Headlines – 2/4/2003

Published 12:00 am Tuesday, February 4, 2003

The Panolian Headlines: February 4, 2003

For complete stories, pick up the 2/4/03  issue of The Panolian


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Old "Delta" Wood Gets New Life As Furnishings

Casey Lipe, owner of Blueswood Art, designs the furniture he sells and makes sure each piece is ready to go. Here, Lipe sands down a "Long Tall Sally" to get it ready for the finishing process.
 

BY JASON C MATTOX
SENIOR STAFF WRITER

You know where you can find the likes of Little Jimmy, Long Tall Sally, Big Joe and Downtown Lucy Brown? Each and everyone of them can be found at Blueswood Art.

Blueswood Art, the latest endeavor of Casey and Amy Lipe, is a furniture business that uses wood harvested from old homes of the Mississippi Delta to create what Casey calls a Twenty-first Century rustic appeal.

"The old plantation era is very much a part of the Mississippi culture, and we are proud to preserve it with these creations," he said.

Lipe said he got the idea when he left the gas business.

"Even though water and gas are the things the Lipes are known for, we are also known for music and the arts," he said.

"A good friend of mine had always been able to create mantles and things I would design at the gas company," he said. "So I had someone I knew had the ability to make the visions of Amy and myself come to life."
 


 
Bids for new police cars are expected to be discussed at this afternoon’s meeting of the Batesville Mayor and Board of Aldermen.

At the last meeting, bids for from one-to-five new cars were opened and taken under advisement. The cars are full-size four-door sedans.

The bids were:

Hallmark Ford – five sedans for a purchase price of $106,906 or a lease purchase price of $114,695.16.
Heafner Motors – $18,511 each purchase price or lease purchase of five autos for $94,744.
Kirk Auto – $20,555.13 each for purchase or lease purchase. (The total for five is $102,775.65)
 


   

Front row, from left, are Jarrett Taylor, Joshua Ratliffe, Whit Whitten and Rob Maddux. Back row, from left, are Wesley Hawkins, John Tapp and Jake Patterson.
 
Scout "mom" Tam Hawkins became teary-eyed Saturday morning as she joined members of Boy Scout Troop 478 and others in seeing off members of the Mississippi Army National Guard’s 223rd Engineer’s Battalion.

Hawkins said the soldiers could be seen through the bus windows "saluting us."

The local group was atop the Interstate 55 overpass on Brewer Road as three buses of soldiers from the Charleston unit were escorted by MHP troopers. They will join other members of the 223rd who are being mobilized to Fort Campbell, KY, for more training before heading to an undisclosed overseas location.
 


Group Seeks To Preserve Old Records
BY JASON C MATTOX
SENIOR STAFF WRITER

A group from Utah could soon put all Chancery Court records from the 1830s to the 1950s on microfilm.

Chancery Clerk Sally Fisher told the Panola County Board of Supervisors she was contacted and informed about the Utah Genealogical Society’s desire to microfilm and restore Panola County’s records.

"The best part about it is that the restoration and microfilming of the records would be of no charge to the county," Fisher said. "All the county would pay for would be storage for the records."

Fisher said the organization would come in, clean and flatten the records, then store them.

"I was told the most money we would be out is $8,000," she said.

The $8,000 would be used to purchase special folders for the restored records, boxes and a storage unit.

"The way I understand it, each court case will be placed in the special folders, then boxed," she said.

Some of the Supervisors questioned why the group would put the records on microfilm rather than scanning and digitizing the material.