluntary; meaning our records only reflected the companies and municipalities that participated.”

The new law marks the first significant expansion of MOCS since the service was established 24 years ago. Many Mississippians are still not aware that by simply dialing 811 they can have homes, businesses or any construction area searched for underground lines before they dig.

“Dialing three digits is all they need to do to be sure,” said Johnson. “It does not cost the person calling us – our members pick up the costs of the marking.”

For companies such as Atmos Energy, which both operates underground gas lines and has crews that dig year-round, paying to be part of MOCS is money well-spent.

“Safety is our top priority and we believe One Call is the most important service to prevent injuries that happen when people accidentally hit utility lines of any kind,” said David Gates, President of Atmos Mississippi. “Also, the costs associated with locating lines are minimal when you compare them with the costs associated with making emergency repairs to facilities that have been damaged.”

For more information about the Mississippi One Call Network, visit us online at:  www.ms1call.org

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Contact Mark Simpson at 601-594-1486
Or mark@marathonmakeover.com

Renaissance at Colony Park, a lifestyle retail center in Ridgeland, will host the inaugural “Renaissance at Colony Park Half Marathon” on Saturday, June 28 at 6 a.m.

The half marathon will begin and end at Renaissance at Colony Park on Highland Colony Parkway, with the course running along the parkway and through area neighborhoods, such as Dinsmor, Bridgewater and Old Towne.
A half marathon is 13.1 miles and is open to runners and walkers. In addition to the half marathon, there will be a Gattitown One Mile Fun Run for children ages 5-13, and a Friday night pasta meal presented by Mint Restaurant at Renaissance.

The half marathon is open to runners and walkers 16 and older and is limited to the first 1200 participants. The One Mile Fun Run is limited to 250 participants.

Marathon Makeover is Mississippi’s premier marathon training program that is currently training over 450 area runners and walkers to complete a full marathon of 26.2 miles. This is their fifth year of turning couch potatoes into marathoners.

There is over $5000 in the winners’ purse, to be presented to the top overall men’s and women’s runner, masters (40+) and grandmasters (50+). Each participant will be entered in a drawing for shopping sprees and gifts from Renaissance at Colony Park retailers and other area merchants. Each registered participant will have a chance to win a new car or $25,000 from Paul Moak of Ridgeland.

The half marathon is presented by Cellular South, Marathon Makeover, Renaissance at Colony Park, HC Bailey Companies and Mattiace Properties. Additional sponsors include Ridgeland Tourism Commission, Paul Moak of Ridgeland, Gattitown Pizza, City of Ridgeland, Ridgeland Parks and Recreation, and LifeChange Counseling Centers.

For more information, visit www.marathonmakeover.com.

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TO THE EDITOR:

Loggers face major crisis with rising fuel costs

This letter is written on behalf of the loggers in the State of Mississippi who are currently experience a major crisis in the logging industry. This crisis is the result of a long term continuation of inflated fuel prices that is forcing logging companies out of business at a fast pace. Many logging companies have already closed. Unless immediate relief is provided by the State of Mississippi in this industry, the life of the remaining logging companies in our state is short term.

Over the last several months, group meetings have been held statewide with over 300 seasoned logging companies to address this crisis. Loggers with a minimum of 27 years experience in the industry gathered from all over the state to make a concerted effort with the State of Mississippi to seek immediate relief. All logging companies report that their businesses are failing due to inflated fuel prices. There is no market to sell their equipment to get out of the business. Equipment dealers and banks are feeling the crunch of loggers not being able to make their equipment payments. The loggers all agree that unless relief is provided, the logging industry will not survive.

The forestry sector in the State of Mississippi is one of the leading industries in our great state, with a phenomenal impact:
• The logging industry in Mississippi is a $14 billion per year enterprise;
• 52,580 people are directly employed in the forestry industry;
• Forestry generates a $1.6 billion annual payroll;
• With a 3-4 multiplier, another 200,000 jobs with a aggregate payroll exceeding $6 billion results from the forestry industry;
• Sustainable communities depend on the logging industry to bring money in through employment, local investments and local ownership.

What makes logging a “different” business?
• Most are small family, micro businesses. Most are single-generation firms where the current owner built the business from the ground up.
• An up-to-date equipment spread represents a $1 million investment. The average logger has more invested in the business than the average timber owner has invested in land and timber.
• The owner is involved in the business every day: supervising, checking out the next tract, making repairs and operating equipment. Normally, the owner’s family is involved in running the company.
• There are no franchises or long-term business agreements. Business is conducted on a contract per-tract basis.
• Logging firms are often overlooked as a part of the community. They are usually located off the major business highways. There is no storefront or large sign out front or other indicators of the business size, yet they contribute billions to the economy of the state.
• Goodwill is a key asset in logging in that the logging companies have to maintain not only a disruptive activity for the landowner, but also have to follow strict regulations mandated by the rural, state and federal regulators on the roads traveled to take their products to the mills. This often involves extra work and is very costly to assure that the landowner, the state and federal agencies and the surrounding communities are satisfied with the conduct of the operation.

These are high-volume, low-margin businesses:
• One-to-5 percent of gross revenues are retained as profit in the best of times;
• Maintaining cash flow is critical: There is no “season” for logging in the South; Operations are expected to have 50-week work year with no allowances for scheduling payments “when the crop comes in;” Labor, the largest single expense, must be paid on a weekly basis while equipment payments, repair bills and other consumable supplies must be paid monthly.

Fuel costs are soaring in recent years, jeopardizing the survival of these business.

The Mississippi Loggers have issued a plea of relief to the State of Mississippi in support of this failing industry. Survival will depend on relief in the following areas:
• An immediate waiver for the remainder of 2008 of the fuel tax on off-road diesel and on-road diesel.
• An increase in highway weight limits to 88,000 pounds;
• Waiver of sales tax on purchase of parts and supplies needed to repair and maintain equipment and trucks;
• Landowner waiver on severance tax collected from the mills for the state to assist landowners in offsetting the stumpage price;
• Landowner waiver on long-term capital tax to offset stumpage prices, thus increasing the logging company revenue.

Mississippi Loggers have requested to Gov. Haley Barbour to be placed on the Call for the Special Section forthcoming in the State of Mississippi for immediate relief to the logging industry. The logging industry’s survival depends on it.

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CONTACTS:
Tamme Bufkin, Circle B Timber/Mississippi Loggers Association, 601-545-1239, Cell: 601-408-8508;
John Mabry, Sam Mabry Lumber Co./Mississippi Loggers Association, 601-657-8061, Cell: 601-660-3993;
Cecil Johnson, executive director, Mississippi Loggers Association, 601-776-5754, cell 662-418-8891

LOGGING INDUSTRY CONTACTS:
Stone Timber Inc., Wiggins
Randy Miller, 251-331-8242

Greg Green Logging, Leakesville
Greg Green, 601-270-5894

Timberline Trucking, Hattiesburg
David Harvison, 601-545-8873

Circle B Timber, Inc., Hattiesburg
Lowell Bufkin, 601-545-1239 or 601-315-0789

Soujourner Logging, Hazlehurst
Wayne Soujourner, 601-892-4021

For more information:
Louie Miller
Mississippi Sierra Club
(601) 624-3503
lmillersc@earthlink.net

Several Mississippi citizen’s groups met at the State Capitol today to question Governor Barbour’s recent statements on flooding in the proposed Yazoo Pumps area. The groups referenced recent comments made by the Governor and by Neely Carlton, spokesperson for the Governor.

“There is considerable farmland and lots of houses underwater in the proposed Yazoo Pumps area,” the Governor said last week. “We need the Yazoo Pumps but the environmentalists have stopped them for the last 20 years,” Barbour added.

The citizen’s groups noted that there is no residential flooding in the proposed Yazoo Pumps area and that most of the flooding was on timberland and low lying marginal farmland.

“Last week the Governor said that there was considerable farmland and lots of houses underwater in the proposed Yazoo Pumps area, yet his disaster declaration request to FEMA did not include the counties in the proposed Yazoo Pumps area,” said Louie Miller, State Director for the Mississippi Sierra Club. “Either there is flooding in the proposed Yazoo Pumps area or there isn’t. If there is, why didn’t the Governor include these counties in the disaster declaration request? The Governor is talking out of both sides of his mouth and the people of Mississippi and the American people should be outraged about it,” Miller stated.

Miller added “This type of deception is nothing new for supporters of the Yazoo Pumps. This project has a long history of lies and propaganda manufactured by Pumps supporters ranging from the Corps of Engineers on down which is one of the reasons why the Office of Management and Budget, not generally known as an environmentalist organization, killed the project back in 1989 until Thad Cochran revived it with some legislative slight of hand in 1996,” Miller said. “To add insult to injury, with Cochran’s help, the rich farmers whom would benefit from this monumental boondoggle finagled a way to make sure that it was 100% federally funded with no local cost share,” Miller concluded.

The groups also referenced statements made last week by Peter Nimrod, Chief Engineer of the levee board in Greenville and by Kent Parrish, Project Engineer for the Yazoo Pumps.

“The same day that the Governor is grousing about flooding in the proposed Pumps Area, Peter Nimrod, the Chief Engineer of the Mississippi Levee Board in Greenville, said that while there was considerable flooding on the Mississippi River side of the levee, everything looked great on the proposed Pumps side,” said T. Logan Russell, Executive Director of Delta Land Trust based in Madison.

“A week later, Kent Parrish of the Corps Vicksburg District said that with an additional foot or two of water at the Steele Bayou gauge, you would actually begin picking up some residential flooding in the proposed Pumps area,” Russell added. “That means there is no residential flooding in the proposed Pumps area currently as evidenced by the Governor’s current FEMA disaster declaration request and historic FEMA flood damage data,” he continued. “The Governor even had his spokesperson, Neely Carlton, go on record before a federal agency saying that the flooding at the Governor’s lake house somehow would have been alleviated by the Yazoo Pumps. But the Governor’s house is not in the Yazoo Pumps area and probably would have flooded worse if the Yazoo Pumps were in operation,” Russell concluded.

Russell also referenced statements made by the Government Accountability Office. In 2006, the GAO told Congress that recent Corps of Engineers studies were so flawed that they could “not provide a reasonable basis for decision-making”. The GAO said that those studies, like the one for the Yazoo Pumps, were “fraught with errors, mistakes, miscalculations, and used invalid assumptions and outdated data,” Russell said. “This is one of many reasons why every American president from Ronald Reagan to George W. Bush- Democrats and Republicans alike- has opposed the Yazoo Pumps project,” Russell concluded.

The groups also noted the Governor’s double standard between Mississippi River flooding and proposed Pumps area flooding. “If people choose to live somewhere that they know repeatedly floods, at some point, it’s not the taxpayer’s responsibility anymore. We can’t expect the taxpayers just to continue to bail people out year in and year out,” Barbour said last week.

Yet despite his apparent support for taxpayer rights and relocating flood prone residences when it comes to repetitive flooding in the Vicksburg area, Barbour went on to defend construction of the planned Yazoo Pumps in the extremely flood prone South Mississippi Delta.

“Any land that is currently flooded in the proposed Yazoo Pumps project area has a 50% chance of flooding every year,” said Dr. Cathy Shropshire, Executive Director of the Mississippi Wildlife Federation. “That sounds like repetitive flooding to me. It makes a lot more sense to continue the efforts to reforest this land through the Wetland Reserve Program and other programs than to build massively wasteful and environmentally destructive Pumps that will only make flooding in the Vicksburg area worse,” she added.  “The money could be better used to move people in the proposed Yazoo Pumps area out of harms way just like the Governor has proposed for the Vicksburg area,” she concluded.

The citizens groups encouraged interested Mississippians and concerned Americans to email EPA in support of its proposed veto of the Yazoo Pumps at ow-docket@epa.mail.epa.gov with docket #EPA-RO4-OW-2008-0179 as the email subject. EPA is accepting comments until May 5.

Call Nita Rutledge 901-896-5877 for additional info or email nita@southern-appraisal.com

4th Annual Little Creek Ranch Rodeo May 10th

Rodeos have been part of our American culture for close to two centuries, gaining in popularity each year with thousands of fans attending rodeos around the country. On Saturday May 10, 2008 Little Creek Ranch will offer rodeo fans a chance to experience first hand a unique part of our heritage.

Rain or shine the 4th Annual Little Creek Ranch Rodeo will be held Saturday May 10, 2008 from  6:00-11:00 pm at the ranch near Glen, MS. Dodge Rodeo, Calvary Rodeo Production and Little Creek Ranch  are proud to host this family event and invite everyone to come out for the fun and excitement. Other main sponsors include the Alcorn County Farmer’s Coop, Land Bank of North Mississippi, Coca Cola Bottling Works of Corinth and Brose Autoplex.

As an added attraction this year a Cutting Bred Quarter Horse will be given away during the rodeo. Purchase of a ticket the night of the rodeo qualifies you for the drawing and you must be present to win. Admission to the rodeo is adults $8.00, Children $5.00, kids 5 and under free with the gate opening at 4:30. There is limited seating  so bring your lawn chair and concessions will be available.

The Kid’s Rodeo kicks off at 6:00 pm with Mutton Bustin’ and Junior Steer Riding with the young ones. At 7:00 pm cowboys and cowgirls from around the region will compete in Bare Back Riding, Calf Roping, Team Roping, Cowgirl’s Barrel Racing and Bull Riding featuring some of the toughest bulls in the region.

An 8:00 pm intermission will feature entertainment by Kay Bain, one of Mississippi’s most beloved and talented singers, and the host of the popular Morning Show on WTVA in Tupelo. Kay will be joined on stage by Wayne Jerrolds, the new Alabama State Fiddle Champion and former Bill Monroe Bluegrass Boy, Jake Landers who co-wrote Walk Softly On This Heart of Mine with Bill Monroe and Wayne’s band Savannah Bluegrass.

Calvary Rodeo Production is a Mississippi based Christian rodeo company and during the past 12 years their rodeos have earned a reputation as professional, entertaining and inspirational. Call owner Tommy Wilbanks at 662-223-0804 for information on Calvary Rodeo events.

Little Creek Ranch is a 900 acre working ranch located at 181 CR 345 Glen, MS. Drive seven miles east of Corinth on Highway 72, turn south onto CR 300 (county road numbers do not run in sequence) and follow the signs 3 miles to CR 345.  Check out the website www.littlecreek.ms for a map or call Harold Little at 662-808-9107 for information.

MISSISSIPPI HEALTH CARE ASSOCIATION
Contact Vanessa Henderson, 601-956-3472
www.mshca.com

Mississippi nursing home residents in spotlight during week of “ageless love”      

For a full week every May, activities directors and other staff in nursing homes throughout Mississippi go a bit whacky, maybe overboard – they pull out all the stops to celebrate and shower special attention on the people who live in 200 public or proprietary skilled nursing homes.

This year, beginning on Mother’s Day for the 41st consecutive year, nursing home residents will experience the nationwide theme of “Love Is Ageless.” Mississippi Health Care Association (MHCA) and the American Health Care Association through sponsorship aim to build better relationships among the generations, strengthen relationships with family members, celebrate quality of life and care issues, and recognize all staff members who demonstrate excellent care giving.

But the individual residents get special spotlight attention through parties, extraordinary food functions, entertainment and social events, and opportunities to take part in unusual activities.

Vanessa Henderson, executive director of MHCA – representing 220 long term care facilities including nursing homes, assisted living facilities, and retirement communities plus 80 associates – said this annual event dedicates time to “celebrate the people who planted the seeds that have made our communities grow stronger. They have been the teachers, the business people, the church leaders, the parents and other central figures who produced all of the good things that we now enjoy. This week gives us a chance to honor these special residents, as well as the families, staff, volunteers, and communities who are advocates for quality of life and care for nursing home residents.”

The Honorable Governor Haley Barbour proclaimed May 11-17 Nursing Home Week, urging citizens to visit nursing home residents and recognize “the high quality of care that our long term care facilities are providing.”

Henderson encourages everyone to visit nursing home residents that week: “Giving from a place of love to enrich another person’s life is an act neither of you will forget. Communicate with the individuals you visit; listen to what they say — everyone has a memory of a love in his or her life, whether it is a spouse, a grandchild or a childhood friend.

“Encourage story sharing of love from their past with each other,” she suggested. “We can even convey our love without speaking – a smile for a friend, a hug, a thankful nod. But why not get back in touch with the poets of yesteryear and express our love for others through language?”

The set-aside week offers every Mississippian the special occasion to pay tribute to or memorialize individuals they know who’ve lived in nursing homes. Monetary donations to the Mississippi Health Care Foundation directly benefit residents through paying for otherwise unattainable personal/medical needs such as eyeglasses and dentures, awarding Make-A-Memory gifts to residents, and giving scholarships to long term care staff who desire higher education achievement. Tax-deductible monetary gifts can be mailed to MHC Foundation, 1076 Highland Colony Parkway, Ridgeland, MS 39157; the Foundation staff will acknowledge the gift to both donor and honorees or families of those memorialized.

During National Nursing Home Week, most nursing homes give each resident a chance to shine. Some feature both residents and staff, nodding to a bygone era and revealing through walk-a-thons, devotional services, arts and crafts events, and other social activities the extraordinary talents of residents and caring concern from long term care workers.

“Residents of nursing homes now are very different now compared to 30, 20, even 10 years ago,” said Henderson. “Today’s long term care resident requires skilled nursing care, and each desires dignity, choice, and comfort. At the same time, facility owners and staff want their residents to be safe, optimally healthy, and happy; so they have elected to improve the way they conduct business.

“Long term care facilities and assisted living centers offer more now than ever before; they offer choice, customized care for each individual, and an evolving, ever better culture,” she said. “Staffs are different, too – representing a wider array of health specialists, including social workers, activity therapists, and chaplains – and better trained than ever before. Nurses and certified nursing assistants, particularly, are much better educated and bring more skills to the work place.”

Mississippi long term care professionals continue to concentrate focus on efforts begun in  2007 on that concept of change – especially relating to the individuals who reside in nursing homes and assisted living centers and their right to more choices in their home environment, care options, and social activities.

Four directors of nursing at homes from Brandon to Gautier, Magee, and Picayune described at a long term care seminar for nurses earlier this spring how their facilities’ development of the “culture change” concept is helping them and, more importantly, their residents.

Directors of Nurses who spoke shared specific examples:

• JaCinda Shaw, Covenant Health & Rehab of Picayune, told them that putting a pool table in the facility has been especially welcomed by men – “Those who live with us and the visitors. You know, men are not very good at just visiting or sitting idly while their families visit; so we gave them something they would like to do.”
• Renee Kennedy of River Chase Village, Gautier, worked years as a hospital nurse before trying long term care. “Now I sleep with a pen and pad in my hand,” she said. “If I wake up at 3 am with an idea, I jot it down to make a difference in others’ lives the next day. Ever night I go to bed thinking, ‘What can I do tomorrow to make the day better for somebody?’”
• Kay Brannon, Hillcrest Nursing Center, Magee, talked about family style dining, which allows bonding, gives residents’ choices, and puts the person in control; resident outings thanks to a grant-funded facility bus; kitchenettes for those who like late night snacks; and providing Wii games for therapy and exercise – “They love to play each other and with the staff, too.”
• Janet Butts, Brandon Nursing & Rehabilitation Center, said, “Culture change begins when a job candidate applies for the position. When a new employee comes in, every one gets a three-day orientation. Our residents range from 36 to 100-plus years in age – that’s a huge span, and we do everything we can think of to make each comfortable, part of the home’s life, and important as individuals.”

Gwen Causey, MHCA director of long term care quality and regulatory services, said their stories resonate because they’re real.

“Listen, I’ve worked in long term care, starting on the floor as a licensed practical nurse and then – after going back to school to earn my BS degree – as a registered nurse supervisor,” Causey said. “With the aging of Baby Boomers – The Age Wave – the number of people who will require long term care will grow bigger every year. This huge aging population promises problems, opportunities, challenges, and a whole new way of thinking about daily living to assure a safety net for our country’s most vulnerable population of seniors and disabled citizens.”

For more information:
T. Logan Russell
Delta Land Trust
(601) 259-4789 tlogan@deltalandtrust.org

Governor Haley Barbour toured Vicksburg area flooding on Tuesday and suggested that the approximately 150 residents affected by Mississippi River flooding there could expect little or no taxpayer help in rebuilding their homes.

If people choose to live somewhere that they know repeatedly floods, at some point, it’s not the taxpayer’s responsibility anymore. We can’t expect the taxpayers just to continue to bail people out year in and year out,” Barbour said.
Yet despite his apparent support for taxpayer rights and non-structural approaches to flood control when it comes to repetitive flooding in the Vicksburg area, Barbour went on to defend construction of the planned Yazoo Backwater Pumping Plant in the extremely flood prone South Mississippi Delta.

There is considerable farmland and lots of houses underwater in the Backwater Area,” the Governor said. “We need the Yazoo Pumps but the environmentalists have stopped them for the last 20 years,” Barbour added.

Representatives of the Mississippi Wildlife Federation, Mississippi Sierra Club and Delta Land Trust took issue with the Governor’s statements.

The farmland in the Yazoo Backwater Area has a 50% chance of flooding every year,” said Dr. Cathy Shropshire, Executive Director of the Mississippi Wildlife Federation. “If that isn’t repetitive flooding, what is? It makes a lot more sense to continue the efforts to reforest this land through the Wetland Reserve Program and other programs than to build massively wasteful and environmentally destructive Pumps that will only make flooding in Vicksburg worse,” she added. “The money could be used to move people in the Yazoo Backwater Area out of harms way just like the Governor has proposed for the Vicksburg area,” she concluded.

As for flooding of houses in the Yazoo Backwater Area, Delta Land Trust’s T. Logan Russell, a seventh generation Mississippian with deep family ties to the Delta, survivor of the Easter Flood of 1979 and long time opponent of the Yazoo Pumps Project, took issue with the Governor’s statement.

The same day the Governor was grousing about residential flooding in the Yazoo Backwater Area, the Chief Engineer for the Mississippi Levee Board was saying that everything looked great on the protected side of the levee,” Russell said. “The current level of flooding in the Yazoo Backwater Area at the Steele Bayou gate is 91 feet. 91 feet is in the two-year floodplain. Corps of Engineers and FEMA data has revealed that there are virtually no primary residences in the two-year floodplain of the Yazoo Backwater Area,“ Russell continued. “I don’t know where the Governor got the idea that there were a lot of homes flooded in the Yazoo Backwater Area at 91 feet but that just isn’t the case. There may be a few hunting camps flooded in the Yazoo Backwater Area right now, but few, if any, primary residences are flooded,” he concluded.

Louie Miller of the Mississippi Sierra Club then stated, “Perhaps the Governor is not aware that the federal Office of Management and Budget killed the Pumps Project in 1989 before Senator Thad Cochran’s attempt to bring home the bacon one more time with a last minute, one sentence amendment to a 14,000 page spending bill revived the Pumps in 1996,” said Miller. “Last time I checked, the OMB is not generally known as an environmentalist organization,” he added.

Miller went on to say that, “In fact, all presidents since Reagan have been against the Yazoo Pumps. What Presidents Reagan, Bush I, Clinton and Bush II have all recognized is that the Yazoo Pumps are a colossal waste of taxpayer money that will only benefit 50 or so Delta farmers whom are already significant beneficiaries of federal commodity support programs. The Pumps are another in a long example of wasteful government spending that would benefit the Delta elites while ignoring the plight of the Delta’s poor,” Miller concluded.

The citizens groups encouraged interested Americans to email EPA in support of its proposed veto of the Yazoo Pumps at ow-docket@epa.mail.epa.gov with docket #EPA-RO4-OW-2008-0179 as the email subject. EPA is accepting comments until May 5.