New Walmart Planned for Byram

Byram Mayor Richard White announced recently that we would be getting a Walmart in Byram. I don't mind having a Walmart, but two things bother me about the way it's being done, and I hope that they bother you, too:

1) The location. They want to build it on the southwest corner of the intersection of Siwell Road and Terry Road, where Byram Middle School used to be. There is already far too much traffic in that part of the city, and building a Walmart there would just multiply the problem exponentially. I advocate for smart growth, and that includes spreading the financial success and the traffic out over the entire city, and not concentrating too much in one place. There are better places in Byram to build a Walmart, like the I-55 East Frontage Road, and Byram Parkway.

2) The former board of aldermen said that they would not allow a Walmart to locate in Byram because they believed that a Walmart would kill local mom and pop businesses. Richard White, current mayor, was on the board of aldermen at the time. Before the former board left office earlier this year, they decided that they would allow Walmart in. The new board, who took office at the beginning of July, 2013, could have still said no to Walmart had they wanted to do so, not being bound by what the old board had done, but they did not. I sincerely hope that you have a problem with people breaking their promises, whether you want a Walmart or not.

The Tuesday, June 4, 2013 Byram, MS Municipal General Election

With the Byram Municipal General Election a week and a half away, we should all remember some things about the incumbents who now occupy the offices of mayor and aldermen.

All of the incumbents have lied to us, and they have spent our tax money as fast as they could. They lied in that they told us that when Byram incorporated, they did NOT want to be officeholders in the actual, official government. But when those positions in the city government were offered to them, they did not hesitate to take them.

They lied to us at a meeting in the parking lot of Trinity Wesleyan Church on Siwell Road when they said that they would NOT give anyone living on the south side of Forest Hill Road over to Jackson in any kind of deal to incorporate Byram. Then they did. And they hurt the people living there. Their home values decreased, and they became a part of high tax, high crime Jackson.

They have put in traffic signals that we don't need. They want to build fire houses that we don't need. While the police give out tickets for speeding (which, the law should be enforced, but the speed limit should be 50, not 40, on a large portion of Siwell Road), the police themselves are often seen by us citizens speeding themselves, while there is no apparent emergency.

They have spent our money as fast as they could, and on what? When Siwell Road was paved, it was done with FEDERAL dollars, not city dollars. And then the City of Jackson messed up part of our brand-new road when they dug it up to run water to a new building.

That brings up another point: Byram should have its own city services. We should not be on Jackson water. And that brings up something else: People in Byram who live within one mile of Jackson have an extremely high water bill! THE CITY "LEADERS" IN BYRAM HAVE HAD FOUR LONG YEARS TO ACTUALLY DO SOMETHING CONSTRUCTIVE FOR US, THE CITIZENS, AND THEY HAVE UTTERLY FAILED US.

And those people who hold the offices that they said they didn't want are now running for office AGAIN. They have even had the audacity to put up a billboard on I-55 which says that "we" fought hard for "independence," and that we should vote independent. That is just an obvious political ploy to win the offices that they have never deserved! Richard White, alderman, is running for mayor as an Independent, saying that political parties divide us, while he was in the state senate for years, and all that time, he called himself a Republican. There is a real Republican running for mayor, and his name is Phil Rodgers. Other aldermen, who are running for election as aldermen, who SHOULD NOT be elected because of their lies and because of their total FAILURE to do any good for the citizens of Byram, are Kent Alday, Theresa Marble, Amy Douglas, and Danny Ford. There ARE some good candidates running; PLEASE vote for them. The City of Byram does not belong just to the ones who supposedly "worked so hard for incorporation" for "all those many years," and for oh, so "selfless" reasons. The future of OUR city depends, in part, on us voting for the BEST candidate running in each race. God bless you.

General Election Candidates, Byram, MS, June 4, 2013

Candidates in the General Election in Byram, Mississippi, to Be Held on Tuesday, June 4, 2013

As best I can tell, these are the candidates who will be in the General Election on June 4, 2013. I will try to update this after I see the Mississippi Secretary of State's official results posted on their website.

GENERAL ELECTION:

Mayor

Phillip L. (Phil) Rodgers - R

Richard White - I

Kevin D. Lavine - D

Alderman-at-Large

Richard Cook - R

Erma J. Johnson - D

Alderman - Ward 1

Jim Moser - R

Melody A. (Molly) Gill - I

Robert L. Barnes, Jr. - D

Kent Nathan Alday - I

Alderman - Ward 2

Adrienne Hamby - I

Diandra Hosey - D

Alderman - Ward 3

Jimmy Ray Horton - D

Theresa Marble - I

Alderman - Ward 4

Teresa Mack - D

Amy Douglas - I

Alderman - Ward 5

Mary V. Gordy - D

Wanda Smith - I

Alderman - Ward 6

Gregory McMillan - I

Takiyah T. Martin - D

D.L. (Danny) Ford - R

Unofficial Candidate List - 2013 Byram, Mississippi Municipal Elections

Here's the UNOFFICIAL candidates list for the 2013 Byram, Mississippi municipal elections. This list is NOT official.

Information is, by law, supposed to be verified before it becomes official. (I.e., for all candidates, it needs to be confirmed whether they actually live in Byram, and if running for Alderman, whether they live in the ward which they want to represent. Also, candidates running as Independents had to get 1,000 signatures on a petition to run. Each signature must be confirmed as being that of someone who is a citizen of Byram, living within the Byram city limits.)

But this IS the list of those who have filed papers to run, so it DOES give you an idea of who we will have to vote for in the upcoming elections. You will notice a capital letter beside each name, to the right of each. Please note that "R" stands for Republican, "D" stands for Democrat, and "I" stands for Independent.

I will also include, after the candidates list, the polling locations for the City of Byram in the 2013 municipal elections, and the dates of the elections.

PEOPLE WHO HAVE FILED PAPERS TO RUN FOR MUNICIPAL OFFICE IN BYRAM, MS IN 2013:

Mayor

Phillip L. (Phil) Rodgers - R

Richard White - I

Kevin D. Lavine - D

Alderman-at-Large

Richard Cook - R

Carl "Benji" Wade - R

Erma J. Johnson - D

Eugene Hawkins Drake - D

Julius R. Williams - D

Richard Matthews - I

Alderman - Ward 1

Chuck Gray - R

Jim Moser - R

Melody A. (Molly) Gill - I

Robert L. Barnes, Jr. - D

Tamara Jackson - D

Kent Nathan Alday - I

Alderman - Ward 2

Adrienne Hamby - I

Diandra Hosey - D

Lavaughn Rankin - D

Alderman - Ward 3

Darryl L. Jones - D

Jimmy Ray Horton - D

Theresa Marble - I

Alderman - Ward 4

Bryan White - D

Charles (Charlie) P. Robinson - D

Eric L. Trim - D

Teresa Mack - D

Amy Douglas - I

Alderman - Ward 5

Wanda Smith - I

Mary V. Gordy - D

Alderman - Ward 6

David Moore - R

Takiyah T. Martin - D

Gregory McMillan - I

D.L. (Danny) Ford - R

POLLING LOCATIONS:

Ward 1: Relate Church, 6885 South Siwell Road

Ward 2: Trinity Wesleyan Church, 6950 South Siwell Road

Ward 3: Marl Grove Church of Christ USA, 7437 South Siwell Road

Ward 4: Byram Baptist Church, 5866 Terry Road

Ward 5: Wyndale Baptist Church, 11287 Springridge Road

Ward 6: Hillcrest Baptist Church, 5950 Terry Road

ELECTION DATES:

Primaries: Tuesday, May 7, 2013

Run-Off (if needed): Tuesday, May 21, 2013

General Election: Tuesday, June 4, 2013

Winners Take Office: Monday, July 1, 2013

Byram Municipal Elections in 2013

Our municipal government here in Byram was sworn in, in a very underhanded way, in 2009, when it was too late to have municipal elections that year. We got stuck with a government installed by Haley Barbour, Phil Bryant, and Delbert Hosemann. For a dozen years, "Mayor" Nick Tremonte and the five-member board of aldermen called themselves a municipal government. That should be illegal if it's not, and I believe it is.

They said they didn't want to be the real government when we incorporated. They lied. They said that they would not give the people on the south side of Forest Hill Road over to Jackson. They lied.

They have spent money. They have made laws. They have zoned property. They have raised our property taxes. They have raised the rates of our water and trash pick-up. They are in the process of deciding the political boundaries of our wards for the election of aldermen. The "mayor" does not live inside the city limits.

You had better learn who will be running for office in Byram in 2013.

Steel on Target at the Byram Independence Day T.E.A. Party!

When I had the privilege of serving as a gunner in an M-1 Abrams tank in the Mississippi Army National Guard back in the '80s, we had a saying, "Steel on target!" That meant that the 105mm shell that had been fired out of the main gun had hit its target with dead-on accuracy.

Well, our Byram T.E.A. Party that we had this past Saturday, the Fourth of July, must have hit the bulls-eye, because Richard White, one of the Byram aldermen (a.k.a. Nick Tremonte's Gang of Five) came up to me afterwards and said, "Come see me sometime. Let's get straight."

Mr. White, our side is already straight, and one of the reasons why we're having our T.E.A. parties is to get our government straight, and that includes getting people like you out of it. We in State Senate District 29 voted you out in 2007 because you got too big for your britches and quit listening to the people, and you weaseled your way into being appointed to the Byram Board of Aldermen. And in 2013, we intend to vote you out of that, too, along with the rest of our unelected government!

You people claimed that you didn't want to be the real government when we incorporated, but now you are. Mayor Nick Tremonte told the people who live on the south side of Forest Hill Road that he would not give them over to Jackson, but he did. Mr. Tremonte wants to continue to use the Hinds County Sheriff's Office for our law enforcement when they don't even do their job now. We need our own city police department. He wants for us to pay for a full-time, professional fire department, when our volunteers are doing just fine, and they're saving us a lot of money. He wants to build a new library, when we already have a good one. He has a history of treating citizens like dirt just for asking an honest question. And he says that he will do whatever the people want, if we are willing to pay for it. That's not true leadership. A true leader listens to the people, and he makes decisions when they need to be made. He doesn't lick his finger and stick it into the air to see which way the political winds are blowing. Mr. Tremonte, you can get mad at me if you want to, but I have the God-given right to free speech, affirmed by our Constitution, and I will continue to use it!

When we incorporated, Mr. Tremonte said that it was "fun" being a part of history. Mr. Tremonte, you had better have all of your fun over the next four years, because we intend to oust you when we finally get to vote! Better yet, why don't all six of you announce your resignations tomorrow night at the board meeting, and call for an honest special election, so that we the people can choose our leaders?

There is a Byram Board of Aldermen meeting tomorrow night at 7:00pm at the pavilion in Davis Road Park, right beside the fire station. I hope all of the residents of Byram will be there. We need to be watching these people, and we need to vote them out of office when we finally have an actual election!

Byram mayor and aldermen, we know we didn't get to vote on you, and we don't like the direction in which you're taking us. We're going to keep you in our sights, we're going to get the right distance and trajectory with our laser range finder, we're going to hit our target with our sabot rounds over and over again, exposing your real agenda, and we're not going to stop until you're out of office and replaced with citizens who will actually take Byram in the right direction!

Byram Incorporation!

Well, the good news is that Byram is one big step closer to incorporation. The bad news, however, comes in more than one part. First, the pretend "interim government" gets to be the REAL government until we can hold municipal elections. Of course, the state supreme court made their ruling AFTER the qualifying deadline for candidates for municipal office, even though they had plenty of time to hand down their ruling much, much earlier. None of the "interim aldermen" live inside of what will be the city limits, yet some of us knew all along that they wanted the real, actual governmental positions, even though they always said they didn't. So much for them being people of their word. They also told the people on the south side of Forest Hill Road that they wouldn't be given over to Jackson. They were.

The other part of the bad news is that the U.S. Department of Justice also has to approve of Byram's incorporation. I wouldn't have trusted them to get that right under the Bush administration; much less so under the Obama administration.

The self-proclaimed "interim mayor," Nick Tremonte, who the state government has never told couldn't impersonate an elected official, says that we need to keep the Hinds County Sheriff's Office instead of starting our own police department, that we need to start a professional fire department when our volunteer one will do just fine, and that we need to stay on Jackson water and sewage. Give me a break!

When we finally do incorporate, it is imperative that we elect good, decent people to our new city's government who will work for both economic and moral prosperity, not just for themselves and their egos. For mayor and for each alderman position, we need to elect someone who is one of US!

This is Municipal Election Year

This is a municipal election year here in Mississippi. Byram's illegitimate so-called "interim government" should be up for re-election if they really ever have been elected like they've said they have been. There was no election in 2005, and I don't expect we'll see one in 2009, either. We seem to have a legislature (controlled by Democrats) and a governor (a Republican) who don't care that the law is being broken. Please start working on the 2011 elections.

Gas Prices WAY Down in Byram, Mississippi!

The price of gas is now -- are you ready for this? -- $1.99 a gallon here in Byram, Mississippi! I love it!

Byram's National Day of Prayer Event Should Be Moved from McDonald's

The National Day of Prayer is an annual event which calls Americans to repentance of our sins and calls us to supplication to God - asking Him to meet our needs, and even sometimes our good desires which are not needs.

The National Day of Prayer event is always held on the first Thursday in May of each year. The event in the community of Byram, Mississippi, a suburb of Jackson, where my family and I live, is always held at the McDonald's at the intersection of Siwell Road and Terry Road. However, there's a problem with that this year. McDonald's has announced that it will aggressively support the homosexual agenda with some of its revenues that it gets from the people - mostly families - who patronize their business.

I have contacted McDonald's personally, and have received an e-mail back from them in which they state that they see nothing wrong with using some of their financial profits to advance the homosexual agenda in America.

As for me and my house, we will not be patronizing McDonald's any more. As for the organizers of the National Day of Prayer event in Byram, they need to move to another location. If they intend to ask God to bless America, then they should conduct themselves in such a way that God can bless them. I will be contacting the organizers of the National Day of Prayer at the national level and informing them of what is going on in little Byram, Mississippi, and seeing whether they have anything to say about it.

May America bless God, before it's too late.