Tim Pratt

With hurricane season in full swing, emergency management officials and government leaders are more ready to respond to a natural disaster now than they were before Hurricane Katrina, but many residents are still unprepared for a major event, the former commander of Joint Task Force Katrina said Wednesday at Mississippi State University.

Lt. Gen. Russel L. Honoré was in Starkville to discuss leadership and preparedness in the 21st century, and touched on his travels throughout the Gulf Coast and rest of the U.S., where he estimates only 10 percent of residents are prepared for a natural disaster.

“My concern remains with the general public at large,” Honoré said. “There are still people in Mississippi and here in America that say ‘Those natural disasters don’t happen to us.’ Whereas, historically, if you go back far enough, you see those types of disasters do happen. They do come, whether it’s a tornado, and we experienced a couple bad ones in Mississippi here over the past couple of years, or flooding, as they faced along the coast and throughout the state.”

“If you remember, when Katrina came through … Katrina marched through Mississippi,” he continued. “It didn’t just damage the coast. It came through and was so devastating it cut the lights off between Biloxi and Jackson. There were no lights all the way up to Birmingham. It just went straight north. We’re in the super highway for hurricanes when they come through, so they’re going to do more damage than just on the coast.”

Read complete article at Commercial Dispatch.

Birney Imes

Tuesday afternoon, Dispatch publisher Birney Imes sat down with Cadence Bank CEO Lewis Mallory to talk about the recent purchase of the bank by Trustmark National Bank of Jackson for $53.8 million.

Of that purchase price, $23.8 million, or $2 a share, goes to Cadence stockholders; $30.05 million of the purchase price goes to the treasury for $44 million in preferred stock purchased by the government in the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP).

Mallory, 67, has been president of the bank since 1974.

Editor’s note: In the interest of brevity, some of Mallory’s responses were edited for length.

Can you just give me a little bit of history on Cadence?

Cadence operates on a charter that is a 125 years old. The charter dates back to 1885.

How long have you been with the bank?

Forty-five and a half years, a long time. I came to the bank in June of ’65.

In what capacity was that?

I came as a management trainee. At that time it was People’s Bank, and it was a $6 million bank. It had one branch. The main office was downtown on the corner of Main and Lafayette streets. And then it had one branch on 12 in the Southdale Shopping Center.

Read complete article at Commercial Dispatch.

Tim Pratt

Bluegrass and country music fans will have the chance to support a worthy cause and witness a live performance by Starkville musicians Nash Street next weekend during a benefit show at the Greensboro Center.

The Starkville Foundation for Public Education and the Starkville School District are teaming up to hold the first ever Music Legacy Concert Oct. 9 at 7 p.m. Proceeds from the event will fund the Starkville Foundation for Public Education’s Music Legacy Fund, which was founded by Nash Street and established by the SFPE to provide a student scholarship and teacher grant for music education.

“We’re very excited,” said Heather Carson, president of the Starkville Foundation for Public Education. “I think that Starkville has a thriving music community and to be able to celebrate that within the Starkville School District for one night with Nash Street is a fantastic opportunity. We’re just very fortunate. We’ve had some wonderful talent come out of the school district over the years and this will help raise funds to foster more talent and encourage more enthusiasm about music education.”

Under the direction of Starkville School District strings program Director Norman Mellin, Nash Street was formed 14 years ago when three of its members were students in the SSD. The group went by the name “The Goat Ropers” at the time, but has since grown and now tours all over the U.S.

“It’s wild to think how different my life would be if Mr. Mellin had not decided to get a couple of his students together to play for square dances and civic events around the Starkville area,” said Nash Street fiddle player Hannah Melby, a 2003 graduate of Starkville High School. “Through our story, we hope to raise enough money so that other students may have the opportunity to pursue their dreams in music.”

“Nash Street wants to thank Starkville schools for their support of music education,” Hannah added. “This is where future musicians are formed, and it is where they meet their band and orchestral mates, learn to sing harmony, and discover the pleasures of musical creativity.”

Mandolin player Caroline Melby, a 2008 SHS graduate, credited her teachers in the SSD throughout the years with helping her get where she is today.

Read complete article at Commercial Dispatch.

Tim Pratt

Alexander Gibson knows how hard it is for high school students to receive college scholarship offers.

As a student at Starkville High School, Gibson, now 23, says he saw plenty of fellow students and family members try their best, but still only manage a C average. And those students aren’t very likely to receive academic college scholarships, he contends.

Now, Gibson is trying to start a non-profit organization and institute a number of programs in the Golden Triangle, one of which would provide college scholarships to local high school students. Gibson is in the process of applying for non-profit status for his organization, dubbed “Help for the Helped,” and hopes to be up and running soon.

“There are a lot of areas we need to improve on as a community,” the 2005 Starkville High graduate said this week. “One of my main goals is to start a scholarship fund because most scholarships are based on grades, community service and letters of recommendation. A lot of people end up missing out. Our (scholarships) would take into account the student’s home life, because a lot of kids aren’t blessed to have two involved parents at home, their day-to-day interactions and things like that. Also, you have some students that just can’t make above a C and they really want to go to college, so this would help them a lot.”

Another program Gibson wants to institute would help find jobs for convicted felons. He and other members of Help for the Helped would try to work with companies in the area to secure jobs for felons who need to go back to work.

“I’m trying to break the Catch-22 cycle we have,” Gibson said. “Society tells you to get a job, but to get a good job you can’t be a convicted felon.”

Read complete article at Commercial Dispatch.