This morning state and local officials will dig into the Mississippi clay of Newton County with gold-colored shovels marking the official groundbreaking for the "Arlington of the South," the Mississippi Veteran's Memorial Cemetery.
The ceremony, which will be held at the 75-acre site between Hickory and Newton on Highway 80, will over the next several years be converted from rolling grazing land for cows to a place of honor for military veterans. The cemetery will be operated by the Mississippi Veteran's Affairs Board. The groundbreaking will mark the official start of construction for the cemetery and administrative buildings during the first of three construction phases.
Special speakers for the ceremony will be Mississippi Lt. Gov. Phil Bryant, Mississippi State University President Dr. Mark Keenum, and Tom Paquelet, from the United States Secretary of Veteran's Affairs in Washington, D.C.
Randy Reeves, the deputy director of the Mississippi Veteran's Affairs Board, and past Mississippi Veteran's Memorial Cemetery director, said in a press release that in just over three years the cemetery has gone from just talk to a tangible reality. Reeves said the original bill authorizing the cemetery was actually passed in the Mississippi Legislature in 2004. In 2007, the Legislature passed another bill authorizing $700,000 to cover the cost of planning and development.
Reeves said the next milestone was the selection of the cemetery site. In 2007, another bill was passed authorizing the transfer of 75 acres of rolling pasture land, formerly part of the Mississippi State Coastal Plains Experiment Station, from Mississippi State University to the State Veterans Affairs Board to be used, specifically, for the veterans cemetery.
According to reports, construction and outfitting of the cemetery will be paid for with a $6.9 million grant from the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs State Cemetery Grants Program. Once completed, expected in the spring of 2011, the cemetery will be maintained and operated by the Mississippi Veterans Affairs Board.
The complete facility will be built over three phases with the first phase (current construction) designed to accommodate approximately 5,000 burial sites and will include all administrative and maintenance buildings and other structures. Successive phases will be funded and built to accommodate additional burials, as needed, over an estimated 30 year period.
"Many close to the project have dubbed it as "Arlington of the South," said Reeves in the release. "One fact is clear; this will be a place where America's heroes will be
honored forever."
The public is invited to attend the ceremony, which begins at 10 a.m. next to the Mississippi State Coastal Plains Experiment Station north of Hickory.
Local News
Breaking ground on vets cemetery
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Local law enforcement officials honored
State Rep. Greg Snowden said he remembered as a child looking up to those "men in blue."
He said police officers in uniform were larger than life, riding in their patrol cars and carrying guns to protect and serve the population. Today, he said he is still in great admiration of the men and women who put their lives on the line every day so that citizens can feel safe. -
MPD probes vehicle crash
Evidence of a mother's desperate attempt to save her children from harm were spread all over a car lot — and could be seen on her as well in the form of bruises, cuts and scrapes.
Tuesday night, a vehicle with three children inside crashed through a plate glass showroom floor window damaging four new cars and totaling the vehicle the children were in. -
Skeleton found in residence
Members of the forensics team of the Mississippi Bureau of Investigation (MBI) were called to a dilapidated home in Chunky to probe the discovery of a skeleton.
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Police search for robbery suspects
Two men who reportedly robbed a woman at gunpoint in the parking lot of a local bank are still being sought.
Mike Vick, public information officer with the Meridian Police Department, said the two men approached a woman about 8 p.m. Tuesday at the ATM of Regions Bank on North Hills Street. Vick said one of the suspects was armed with a handgun and after taking an undetermined amount of cash and the victim's car keys, the two suspects fled on foot. -
City cuts payment to Watkins
The Meridian City Council voted unanimously Tuesday to cut their monthly payment to David Watkins, project developer of Meridian's new police station, by $9,999 until work resumes on the project.
The order, made during the Meridian City Council meeting Tuesday morning, included a mutual agreement between the councilmen and Watkins to reduce the project developer's monthly consultant fee of $10,000 to $1, effective Tuesday. -
Crews work on gasoline pipeline
If you hear a loud, booming sound early today, between 4 a.m.-10 a.m., there is no cause for alarm.
Workers with Plantation Pipeline will be performing maintenance work on their 30-foot gasoline pipeline in the Meridian area to accommodate the widening of Highway 493. The location of the work activity will be at Highway 493 North and Oak Hill Baptist Church, just inside the city limits. -
Team Spirit
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High Honor
The flowers and balloons Crestwood Elementary School Principal Kimberly Kendrick received at school Monday were not an early Valentines' Day gift.
Kendrick has been named Meridian Public School District's 2012 Administrator of the Year – an announcement that both surprised and wowed the 17-year veteran educator when made by MPSD Superintendent Dr. Alvin Taylor. -
Master Dance Class
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Digital system promises better communication
Hopefully in the near future you won't hear someone in the emergency services ask over the radio, "Can you hear me now?"
A digital communications system, one which is being pushed by the Federal Communication Commission (FCC), is a few months away and, in some cases, is already in the testing phase in Lauderdale County. - More Local News Headlines
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