STEVEN NALLEY

Revenue from Starkville’s sales tax and 2 percent restaurant taxes for September 2011 were stable compared with last September, with a slight increase in sales tax revenue and a slight decrease in 2 percent tax revenue.
The sales tax revenue total for the month was $467,034.81, up .74 percent versus September 2010’s revenue. The 2 percent restaurant tax revenue for the month was $124.999.30, down .02 percent versus September 2010’s revenue.
The sales tax revenues for September 2011 were still the highest September revenues on record, dating back to 1999.
Total sales tax revenues for 2011 through September add up to $4,009,025.79, ahead of January-September 2010’s total of $3,958,053.47. This keeps 2011 on pace to beat the annual Starkville sales tax revenue record of $5,317,568.11 set in 2010.
Restaurant taxes are also on pace to beat their annual record of $1,388,189.86, also set in 2010. Revenues for 2011 through September add up to $1,110,781.16, ahead of January-September 2010’s total of $1,048,660.58.
The stable September came immediately after a booming August for Starkville tax revenues. August 2011 revenue from Starkville’s 2 percent restaurant taxes set an all-time monthly record of $144,208.08, ahead of the $143,510.53 record set in March 2008. August 2011 marked a gain of 22.19 percent versus August 2010, and sales tax revenues for August also increased 7.15 percent between 2010 and 2011.

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COLLEEN MCCARTHY

Peanut butter sticks to the roof of your mouth, is great on sandwiches and one jar of it provides enough protein for a child for a whole month.
With the help of Mississippi State University and the Starkville community, one Golden Triangle non-profit organization is hoping to collect 8,000 jars of peanut butter to send to children in Haiti.
“Just two tablespoons of peanut butter will give a child the protein they need for a day. It’s also something that’s easy to ship and kids like it,” Kathy Cadden, Operation Ukraine director, said.
Operation Ukraine, based in Columbus, has provided food and supplies to countries all over the world. This small organization helps out in a big way by shipping 10- to 30-ton containers filled with goods to countries from Eastern Europe to Latin America and the Middle East to Africa.
“The government called us the Wednesday after the earthquake in Haiti and asked if we could help out. They said we could have two containers so of course, we said yes,” Cadden said. “I had no desire to work in Haiti, but I guess God had something else in mind.”
To date, Operation Ukraine has sent over 1 million lbs. of rice and beans to Haiti. Cadden recently returned from a four week trip to Haiti and said the peanut butter donations would be a big help to the orphanages there.
The MSU campus radio station, WMSV 91.1, will hold a radiothon Dec. 2 and 3 to help raise money for the cause.
Radio station manager Steve Ellis said he decided to get involved after Operation Ukraine helped students at Sale Elementary in Columbus collect over 1,400 pairs of shoes for children in Haiti.
Anyone can donate jars or money for the cause. Three dollars will buy one jar of peanut butter. For four jars or a $10 donation, a DJ will announce your name on the air and thank you for your donation. For eight jars or a $20 donation, you can come in and give a “shout out” on the air. For 12 jars or $30 dedication, you can come in and dedicate any song — including your own song — on the air.
WMSV will also give any group or organization — such as a fraternity or local band — half an hour of air time to play songs, promote their organization or whatever they wish for a $300 donation, which would buy 10 cases of peanut butter.

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STEVEN NALLEY

Through a grant from the Mississippi Office of Homeland Security, the Mississippi State University Extension Service has launched and trained a Campus Community Emergency Response Team, or C-CERT.
Ryan Akers, assistant extension professor and MSU C-CERT coordinator, said the C-CERT is a group of volunteers trained in disaster assessment, response and recovery, including treatment and prevention of certain injuries. From Nov. 15-17, he said, MSOHS trained 29 volunteers, carefully selected from a pool of engaged employees and students.
“These teams are already engaged in the communities that they represent, so they have the ability to assess and respond to situations before local response officials can arrive,” Akers said. “This timeframe can prove critical to preventing further injuries and perhaps saving lives. Members have a distinct daily relationship with this campus in that they spend the majority of their day here and are intricately involved its livelihood and prosperity. It only makes sense that there exist a number of volunteers that would offer their assistance in times of need.”
The final team was chosen on the basis of prior emergency management experience and training, Akers said, including first aid/CPR and defibrillator training, and National Incident Management System certifications. He said the team includes two volunteer firefighters, a member of the State Emergency Operations Center and MSU staff with specialties ranging from radiation safety to the layouts of MSU’s buildings. The team also includes six students, he said.
“(Students) are the largest population of this campus and must be included,” Akers said. “Like it or not, they are often more in tune with the happenings of this campus than many faculty and staff. It would be irresponsible not to include them. Besides, we are an institution of higher education. It is our hope that these students will take those skills and that knowledge and passion and apply it through service to their communities when they leave MSU.”
Whatever background the team members brought to C-CERT, all of them studied specific threats including ice storms, pandemic influenza, disaster psychology and even nuclear plant emergencies. Akers said the training will be augmented with monthly meetings starting in December, and the MSU Meridian campus will hold training for its own C-CERT Nov. 28-30.
“We will be bringing in different speakers and trainers for our monthly meetings that will help us accomplish our goals in the most efficient manner,” Akers said. “We will continue to be proactive in forming partnerships with MSU and local responding agencies in advancing our training and in preparing for all emergencies, not just from inclement weather, though that is certainly something that we place considerable focus on as it is our most probable, consistent threat.”
Akers said while the 2010 and 2011 seasons did expedite the need for a C-CERT team, there was no specific time when the C-CERT concept was first considered at MSU. He also said MSU’s C-CERT is far from the first of its kind.
“The number of Campus CERT teams across the nation has increased over the last decade as we have witnessed what seems to be an alarming number of threats to our communities,” Akers said. “Many of these threats come in the form of inclement weather and extreme atmospheric/climate conditions, and C-CERT teams have assisted in the response and recovery efforts. However, even though we do concentrate on these incidents, natural disasters are not the only incidents that C-CERT members are trained to assist.”
While at least one member of C-CERT is also on MSU’s Crisis Action Team, the C-CERT and CAT are distinct from each other, Akers said.

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COLLEEN MCCARTHY

Nearly six months after hitting a Starkville woman who was riding her bicycle, Robbie Norton of Cedar Bluff was found guilty of simple assault with a deadly weapon by the Clay County Justice Court yesterday.
Norton hit Jan Morgan, who was out on a training ride with Kim Richardson, on the morning of May 22 on Highway 50 near Pheba.
Norton entered not guilty to the charges of simple assault with a deadly weapon so the case proceeded with a trial.
Morgan could not testify to the events of that day because the head injury she suffered due to the accident caused her to forget.
Monica Jones testified that she was driving behind Norton going approximately 70 miles per hour and had seen Morgan and Richardson before the accident. When Morgan was hit, she said she “thought it was a piece of furniture or something,” but realized it was the bike flying up into the air and breaking in two.
When she and her husband realized what had happened, they pulled over and called 911. Jones said she witnessed Norton getting out of the car on the phone “saying ‘they came out of nowhere, they came out of nowhere.’” Morgan’s body landed on the hood of the car, but slid to the ground, landing near the passenger-side tire.
She said Norton was panicking when she got back into her car and in an attempt to move the car out of the way, ran Morgan over and stopped with the wheel still on Morgan’s head. Jones said they were all screaming at Norton to “get off her head,” but Norton became confused, got out of the car to look before getting back in and backing the car off Morgan’s body.
Jones said Norton got back in the car again, but they were afraid she was going to try to move the car again, so they forced her to get out of the car and give them her keys.
She said she never saw Norton’s break lights until after the impact.
Richardson also took the stand to testify. She and Jan were about 30 miles into their ride when the accident happened. She said she was riding just a few feet in front of Morgan when Norton hit her. The impact made a sound “like a gunshot,” and the car sped past Richardson while Morgan’s body flew approximately 6 feet in the air. Richardson said she saw Morgan’s body bounce twice on the hood before falling to the pavement. She, too, witnessed Norton on the phone as she emerged from the car, but said she heard her asking someone to “come and get her.”
Following the accident, Richardson said she “didn’t think (Morgan) was going to be alive when I got to the hospital.”

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STEVEN NALLEY

The Tennessee Valley Authority Board of Directors approved the replacement of its Generation Partners program with a new Green Power Providers program and a three-year pilot program to charge less for electricity during seasonal hours where it is typically used least.
Kim Greene, group president for strategy and external relations with TVA, presented both measures to the board, which passed both of them unanimously.
Through Generation Partners, TVA pays a premium for power from alternative energy facilities generating up to 50 kilowatts. To help pay these premiums, TVA also has a Green Power Switch program which allows customers to contribute as little as $4 per month to enable TVA to generate 150 kilowatt-hours of electricity from a renewable resource, usually solar energy.
Greene said the expenses of Generation Partners premiums have outstripped TVA’s revenue from Green Power Switch, prompting TVA to moderate the program, refocusing it on smaller renewable energy enterprises.
“The original intent of this program was really to spur solar generation on rooftops of homes and rooftops of small commercial businesses,” Greene said. “It was really not intended for large solar farms.”
Greene said a study by the U.S. Department of Energy has shown a significant decrease in expenses for solar energy since 2009, with projections for solar energy to reach a parity with conventional electricity generators over the next 10 years. As a result, Greene said, the new Green Power Providers program will allow for contract terms of 20 years, but will only feature price premiums for the first 10 years. Premiums will also be re-evaluated year to year, she said.
Greene also presented the Off-Peak Pricing pilot program, which would reduce energy costs at certain times of day for customers with energy loads of five megawatts or greater. As an example, she displayed a graph showing demands on TVA’s power grid in June, which rose to approximately 26,000 megawatts in the afternoons and as low as 16,000 megawatts late at night.

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ANGIE CARNATHAN

Starkville music store Backstage Music is holding a unique event tomorrow to collect food for needy families in the area called Strings for Food.
Tomorrow, from 10 a.m. until 6 p.m., store owners, employees and a few volunteers will be on hand to clean and install free strings on any six-string guitar in exchange for a minimum of five non-perishable food items. There is no maximum to the amount of food one can donate. Co-owners of the store Allen McBroom, Jim Beaty and Tony Foster said the store participates in the event each November.
“The idea is that if a guitar owner will bring us a minimum of five non-perishable food items — food that keeps well and doesn’t have to be refrigerated, such as canned food, flour, rice, corn meal, Bisquik, etc. — we will take the old strings off their guitar, clean and oil the fretboard, polish the frets and restring with a high quality, name brand strings, such as Curt Mangan strings or D’Addario strings,” McBroom said. “We then return the guitar to the customer for no charge.”
McBroom said a customer usually spends between $20 and $25 for this quality of strings and this level of service.
Allen McBroom, Jim Beaty and Tony Foster are the owners of Backstage Music, a store that has been providing musical supplies to the Golden Triangle since 1978. McBroom said they love having the opportunity to give support back to a community that has always supported them.
“Backstage takes care of the cost of the strings and the labor, and all you need to do is bring us some food,” McBroom said. “We’ll take all of the food collected to local churches and food banks. It’s important for all of us to remember that we could be the ones in need one day.”

Read the complete article at Starkville Daily News.