The 2009 edition of the Starkville Christmas Parade will feature all of the same floats and fanfare as previous years, but organizers this year also have a new activity in store.

The Greater Starkville Development Partnership is partnering with the Starkville Civic League to present a holiday “Tour of Homes.” All four homes on the tour are in the Browning Creek subdivision, located south of Starkville off Oktoc Road.

A reception and light refreshments will kick off the tour Sunday at 1:30 p.m. at the Oktoc Community Center. Patrons will then go on a self-driving tour, where they will be able to go inside each home during assigned times, said Latasha Hill, GSDP Special Events Coordinator.

Tickets for the Tour of Homes are $20 each and are available for purchase at the GSDP Welcome Center, located at the corner of Main and Lafayette streets downtown.

The theme for the 2009 edition of the Starkville Christmas Parade is “A Classic Country Christmas.” Festivities will begin the morning of Saturday, Dec. 5, at 10 a.m. with several downtown merchants offering specials, sidewalk sales and holiday entertainment.

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JAN SWOOPE

Their shopping carts give them away. The plastic shoebox-sized containers, tiny toys, toothbrushes, school supplies and small, stuffed animals are sure signs of an Operation Christmas Child shopper. Golden Triangle stores have been filled with them.

As the Nov. 23 deadline for turning in boxes nears, churches, civic groups and individuals are out in force to fill their last containers destined for distribution to children worldwide by Samaritan’s Purse, Operation Christmas Child’s parent organization headed by Franklin Graham.

“Last year, almost eight million boxes were collected internationally; 124,533 of those in Mississippi,” Nelda Brown told members of Soroptimist International of Columbus Tuesday at the Columbus Country Club. Brown is coordinator of the Columbus Collection Center, which serves as a collection hub for relay centers in Starkville, West Point, Aberdeen, Louisville and other cities in North Mississippi and West Alabama.

“At the Columbus center last year, we took in 14,707 boxes,” said Brown. “That represented an increase of 18.5 percent from 2007. But our goal this year is 16,000 boxes.”

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DISPATCH STAFF REPORT

The Starkville Police Department Wednesday was still searching for two suspects involved in a shooting last month on North Montgomery Street.

The suspects, 29-year-old Kenyon Derrell Cannon, aka “Smoke,” and 30-year-old Roderick D. Franklin, aka “Bam Bam,” are considered armed and dangerous, according to police.

Officers were dispatched Oct. 30 at approximately 11:10 p.m. to North Montgomery Street to speak to an assault victim. The victim had been shot multiple times in the head and neck area while inside his home at 819 North Montgomery St., police said.

Starkville police have not identified the victim, but did confirm he left his home after the shooting and knocked on several neighbors’ doors for help before someone called 911.

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TIM PRATT

A crowd gathered at Starkville Recycling Wednesday to celebrate the success of the city’s curbside recycling program, but the group was greeted with some unexpected news when Ward 3 Aldermen Eric Parker announced the amount of recyclable materials collected that morning from city streets was the largest amount to-date.

City Sanitation Department trucks picked up an estimated 12,000 pounds of recyclable materials Wednesday, which surpassed the previous high of 11,090 pounds in a collection day. In the seven weeks since the curbside pickup program began, Starkville Recycling has processed an estimated 61,130 pounds of materials.

During a ribbon-cutting ceremony to celebrate the program, Greater Starkville Development Partnership President Jon Maynard applauded the efforts of city officials and Starkville Recycling for beginning the first free curbside recycling pickup effort in the state.

“What Starkville is doing here today set precedence for the entire state of Mississippi,” Maynard said.

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TIM PRATT

The Starkville Board of Aldermen Tuesday denied a developer’s request to rezone 4.98 acres on Yellow Jacket Drive for a medium-density housing development.

The city’s Planning and Zoning Commission in October denied B&P Developers’ request to transform the property, located southeast of the intersection of Yellow Jacket Drive and Eckford Drive in Ward 3, from an R1 single-family zone to an R3A single-family, medium-density zone. A R3A zone would allow up to eight homes per acre, but an R1 zone only allows up to four homes per acre.

With a 5-1 vote, aldermen Tuesday affirmed the planning board’s decision to deny the zoning change. Ward 3 Alderman Eric Parker, former co-owner of B&P Developers, recused himself from the discussion and did not vote.

Ward 6 Aldermen Roy A. Perkins initially made a motion to approve the developer’s rezoning request, but the motion died due to a lack of a second. Ward 2 Alderwoman Sandra Sistrunk then made a motion, which passed with only Perkins voting in opposition, to affirm the Planning and Zoning Commission’s decision to deny the request.

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TIM PRATT

On a ride through the Sunset subdivision west of Starkville, Bobby Bardwell points to a pool of water in a culvert at the corner of Greenwood Street and Chisholm Drive.

Tall grass pokes through the water’s surface. Empty bottles and cans float nearby.

“It’s like this all year-round,” Bardwell says.

The 70-year-old retired advertising representative stares down Greenwood, then looks back up Chisholm. He shakes his head in disgust.

During the summer, the standing water serves as a breeding ground to thousands of mosquitoes, he says.

Most of the culverts in the Sunset subdivision are overgrown. Some are littered with garbage.

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