All eyes were on City Hall, for good and bad reasons this year, as Columbus city leaders grabbed headlines for a physical altercation. The city of Columbus and Lowndes County also have been waiting with bated breath for plans to be finalized on a downtown park, which started as a simple soccer complex and has evolved into a sprawling Central Park-style gateway into Columbus. And the future remains uncertain for Mississippi University for Women, as a Columbus businesswoman continues her interim presidency of the university indefinitely.
Rumble at City Hall
Columbus Mayor Robert Smith and Councilman Kabir Karriem starred in what was among the city’s most embarrassing moments of 2010, when they exchanged blows at City Hall on April Fool’s Day, then pressed assault charges against each other.
The April 1 confrontation reportedly started when Karriem went to Smith’s office around 9:30 p.m. to talk about the city’s plans to use a $2 million grant to restore the historic old Highway 82 bridge across the Tombigbee River into a pedestrian parkway.
Karriem was first to press simple assault charges after the Thursday exchange. On the following Monday, after his public apology for the incident, Karriem was arrested on like charges. Smith issued a written apology and distributed it to local media outlets. While many called for both city officials to resign, the City Council verbally reprimanded them and continued business as usual. The pair issued a joint statement forgiving each other for the brawl and dropped the assault charges.
Cadence Bank buyout
Starkville-based Cadence Bank this fall agreed to be bought by Trustmark Bank, but backed out of the deal shortly thereafter in favor of a new opportunity with Texas-based Community Bancorp LLC. Stockholders of the once-proud regional bank had watched the value of their shares fall from $38 in the late 1990s to $1.50 in December of 2009. The Trustmark deal, which would have eliminated Cadence jobs, Cadence shareholders would get $2 worth Trustmark stock for each share they owned.
Under the Community Bancorp deal, stockholders are due to receive $2.50 per share and Cadence will maintain its name and branch locations. Cadence shareholders in December approved the merger with CBC and the deal is expected to close in the first quarter of 2011, Cadence Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Lewis Mallory Jr. said. Recently, Cadence settled a class action suit, brought by Cadence shareholder RSD Capital, which alleged Mallory, Cadence President and Chief Operating Officer Mark Abernathy, Cadence Financial Corp., Community Bancorp LLC and 10 additional members of Cadence’s board of directors concealed details in a proxy statement to public shareholders in order to complete “a transaction which protects and advances the interests of Cadence’s management team who are using this opportunity to benefit themselves.”
Soccer park saga continues
After spending most of the year planning for a sprawling soccer complex and community park in Burns Bottom near downtown Columbus, city and county officials were thrown for a loop when bids came in much higher than budgeted.
The low bid of $4.6 million, from Ellis Construction, came in Dec. 6, well above the $2.9 million budgeted by the county.
City Engineer Kevin Stafford expected the high cost after the project ballooned from a simple six-field soccer park to a sprawling 10-field spread including grassy lawns between fields all connected by sidewalks and even bridges over wetland areas.
The changes have met with overwhelmingly positive feedback, but aren’t cheap.
One $200,000 concession stand became three. A $100,000 pavilion was added. Plans to plant grass were altered to laying sod to play soccer in September at a cost of $150,000. Lighting for four additional fields added $140,000. Lighting for roadside parking had to be factored in after plans for centralized parking were scrapped, which also added a mile-and-a-half of curbs and gutters to be built. Using more aesthetically pleasing lighting rather than mounting them on telephone poles tacked on $250,000. The cost for landscaping went up $200,000. New bids are expected by February.
An interim administration
When Mississippi University President Claudia Limbert stepped down from her post at the end of June, another woman, Allegra Brigham, former CEO of 4-County Electric Power Association and alumna of the school, stepped up and immediately began the process of reconciliation, reaching out to alumni alienated by Limbert’s sometimes combative tactics directed toward that group. Brigham apologized for the “damage done … during the previous administration” in front of a joint meeting of members of the current alumni association and the disaffiliated Mississippi’s First Alumnae Association.
As interim president, Brigham must simultaneously reach out to alumni, keep MUW’s budget under tight wraps, increase enrollment, promote the school’s new V3 online college and fend off Gov. Haley Barbour and other’s suggestion MUW be merged with Mississippi State University. She’ll also oversee a cooperative effort to merge back-office functions with MSU to cut costs in lieu of a merger.
MUW is last in line to undergo the presidential search process after the State College Board sought new leaders for Alcorn State University and Jackson State University.
Drinking game death
Ruben’s Fish House on Moores Creek Road in Columbus lost its liquor license over the summer after a drinking game led to the death of a Columbus man, May 31.
John Caldwell, who was the safety director at Burkhalter Rigging Inc., died of acute alcohol intoxication after engaging in a drinking contest in the Ruben’s bar. He was 46.
Former Ruben’s Fish and Steakhouse Manger Joseph “Joey” Cox, 28, and bartender Dylan Hicks, 28, were arrested on a misdemeanor charge of selling or furnishing alcoholic beverages to Caldwell, who died of alcohol poisoning at Ruben’s now-closed upstairs bar, The Loft.
Caldwell’s blood alcohol level was 0.5 percent, Lowndes County Coroner Greg Merchant said. A potentially lethal level, according to Merchant, is 0.35 to 0.4 percent. Mississippi’s legal limit to be considered intoxicated is 0.08 percent.
Brian Edward Caldwell, the 18-year-old son of John Caldwell, has filed a wrongful death suit against Ruben’s, claiming the business had a policy of not calling medical services because it damaged profits.
Murders spur community action
Two murders in less than one month rocked Columbus in the spring. Marshall Ray Burgin, 25, was arrested in June and charged with the murder of Quentin Spencer, 20, at the Everyday Club and Lounge on April 20. Ranzino Ahmad Harris, 22, was charged with murder and aggravated assault with a weapon for the May 17 murder of Justin Murry, 21, and the shooting of Michael Brewer, 22, at a home on Schoolhouse Avenue.
Harris was released on $300,000 bond while Burgin remains incarcerated without bond at the Lowndes County Adult Detention Center. Both were bound over to circuit court.
The community responded with multiple anti-crime and anti-violence events. A task force formed from the Lowndes County Minority Leadership Class tailored its efforts to identify innovative means of reducing violence in the community and continues its efforts to bring a crime prevention expert to Columbus.
Jobs come and go; Link launches aerospace plan
Columbus saw more than 200 jobs eliminated in April with the closing of the Domtar coated groundwood paper mill. Some employees had been at the plant, formerly owned by Weyerhaeuser, 20 years or more.
The plant utilized “down days” for years to mitigate decreasing demand for its products but ultimately sold its product lines and trademarks to NewPage Corp. of Ohio.
Then came news in August that a biofuels producer, KiOR, would locate its first of three Mississippi plants on Columbus’ island. Construction has yet to begin, but the plant is expected to provide 5
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