OurTupelo

Update: On Thursday afternoon Jackson officials lifted the boil water notice for residents in the following zip codes: 39206, 39202, 39201, and 39213.

For decades, Jackson’s drinking water system has slowly crumbled as elected officials failed to put the proper resources into maintaining the complex infrastructure that over 170,000 people depend on. The infrastructure’s decline mirrors a decrease in federal investment towards local water systems that took place from the 1980s until just this past year.

But now, months after the plight of Jackson’s water found international attention, the federal government is shouldering the city’s infrastructure burden as much as ever.

Mayor Chokwe Antar Lumumba detailed Thursday morning that Jackson is set to receive $795 million in grants and direct appropriations for water system improvements. Most of that money — $600 million provided through Congress’ latest resolution to keep the government funded — will go to the city through reimbursements for capital projects and technical assistance.

The mayor said he visited Washington D.C. in November to meet with members of Congress and ask for supplemental funding.

“I am thankful for the federal government’s faith in Jackson’s recovery plan,” Lumumba said. “They now understand what I’ve been saying for the past six years: It’s not a matter of if our system would fail, but when it would fail.

“Through (Congress’) direct investments, we will emerge stronger than ever before.”

All of the $600 million will go towards the drinking water system, Lumumba explained at a press conference Thursday, as some in the south part of Jackson still lacked any water pressure because of a winter freeze that paralyzed the city’s pipes Christmas morning.

Most of Jackson is still under a boil water advisory, but other than the handful of homes in south Jackson, almost everyone else should be seeing normal pressure again, the city’s third-party manager Ted Henifin said.

As of Thursday morning, only residents in the 39211 zip code were no longer under the advisory, but Henifin said he expects a few more parts of the city would be lifted from the boil water notice that afternoon as officials await the bacteria test results for those neighborhoods.

Thursday afternoon the precautionary boil water notice was lifted for residents living in the following zip codes:
39206
39202
39201
39213

The rest of the $795 million comes from the different federal funding avenues: $100 million from the 2022 Water Resources Development Act, which can go towards both drinking water and wastewater projects; $20 million Congress appropriated in September from the 2007 Water Resources Development Act; $4 million in state and tribal assistance funds from the Environmental Protection Agency; and $71 million that Jackson is set to receive from the American Rescue Plant Act.

Lumumba reiterated that the cost to fully fix the drinking water and wastewater systems in Jackson would cost around $2 billion, and that even with this historic investment he plans to apply for more funding in the future.

When asked by a reporter how long he would stay in his role as third-party manager, Henifin clarified that the Department of Justice’s order with Jackson has no end date. While the agreement only includes a budget for one year, the DOJ order won’t end until “the (federal) judge is satisfied that we’ve put Jackson on a sustainable path forward” without needing a third-party manager.

As part of the DOJ agreement, Henifin is in charge of making sure the new funding goes to prioritized projects. The order tasks Henfin’s team with taking on 13 projects that address a wide array of water system issues:

1. Operations and management contract
2. Winterization of both treatment plants
3. Corrosion control
4. Implementation of an alternative water source plan
5. Distribution system study, analysis and implementation, including replacing water lines, prioritizing any lead lines found
6. System stabilization plan, including a sustainable revenue model
7. SCADA system improvements, including sensors, actuators
8. Assessment and repair of chemical systems at plants and wells
9. Chlorine system improvements at O.B. Curtis
10. Intake structure repairs
11. Restoration of redundancy at treatment facilities, including pumps
12. Sludge assessment and removal at water storage facilities
13. Assessment of power vulnerability

The post ‘Stronger than ever’: Jackson leadership details ‘massive’ water investment as boil advisory lingers appeared first on Mississippi Today.

If you come for the King, you best not miss.

The post Marshall Ramsey: King Kong Wins appeared first on Mississippi Today.

Delbert Hosemann filed qualifying papers Thursday at the state Republican Party headquarters to seek a second term as lieutenant governor.

Hosemann announced his reelection bid before an overflow crowd in the party headquarters conference room. The entryway to the headquarters building also was elbow to elbow with people who could not get into the conference room.

“It is a real honor to be here,” said Hosemann, who added he “was mesmerized” to see the eagle on top of the Capitol building every day and still could not believe he had an office in the building.

Hosemann will be making stops throughout the state in the coming days to tout his accomplishments and his reelection bid.

The large crowd at the party headquarters could be conceived as a show of force by Hosemann. State Sen. Chris McDaniel, R-Ellisville, who lost a close Republican Party primary for the U.S. Senate in 2014 against incumbent Thad Cochran, has indicated that he might challenge Hosemann.

At Thursday’s announcement about 15 Republican senators flanked Hosemann. A large number of senators also was in in the entryway, unable to get into the room where the announcement was made.

Echoing the comments of Gov. Tate Reeves, who qualified to seek re-election earlier this week, Hosemann said the state “was in the best financial shape we have ever been in.” He said a lot of Republican politicians worked to put the state on sound financial footing. Like Reeves, he did not mention the billions of federal COVID-19 relief funds that have spurred the Mississippi economy.

Hosemann was introduced by his son, Mark, who said his father was a doer, not a talker.

“Dad focuses on the positive. He focuses on the potential,” he said.

Shane Quick, who garnered 15% of the vote against Hosemann in the 2019 Republican primary for lieutenant governor, has qualified to run again this year.

Hosemann served three terms as secretary of state before running and winning the office of lieutenant governor.

The post Hosemann kicks off reelection campaign before overflow crowd appeared first on Mississippi Today.

Legislative leaders want to override several of Governor Reeves’ vetoes. It’s good to be back.

The post Marshall Ramsey: Veto Override appeared first on Mississippi Today.

An effort by the Republican legislative leadership to override Gov. Tate Reeves’ line item vetoes of a handful of earmarked 2022 projects fizzled Thursday after the Senate couldn’t muster enough votes.

“We had the votes to override,” House Speaker Philip Gunn said Thursday after the House took a long recess waiting to hear if Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann could garner two-thirds support in the Senate. “The Senate tells us they don’t have the votes.”

Gunn and Hosemann had said Reeves’ vetoes were an overreach of executive power into purse-string duties constitutionally reserved for the Legislature.

“This wasn’t about the projects,” Gunn said. “This is about does a governor have the authority to line-item veto in a general bill? … There is no provision under the constitution for that.”

READ MORE: Gov. Tate Reeves blocks state funding for major Jackson park improvement, planetarium

Reeves last year vetoed 10 projects, about $27 million worth, out of scores of projects lawmakers approved statewide in a $223 million capital projects bill. The state constitution says a governor has line-item veto power on appropriations bills, and the state Supreme Court recently expanded those powers with a ruling in Reeves’ favor in 2020. But the state constitution does not give the chief executive line-item veto power on general bills. They can either veto the whole bill or let it pass into law.

READ MORE: Legislative leaders want to override several of Gov. Tate Reeves’ vetoes

House Bill 1353 last year, although it funded projects, was a “transfer” bill shifting money from one fund to another — a general bill, not an appropriations bill. Lawmakers say allowing a governor line-item veto authority over general bills would be a huge power shift in a state where the governor is, by design, “constitutionally weak” particularly in spending matters.

Reeves, when he issued his veto last year, called the projects “wasteful” spending. But his vetoes appeared selective, and the city of Jackson bore the brunt, with four projects nixed by the governor. These included rejuvenating a golf course and building a nature trail at LeFleur’s Bluff State Park and upgrades to the city’s planetarium and convention center parking lot.

Reeves said Jackson has too many problems such as crumbling water infrastructure and crime to be spending money on parks and planetariums.

Hosemann, who had been a proponent of the LeFleur’s Bluff project, early this week said the vetoes were improper and he wanted to discuss overriding them with the House.

But Hosemann and other Senate leaders were tight-lipped Thursday on override efforts. Hosemann shrugged and walked away when asked for an update on whether the Senate would have the votes.

Overriding a governor’s veto requires a two-thirds vote of both chambers, and is a rare occurrence. Lawmakers overrode a Reeves veto of education spending in 2020. Before that, no governor’s veto had been overturned since 2002, with then-Gov. Ronnie Musgrove.

READ MORE: Latest Reeves vetoes could again expand governor’s power

Besides the high hurdle of a two-thirds vote and rarity of attempted overrides by lawmakers, the effort to override Reeves’ line-item vetoes faced some political optics issues. The capital projects measure from last year was something of a “Christmas tree” bill with pet projects earmarked across the state, including another public golf course and $7 million in handouts to three private companies that Reeves said bypassed normal state vetting of economic development projects.

At the time, Jackson Mayor Chokwe Antar Lumumba was also critical of lawmakers spending $13 million on a golf course and not providing more for water system work.

But opponents of Reeves’ vetoes said they appeared selective, noting he approved most of the scores of projects in the bill, including for museums and greenspace around some courthouses and other public buildings — but not others.

One of the projects vetoed by Reeves was $500,000 to place a green area around the federal courthouse in Greenville.

Sen. Derrick Simmons, the chamber’s Democratic leader who lives in Greenville, said the courthouse project in his district was supported by the federal judiciary; U.S. Sen. Roger Wicker, a Tupelo Republican; and U.S. Rep. Bennie Thompson, a Bolton Democrat.

“It was my hope that I would be given the opportunity to vote to override the governor’s veto of the project in my district and all the other projects in the state that were deemed worthy by the Legislature but vetoed by the governor,” Simmons said.

The post Senate can’t muster votes to override Gov. Tate Reeves’ vetoes appeared first on Mississippi Today.

The post Marshall Ramsey: Smoke appeared first on Mississippi Today.

Three officers with the Jackson Police Department are on administrative leave after a person died in their custody last week. 

Officers responded to a service call near 500 E. Beasley Road Saturday night and took a person into custody who experienced a medical emergency, according to a news release from the department. An ambulance was called, but the person, who has not been identified, died at the scene. 

Officers Avery Willis, Kenya McCarty and James Land will remain on leave until an internal police investigation is complete, according to Jackson police. 

“The Jackson Police Department is committed to community-oriented policing and providing relevant information to the public, however, until both internal and external investigations conclude, the department will make no further comments,” the department said in its release.

The Mississippi Bureau of Investigation, which investigates officer shootings statewide, is also investigating. In statements from JPD and the city, the incident was described as an “officer-involved incident” rather than a shooting. 

“The loss of life is always tragic and we remain committed to transparency,” Mayor Chokwe Antar Lumumba said in a Wednesday statement from the city. 

The post 3 JPD officers on leave following individual’s death in custody appeared first on Mississippi Today.

So many entertaining bowl games over the weekend, but then came Monday Night Football and the devastating injury to Buffalo Bills defensive back Damar Hamlin. For the Clevelands, the injury brought back memories of Chucky Mullins and was a stark reminder of the inherent dangers in the sport of football. With that as an unsettling backdrop, the Ole Miss and Mississippi State bowl games, the college football playoffs and Tulane’s magnificent victory are all discussed.

Stream all episodes here.

The post Podcast: When it’s tough to talk about football. appeared first on Mississippi Today.

The post Marshall Ramsey: Mother May I appeared first on Mississippi Today.

The Jackson Public School District will be conducting school virtually on Jan. 5-6 due to little or no water pressure at 33 schools. 

City of Jackson officials said Wednesday they’re still working to put more pressure into the city’s drinking water system before being able to lift the boil water notice. Most of the city has been under a boil water notice for the past 10 days, since Christmas morning, after below-freezing temperatures once again wrecked the city’s distribution system.

JPS officials said computer devices will be available for pickup on Jan. 4 from 3-6 p.m. at each school. Breakfast and lunch will be available for pickup on Jan. 5-6 at each school from 7-9 a.m. The announcement comes as students prepare to return from their winter break.

“The loss of water pressure in our school communities has had an enormous impact on us all,” the press release said.

JPS serves more than 18,000 students in the capital city, and chronic issues with water pressure have frequently forced schools to pivot to virtual learning. In September 2022, the district went virtual for a week during the water crisis which left residents without clean water or reliable water pressure for an extended period of time. District officials previously told Mississippi Today each student receiving a device through the federal COVID relief funds has also been beneficial for responding to water pressure issues, allowing them to pivot to virtual instruction more easily. 

The press release said the district will continue to monitor updates from the City of Jackson and provide daily updates to families regarding when schools will reopen. 

The post State’s second largest school district goes virtual because of Jackson water pressure woes appeared first on Mississippi Today.