The year 2018 brought a numerous changes to Newton County. Here is a look at the top stories of last year
Newton, Union make education top 10 lists
Two local school districts were recognized by the Mississippi Department of Education when it released its Mississippi Academic Assessment Program test scores last Thursday.
Union Public School District ranked eighth overall in mathematics proficiency and was third in growth on the English/language arts proficiency. Nearly 64 percent of Union’s students were proficient in mathematics, and the number of students who were proficient in English grew by 6 percent and now stands at nearly half of the students being proficient.
The Newton Municipal School District made huge strides in mathematics and was ranked No. 1 in growth among all school districts. While it’s proficiency still lagged behind the state average, the district doubled the number of proficient students from last year, going from 19 percent proficient to 38.7 percent proficient.
Payne dies in crash, Evans elected for remainder of term
Ward 4 Alderman Ray Payne was killed in a car crash coming back home from working in Corinth on the night of April 17. He was remembered as one the most passionate leaders in Newton. He especially had a huge impact on the school district and the youth of Newton.
City Attorney Robert Logan remembered when Ray came on as an alderman four years ago and
saw a tremendous change from then until now.
“Ray showed tremendous growth from when he first came on the board of aldermen,” Logan said. “He was a tremendous advocate for youth of our city. I was proud of the way that he represented the city. He was a visionary. He wanted to see Newton grow, and he believed
that we could be a better city. He will surely be missed.”
Romonica Evans won a special election defeating former Mayor David Carr in a run-off to finish out Payne’s term as Ward 4 alderman.
McMullan hairstyle goes viral
Newton County’s Ethan McMullan might have had this year’s most popular haircut on the Internet.
Sister Alana McMullan was diagnosed with a brain tumor in early March and had surgery to remove the tumor. Two days later, Ethan got his hair cut to resemble Alana’s scar.
Alana posted pictures of her scar and Ethan’s haircut on her Twitter account @alanamc_12.
The post went viral, getting 104,000 likes and 13,800 retweets. It was so popular that it first drew interest from buzzfeed.com. Next, The Meridian Star picked up the story. Just this last week, People Magazine picked up the story and the story is making another lap around the Internet.
Ethan said has been interviewed by Fox News and even gotten calls all the way from the United Kingdom.
As of December, family members have posted on social media that Alana is now cancer free after undergoing numerous treatments throughout the year.
Dispatch issues abound
One recurring theme throughout the year has been 911 dispatching issues. In January, Newton County decided to forego any agreements with Neshoba or Lawrence counties and agreed to spend $331,000 with Jackson Communications to upgrade the call system.
They also voted to purchase an emergency medical dispatch system from Priority Dispatch for $41,210, including software and hardware maintenance and training, and a $25,000 mapping system from Tri-State Mapping with a $2,500-year maintenance agreement for software and training.
Later in March, ComSouth approached the board saying they weren’t given a fair chance to keep the county’s business to handle the 911 center and could have made the necessary upgrades for $279,000. Supervisors Charles Godwin and Joe Alexander assured the men that the board did consider both bids but decided that Jackson Communications offered the best bid that would meet the county’s specific needs.
Later in 2018, the county reached out to both Union and Newton with offers to take over both police departments’ dispatching. Currently, the county dispatches all law enforcement and fire departments except for those two departments.
According to the cities’ financial reports, Union spends about $100,000 in dispatching costs while Newton spends more than $95,000. If they both switched to county services, Union would save about $76,000 per year and Newton could save more than $40,000 per year.
Union Police Chief Billy Pat Walker and Newton Police Chief Harvey Curry both are against the move because they say they would lose the ability to keep the police department open 24 hours, seven days a week.
Curry said he specifically has a number of people at all hours of the day coming to the police station to report crimes, and he maintains most of the city’s calls are made directly to the police department and not via 911 dispatch.
Walker is concerned that they will lose the quality of service, as they also wouldn’t be able to keep its public doors open at all times.
Both cities are mulling those proposals and could make decisions in the first few months of 2019.
Bridge closings affect numerous people
During 2018, Gov. Phil Bryant closed a number of bridges that had failed inspection. Two of those were in Newton County in April, Liberty Church Road and Buckley Road. Later in the year, Newton’s Pilate Avenue bridge was also closed by Bryant.
County Supervisor Charles Godwin said his bridge on Liberty Church Road had just been repaired when the governor ordered it closed.
“The only reason why it’s closed is because they haven’t reinspected it after we repaired it,” Godwin said on Friday. “It’s causing an inconvenience to the residents that live in that area.”
Late Monday afternoon, Godwin announced that the bridge has been inspected
and was approved to be reopened.
However, residents on Buckley Road in Hickory were much less fortunate. Eric Johannsen,
a resident who lives within a mile of the bridge, said his drive time from the Hickory Fire Department to his home more than doubled. The road was eventually repaired.
Pilate Avenue has been a constant issue in Newton for the last few years. It was repaired along with two other bridges, when a company was supposed to replace all the wooden pilings with metal pilings. The company didn’t replace them all and caused the bridge to fail inspection. The city and the county have repaired the bridge and was awaiting repairs.
No movement on Newton hospital
In January, Ascentium Healthcare Resources took over management control of Lackey Memorial Hospital, which included Newton Family and Pediatric Clinic but didn’t include anything else in Newton County.
“There will be no change concerning Lackey-owned businesses,” Ascentium CEO Sydney Sawyer said in a Jan. 3 story. “I don’t know what Pioneer owned properties are in Newton County, but Ascentium only acquired the current business contracts owned by Pioneer. We did not acquire any real property.
“This does not include the Newton hospital facility. I do not know the status of that building.”
Pioneer Health Services owns Pioneer Community Hospital of Newton, which was shut down in December 2015 due to the hospital losing its critical access hospital designation. That meant the hospital wouldn’t receive full reimbursement for services rendered to patients.
Because the hospital still couldn’t make financial ends meet even as a not-for-profit hospital, Pioneer decided to close the facility. Later in 2016, Pioneer filed for bankruptcy and the hospital building has sat vacant while being tied up in federal court.
During 2018, the City of Newton has cleaned up the property due to it being a nuisance and added liens on top of the years of unpaid property taxes, but still, there has been no new developments on the future of the hospital.
And in February, the Board of Supervisors reduced the value of the hospital building by $443,390 due to its condition.
Union festival returns
After a nearly two-year wait in between festivals in the city of Union, area residents and visitors crowded into downtown Union on Father’s Day weekend for the first ever Union Day.
The Union Chamber of Commerce board agreed to create the new event in April after plans to hold last year’s Country Day fell through at the last minute in August 2017. Despite, only having roughly two months to plan the event, the board delivered a day of live music, the return of the car show parade and more than 75 food, clothing and craft vendors.
“The day went well. The weather was beautiful, and we were thankful for that,” said Union Chamber President Sherry Harrison. “We got a lot of positive remarks from the vendors, and the kids had a great time. A lot of people really enjoyed all the entertainment, and no one went hungry! Overall, a very good day!”
The event also saw the return of the children’s pageant, formerly known as the Country Boy and Gal pageant.
McDonald announces retirement
After more than 15 years serving as Newton County Justice Court Judge, Hon. Mark McDonald announced he would retire at the end of the year. McDonald said he had enjoyed his time on the bench and was honored to have served Newton County for so long. However, he said he felt it was time to give the position to someone else.
“It’s time to pass it on to someone else,” he said.
The Newton County Board of Supervisors will appoint someone else to take McDonald’s place until an election can be held.
Newton Nine cases continue
Several of the nine suspects charged in connection with the 2017 slaying of Jamarcus Townsend have come to trial within the last year. Most recently, Robbie Chapman pleaded guilty to manslaughter. After an impassioned apology to the victim’s family, he was sentenced to 20 years in prison.
After initially having a mistrial, 19-year-old Jordan Myers was convicted of conspiracy to commit murder. He was sentenced to 20 years. Richard Lofton also entered a guilty plea of conspiracy to commit murder and was sentenced to 20 years in exchange for testimony in future related cases.
Jessica Powers also pleaded guilty to accessory to murder and received a five-year sentence.
Ashton Myota Thompson was found guilty of accessory to murder. Thompson was arrested for transporting the shooting suspects across county lines to avoid police. She will serve 18 years behind bars with two years suspended.
Lyndale Jones is charged with first degree murder and is still awaiting trial.
Darron LaShuan Thames was also charged with conspiracy to commit murder and as an accessory to murder after the fact. Devon Thompson and Robert Shadon Bender are both charged with being accessories to murder after the fact. All are still awaiting trial.
Union to upgrade system to keep House water customers
The City of Union put the wheels in motion in June at their monthly Board of Aldermen’s meeting to upgrade their service to the County Line Water Association.
The $196,000 plan, according to Fontaine Engineering of Quitman, would satisfy the requirements of the Mississippi Bureau of Public Water Safety and allow Union to continue to serve the 175 County Line customers.
The improvements would include a new 30,000-gallon storage tank ($50,000), about 20,000 feet of new pipe and ($75,000) and the other parts needed to complete the work.
Mayor Wayne Welch outlined a funding plan that would include a $150,000 Small Municipalities Grant, $39,000 in matching funds from the city and $7,000 additional city contribution.
Union services about 175 County Line customers, and since December 2016 the city has been working to correct what the Mississippi Bureau of Public Water Safety says are deficiencies in pressure and pump capacity.
Here are other important stories for the year 2018:
Weir purchases ESCO
Weir Group PLC, a company in Scotland, announced April 19 that the acquisition was approved by the Board of Directors of Weir and is not subject to Weir shareholder approval. The transaction was completed in the third quarter of 2018.
ESCO is a global business with 10 manufacturing facilities, six foundries and 22 service and supply centers in 19 countries around the world, one of its factories in located in Newton.
Post-closing, Weir ran ESCO as a stand-alone business for the remainder of 2018.
Hansford appointed new UPSD superintendent
Union native Tyler Hansford was appointed the new superintendent of the Union Public School District. He replaced Wayne McDill, who has held the interim superintendent position since August 2017.
Hansford has been an employee of UPSD for the past seven years. He was a biology instructor
at the high school before being hired as middle school principal in 2014. He began his term July 1.
Newton police officer runs for Congress
Michael Aycox, a native of Poplar Springs and Newton police officer, ran as a Democratic candidate in the race for Mississippi Congressional District 3, which was being vacated after Gregg Harper decided not to seek reelection.
He was defeated by Michael Evans in the primary, who lost to Republican Michael Guest in the general election. Guest easily took Newton County in every election.
Union, Newton appoint BOE members
Two cities appointed new leaders to the school board during 2018.
Newton chose Arthur Nelson to serve on the Newton School Board from candidates including Eva McDonald and Katrina Tingle.
Union’s Board of Aldermen reappointed Shirley Walton to a five-year term on the Union School Board. Walton will continue serving with Jeremy Hamm, David LeBlanc, Chad Brashear, and Sommer Warren on the policy-making board.
McElroy-Hoye House completed
After more than a decade of work, the McElroy Hoye House in Newton is finally open to the public.
Officials and community members celebrated the grand opening of the home that is listed on the state’s list of historic places in 2006. The home was moved from a now vacant lot adjacent
to Newton First Baptist Church to its current location across the street from Newton First Baptist.
It wasn’t until 2006 when the commission purchased the house and then moved the house down a few hundred feet from its original location in 2009. She said the community has worked hard to make the restoration a reality.
Laird name one of the top hospitals
Laird Hospital in Union was recently named one of the Top 20 Critical Access Hospitals for Best Practices in Patient Satisfaction in the nation. The Top 20 Critical Access Hospitals, including Laird Hospital, scored best among critical access hospitals as determined by The Chartis Center for Rural Health for patient satisfaction.
The Top 20 Critical Access Hospital “winners” are those hospitals who have achieved success in the overall performance based on a composite rating from eight indices of strength: inpatient market share, outpatient market share, quality, outcomes, patient perspectives cost, charge and financial stability.
Thompson passes away
Demetrius Thompson, the managing editor of The Newton County Appeal and a resident of Decatur, passed away in July due to complications from ongoing health issues. He was 40.
Publisher Brent Maze said Demetrius Thompson was a hard-working, kind-hearted person who loved his job covering Newton County.
NC moves forward on Peavey building renovation
The Newton County School Board will borrow up to $2.3 million to conduct building upgrades
and new construction that includes phase one of the Peavey building renovation, providing a
place for the district’s pre-k classes and safety upgrades to Newton County Elementary School.
District Superintendent J.O. Amis said they are planning to move the district’s career-tech center into one portion of the Peavey building and then renovating the current career tech building in front of the elementary school to provide a place for the pre-k classrooms.
One of the first steps in the process is to replace the Peavey building’s roof. Once that’s completed it would clear the way to move the Newton County Career and Technical Center into the building located next to the middle and high school campus.
Newton Aldermen search for new board attorney
After Robert Logan stepped down from his position as board attorney to the Newton Board of Aldermen in September, city officials interviewed three potential candidates before deciding upon Brian Mayo to replace their long-serving attorney. Logan announced he would be stepping down to run for Chancery Court Judge in the Nov. 4 general election. Additionally, Logan resigned his positions of board attorney for Newton Municipal School Board and East Central Community College Board of Trustees.
County Veterans announce plans for Memorial Park
In October, a group of veterans from Newton County, lead by Newton County Veterans Service Officer Johnny Reeves, announced plans to build a Veterans Memorial Park along Highway 15 in Decatur. The group asked for, and received, the assistance of the Town of Decatur in acquiring a parcel of land near the American Legion Post 89 Hut.
To raise funds for the project, the Veterans Memorial Cemetery is selling engraved bricks to be a lasting tribute to veteran family members and act as building material for the park. Work is scheduled to begin in early spring for the park to open on or around Veterans Day 2019.
Union eyes new home for PD
In the Oct. 2 meeting of the Union Board of Aldermen, Union Police Department announced its intentions to relocate police headquarters. Chief Billy Pat Walker and Officer Steve Robinson cited the age of their current headquarters, a lack of space and a need to update facilities to better meet law enforcement standards as the primary reasons for the move. The former National Guard Armory is high on the list of possible locations for the new headquarters, but no final decision has been made. The city is currently pursuing funding through the U.S. Department of Agriculture to finance the move.
Yellowjackets Unite: Union forms nonprofit to help district move to next level
In December, a group of Union residents formed Yellowjacket Nation, a 501c3 nonprofit organization to raise funds for projects within the Union Public School District. Yellowjacket nation will work with school administration, Union booster clubs, parent-teacher organizations and its own members to identify projects that can benefit the students. For its initial projects, the organization is collecting Kindles for kindergartners and Interactive Promethean Boards. For more information about the organization, visit yellowjacketnation.org.
