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.

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!

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!