Newton was the place to be this weekend as the town welcomed throngs of visitors to usher in the Easter holiday at the 15th annual Loose Caboose Festival.
This year’s festival again opened with the Midway Carnival and the Friday concert with Dr. Zarr’s Amazing Funk Monster at the stage’s new location in front of the Historic Depot.
Saturday kicked off with the annual 5K Run and 2 Mile Walk on Main Street which featured more than 50 participants.
Charlie Creel was the top finisher in the 5K, with a time of 21:11.04 and 13-year old Luke Sanders finished second with a time of 22:02.94.
Nikki Way was the top female finisher in the 5K with a time of 25:52.53, and Debbie Goodman was the top finisher in the 2-mile walk with a time of 26:29.62.
After Senate President Pro Tempore Terry C. Burton kicked off the festival with a salute to military veterans, the crowds enjoyed more than a hundred vendors, live entertainment and the festival’s biggest Bank First Car Show yet.
One of the dozens of entries this year was a Model T Ford built by owner James Johnson of Meridian. Johnson said he built the car from a kit and that it only took him about a week. The show featured dozens of vehicles from every era from the 1920s to modern cars.
Political speaking returned to the festival this year with three candidates for the U.S. House District 3 race taking the stage in front of the Depot.
Both sides of the primaries were represented with Democratic candidate and Newton County resident Micheal Aycox speaking and Republican candidates Morgan Dunn and state Sen. Sally Doty attending the festival.
Aycox, a U.S. Navy veteran, corrections officer with the Mississippi Department of Corrections and part-time Newton Police officer, spoke about his plan to help fix the broken healthcare system for the state. Aycox, is his speech, said that he would support a plan to replace the Affordable Care Act with a system that is less costly to patients and that would cover more people.
“The Affordable Care Act was a great idea, but it was wrong. It catered to the insurance companies, broke the working class and still failed to provide an affordable option,” Aycox said.
“This congressional race is filled with various candidates with differences in healthcare beliefs. None of these candidates have experienced the 35-minute, terrifying ride from Newton to Meridian because we lost our hospital. They do not have the experience and the disappointment seeing a state-of-the art facility locked, nor do they know the pain our community felt with the numerous jobs lost. Unlike many of my counterparts, I believe that healthcare is not a privilege, it is a right.”
Aycox also pledged to help improve the nation’s veteran’s affairs system.
“Last Saturday, I listened to my comrades, brothers at arms from the Vietnam era, explaining their struggle with receiving services. I heard how a veteran — who is legally deaf with service-connected disabilities — cannot get hearing aids,” he said. “I see veterans, who have felt rejected, ostracized and alone, take their lives at a rate of 22 veterans per day.”
Dunn is the former senior vice president for Pioneer Health Services, which ran the hospital in Newton until it’s closing in December 2015. In her speech, Dunn said she fought to keep the hospital open and would make rural healthcare one of her main issues if elected.
“We ranked 50th in health care, so the last 15 years I have been championing rural health care across the United States,” Dunn said. “What makes up an economy is health care, education and small businesses, and without those three your economy isn’t going to be as strong as it can be.”
Dunn said that improving the state’s infrastructure, especially internet connectivity, will also be one of her top priorities.
“We’re ranked 49th in internet connectivity according to Broadband.com. If we want to promote economic development for the future, we can’t be 49th in internet connectivity,” she said. “The average megabit-per-second speed in our state is 17, and the average on Broadband is 25. You can’t run a business off that internet speed. You can’t run federally mandated things such as an electronic health records system, and our health care providers get paid less if they don’t have electronic health records.”
Aycox will face state. Rep. Michael Evans in the June 5 Democratic primary, while Dunn and Doty will face a crowded field of Michael Guest, Whit Hughes, Perry Parker and Katherine Tate.
Families also got a jump start on Sunday with visits with the Easter Bunny in Bobashela Park, which also included a petting zoo, pony rides and face painting.
