TIM PRATT

Larry Pritchard has a history of printing counterfeit money in Mississippi, Wisconsin and Missouri.

The 39-year-old convicted felon now sits in Clay County Jail for being part of a new counterfeiting scheme, which also left two of his alleged accomplices behind bars, and has police searching for a fourth suspect.

Starkville police are still searching for a man who walked into the B-Quik convenience store at North Jackson Street and Garrard Road on Dec. 10 and used a counterfeit $50 bill to pay for his purchases. An image taken from the store’s security camera shows the suspect, a black male in a black and gold striped T-shirt over a long-sleeve dark shirt, entering the store. He also is wearing a dark hat, which covers his ears, and dark pants.

The $50 bill used by the man in the image had the same serial number as the four counterfeit $50 bills used Dec. 1 at Walmart on Highway 12, said Starkville Police Department Detective Landon Stamps.

“The same person printed all of them, but they’ve been distributed out through whatever means, hand-to-hand or whatever,” Stamps said.

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TIM PRATT

A new condominium could soon spring up along Highway 182.

The Starkville Board of Aldermen Tuesday night unanimously approved developer Michael Kraker’s request to allow a residential use in a C2 general business district. The .38-acre property is located adjacent to a two-story, two-building apartment complex already owned by Kraker at the corner of North Montgomery Street and Highway 182.

Kraker hopes to build a single brick building of 2 1/2 and 3 stories between one of the existing residential structures and the easternmost property line of the site. The building will contain 10 condominiums with eight single-bedroom units and two two-bedroom units at 403 Highway 182 E.

Kraker submitted a similar request in November 2006, which was unanimously denied by the city’s planning & zoning commission. No reason for the denial was provided in the official meeting minutes.

Another request was submitted by Kraker in July 2008, which the planning & zoning commission recommended to aldermen for approval with a 4 to 3 vote. The Board of Aldermen denied the request 5-1.

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TIM PRATT

The new multipurpose gymnasium in the Starkville Sportsplex building on Lynn Lane has a capacity of nearly 1,000 people.

Organizers of the Columbus and Starkville Tea Party groups expect crowds at a town hall meeting Saturday in the gymnasium to approach that capacity.

“I wouldn’t be surprised if it fills up,” said Robert J. Allen, cofounder of the Starkville Tea Party and one of the event’s organizers. “Everywhere we go, everywhere we look, people are enthusiastic about this. They’re angry and scared about what’s happening to their country. They support efforts like this.”

“The interest is so big and the concern is so big that I expect there to be a huge turnout in Starkville,” Allen added.

The event begins at 10 a.m. and is expected to last until 11:30 a.m. Organizers expect contingents from Columbus, Tupelo and Jackson to attend.

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ALLEN BASWELL

Although the town of Brooksville has filed a lawsuit against Starkville-based Cable TV Inc., attorney Monique Montgomery is hoping both sides can settle the issue away from the courtroom.

“We are hoping both parties will get together to negotiate a settlement in this matter,” Montgomery said.

Montgomery is representing the town of Brooksville in the suit, which was filed Nov. 17 in Noxubee County Circuit Court.

According to information from the lawsuit, the town and Cable TV Inc. entered into a written contract for the purpose of providing “valuable cable TV services to the residents of the town of Brooksville with the town receiving a franchise tax from the customer.”

The suit contends Cable TV has continued to bill and receive payments from customers in the Town of Brooksville, but refuses to pay the franchise taxes that are owed to the town.

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TIM PRATT

It’s been a rough nine days for the family of Winston Minor, the Starkville Dispatch carrier who was seriously injured Dec. 6 in a crash on Highway 182.

Shortly after the crash, during which Minor’s 2003 Ford Explorer was broadsided by a westbound tractor-trailer, the World War II and Korea veteran was responsive, said longtime friend and fellow carrier Mary Tallent, who arrived on the scene shortly after the crash and spoke briefly with Minor at Oktibbeha County Hospital. But Minor eventually lost consciousness and was transported to University of Mississippi Medical Center in Jackson.

Minor’s dog, a German Shepherd named Abigail, rode with him while he delivered newspapers and was slightly injured in the crash.

Over the past week and a half, Minor hasn’t responded when relatives have spoken with him, Tallent said. She has been in close contact with Minor’s family, including his wife, Ingrid.

But late last week, Minor finally did respond, Tallent said. Ingrid was talking to her husband about Abigail, who Tallent described as Minor’s “sidekick,” and Minor’s blood pressure suddenly skyrocketed, Tallent said.

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TIM PRATT

When the Starkville Parks and Recreation Department this fall announced a “Name that park” contest for the playground at Whitfield Street and Avenue of Patriots, phone calls began pouring into its Lynn Lane office immediately.

In the end, more than 140 people voted in the contest. About 40 of those people voted for the winning name: “Patriot’s Park.”

The Parks and Recreation Department randomly drew one name out of the list of 40 people who voted for Patriot’s Park. Thursday afternoon, the winner was at the park to celebrate the erection of a sign displaying the new name.

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TIM PRATT

The state and national economies are in bad shape, but an emphasis on improving residents’ education could help turn things around, a leading economist said Thursday at Mississippi State University.

Darrin Webb, senior economist with the Mississippi Institutions of Higher Learning, told a group of about two dozen people at the Oktibbeha County Leadership Forum that Mississippi’s economy has suffered partly because the state in past years has been so laden with manufacturing jobs. Those jobs generally tend to require less education, Webb said, and the manufacturing industry has suffered significantly during the past two years.

According to Webb, 56,700 people have lost their jobs in Mississippi since December of 2007; many worked in the manufacturing industry.

As of 2000, 72.9 percent of Mississippi residents had at least a high school education, compared to 80.4 percent nationally.

“The more education you have, the more likely you are to be in the workforce, the more likely you are to actually have a job,” Webb said. “The lack of education, the lack of skills, is a real weight on Mississippi’s growth potential.”

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TIM PRATT

City officials in November formed a committee of local business leaders, medical experts and other community members to enter Starkville in the Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Mississippi Foundation’s “Healthy Hometown” competition against other municipalities from around the state.

The group met Thursday and already has a number of ideas to make Starkville’s case stronger in the Healthy Hometown competition, but also to improve the quality of life for city residents and Mississippi State University students.

Oktibbeha County Hospital, which already offers free tobacco-cessation programs, is well-represented on the group’s medical subcommittee. One idea the medical subcommittee offered is a program tentatively called “Steps on Saturday,” during which the hospital would provide pedometers at locations around the city so walkers can keep track of the distance they have covered.

The Steps on Saturday idea is still in the conceptual phase, but Eddie Myles, who works in the hospital’s Healthplex, said the pedometers could be checked out at locations where people already excercise, like tracks, paths and even in Thad Cochrane Research, Technology and Economic Development Park, which contains a one-mile loop used frequently by walkers and joggers. Hospital employees also will have the opportunity to keep track of their steps at work.

Read complete article at Commercial Dispatch.