Museum will reopen soon


Thursday, August 27, 2009
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Museum will reopen soon

By SUE WATSON
Staff Writer

The Marshall County Historical Museum is a beautiful place to visit now that the structure, formerly the Presbyterian Synodical College for Women, has been stabilized, restored, and a new elevator installed.

Curator Lois Swaney-Shipp thanked the Marshall County Board of Supervisors for the great restoration work recently completed with a grant from the Mississippi Department of Archives and History.

“Thank you, thank you, thank you,” Shipp recently told the board of supervisors. “We are so proud of that building and we are putting treasures in there.”

Shipp said she has to have a security system in place before the museum will reopen. She asked for help with a utility bill and phone bill.

She promised a big reception for the public when everything is moved back in - which could take place in September. She said lots of people have helped and the exhibits look fantastic.

“You all had the foresight and vision to see what this could be,” she said to the supervisors. “We will be written up and we have people from all over the world to come to the museum.”

Once in the restored museum, admission will cost only $5.

Shipp said 40 years ago if the board of supervisors had not had vision, the museum would not exist.

“We are trying to do something fantastic for this county,” she said. “We are one in a million - this county. Our history is profound.”

NE Mississippi PDD

Up next was Sharon Gardner, executive director of Northeast Mississippi Planning and Development District, who provided an update on services provided over the last year to the county. The PDD funneled $594,312 into the Medicaid waiver program to serve 110 in Marshall County with licensed social workers, registered nurse assistants, and to provide 19,500 meals, 8,736 units of home health aid; 12,116 homemaker units served, and 7,920 in-home respite. The homemaker program helps with laundry, meals and light housekeeping.

Three-hundred seventy children were provided day care while a parent attended school, she said, using $667,000 in funds.

The Workforce Summer Youth Program was hailed as a success in Marshall County, providing summer employment for 51 youth in Marshall County through the economic stimulus program. Some students turned their checks over to their families to pay the home utility bills for their parents when they were laid off, she said. Gardner said the success of the program in Marshall County could be attributed in large measure to good supervision of the youth workers.

During the regular year, the Workforce Investment Act through Community Services provides youth training in schools through vo-tech programs.

Road and bridge

County administrator Larry Hall said unusually heavy rains have slowed down road and bridge work this summer. Work crews had to find dry spots to work during July due to the unusual rains, he said.

Some projects, however, were completed, including bridges on Moore and Mill Pond roads. Several large pipes were installed - one on Barrys Road and one on Temperance Hill Road - after the old ones blew out during a heavy flash flood several weeks ago.

In connection with the flash flood, supervisors heard Samuel Robinson speak of water jumping the road in front of his home creating hazardous driving conditions.

Hall advised that the flood was probably a 100-year event. The drains and ditches were checked afterward near Robinson’s property, he said, and repair work was done as needed.

About four-tenths of a mile of paving is scheduled for Coke Road in the Watson Community, Hall said.

In other business, attorney Kent Smith advised that the solid waste authority still lacks an approved comprehensive solid waste management plan for Marshall County that has been accepted by the Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality.

The board is scheduled to meet with consultants Jim McNaughton and Roy Reardon to resolve concerns so the plan can be completed and filed. The county has been holding back a final payment of McNaughton’s claim for services until the plan clears MDEQ, according to the board of supervisors.

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