2015 will be remembered for things both bad and good.
It was a year of violence, including a police-involved shooting death that rocked Columbus, and a death in New Hope with allegations that seemed to come from a murder mystery script.
It was also the year that the retail economy boomed and big changes emerged on the horizon for downtown Columbus.
And there were controversial decisions and hard-fought elections. We said goodbye to some long-time public servants and hello to new office-holders.
There was some big news on the education front, too.
A look at some of the stories that made headlines in 2015:
The Ricky Ball shooting
At a little after 10 p.m. on Oct. 16, three officers from the Columbus Police Department’s Special Operations Group made a traffic stop that would shake the city and its police department and leave one man dead.
The incident began when CPD officers Canyon Boykin, Johnny Branch and Yolanda Young, along with an unauthorized civilian passenger, stopped a car driven by Shannon Brewer. Ball, a passenger in Brewer’s car, tried to flee. After a struggle, he was shot twice, according the law enforcement accounts, and was found a few blocks away. He was taken to Baptist Memorial Hospital-Golden Triangle, where he was pronounced dead.
CPD later issued a statement that said a 9mm was found beside Ball after he had been shot.
The shooting sparked protests in the city as frustrated citizens wanted answers that authorities said they could not reveal as the Mississippi Bureau of Investigation pursued its investigation. Boykin was fired on Oct. 30 for a variety of infractions, including a violation of body camera policy. Only one of the three officers turned on a body camera and then, only after the shots had been fired. Branch and Young were suspended for 30 days. On Nov. 1, CPD Chief Tony Carleton resigned.
In the wake of the shooting, the city council approved changes in CPD policy that provided harsher penalties for violations of body camera policy and created Citizens Oversight Committee to serve as liaison between the CPD and the community.
The MBI investigation of Ball’s death continues.
Downtown development
From one end of Main Street to the other, downtown Columbus is set for a considerable face-lift.
In January, the $2.3-million renovation to the Trotter Convention Center was completed while renovations on City Hall began. The Riverwalk extension, backed by a $2.25-million appropriation from the state Legislature, will ultimately be extended 14 miles to Columbus Air Force Base. Also, this month, ground was broken on a 3,500-seat amphitheater christened the Terry Brown Amphitheater.
Also in December, the city purchased the Gilmer Inn and the old Brumley building next door. Meanwhile, the Columbus Lowndes Convention and Visitors Bureau purchased the old Elks Building for $650,000. The CVB plans to build a children’s discovery center on the site as a means of attracting conventions and visitors to the city.
On the east end of downtown, California preservationist Gayle Guynup returned to the city to purchase the Old Depot, which she plans to restore. The Old Depot was constructed in the 1880s.
Retail boom in Columbus
While downtown is poised for a facelift, the city also enjoyed an encouraging spike in retail development and sales.
A handful of new businesses opened, including Cracker Barrel restaurant, which opened its doors on 18th Avenue North in July.
In 2015, businesses old and new prospered — as did the city, which recorded a record high in sale tax revenue during the fiscal year, which ended Sept. 30. For the year, Columbus collected more than $9 million in sales taxes, almost $1 million more than the previous year.
The boom in sales tax collections were not limited to Columbus, either.
Starkville and West Point also reported healthy increases during the year. Sales tax collections continued to be strong in all three cities as the new fiscal year began in October.
Vasquez murder saga
What started as an investigation of missing person report turned into a murder mystery that unfolded in a quiet, upscale New Hope neighborhood.
On July 22, local law enforcement, along with state officials, found human remains in the yard of 40-year-old Manuel Vasquez, who had been reported missing on July 13. In October, the burned remains were identified as Vasquez.
His wife, Christina Vasquez, was charged with murder, while his mother-in-law, Lydia Martinez, was charged with accessory after the fact, alleged to have helped her daughter in an attempt to destroy the evidence of the murder. At the time of her arrest, Martinez was found unresponsive in a bedroom. In November, Martinez claimed in an interview with The Dispatch that her daughter had tried to poison her.
Martinez, currently out on bail and living in Colorado, and Vasquez, who remains in custody on a $500,000 bond, await trail.
Economic development hits and misses
No new developments arrived in the Golden Triangle in 2015.
The year marked the beginning of much-anticipated production at the new Yokohama Tire Company facility in West Point in October. In May, Steel Dynamics Inc. announced at $100-million expansion to add a plant facility that will create 40 new high-paying jobs. And in February, Columbus Airbus announced a new $220-million contract with the U.S. Army.
The year also featured some disappointments.
The biggest “miss” was a new aluminum manufacturing company that announced in November 2014 that it would build a $1.2-billion, 1.4-million-square-foot facility at the Golden Triangle Industrial Park. Doubts — and lawsuits — began to emerge in 2015. In February, Golden Triangle Development LINK CEO Joe Max Higgins announced that the LINK was pulling the project, citing American Specialty Alloys’ inability to prove it had the financial assets to build the plant. The company later announced it would move the project to Louisiana.
Meanwhile CalStar, a company that makes eco-friendly paving materials, ceased operations in October after less than two years at the Lowndes County-owned facility. Twenty-nine workers lost their jobs as a result of the shut-down.
In May, chemical company Tronox announced it was ceasing operations of one of its two facilities in Hamilton. Citing a lack of demand for a product line, the decision meant 40 workers were laid off, with another 30 moving over to work in its larger remaining facility.
On the bright side, the KiOR saga ended with no cost to local entities. The bio-fuel company, which announced bankruptcy in November 2014, was sold at auction in October to a Georgia company for $2.1 million. While local government and schools were paid the $1.1 million due in back taxes, the state is still on the hook for $69 million of a $75-million loan.
Higgins said the former KiOR site is under consideration by no fewer than three companies and an announcement on the status of those talks is expected soon.
Lowndes County passes school bond — finally
It took more than two and a half years and months of haggling, but the Lowndes County School District finally secured approval and funding for the completion of Phase 2 of its Master Plan in 2015.
While the LCSD completed its $20-million Phase 1 from existing funds, the district needed to secure bonds for Phase 2. In August 2014, voters rejected a $47-million bond issue. Undaunted, district officials again asked voters for support, this time for a $44-million bond. Voters passed the bond in May, which led to months of haggling.
While the bond would ensure new facilities or renovations at each of the county’s schools — Caledonia, New Hope and West Lowndes — the centerpiece of the plan, an $11 million career tech center to be used by all county students, was a point of contention. Where to locate the center was the central issue. After months of deliberations over three proposed sites, the district chose to locate the center on a 12-acre parcel owned by Tommy Lott near the intersection of Highway 12 and Lehmberg Road. The district purchased the property for $625,000.
Construction should begin in early January. Project architect Joey Henderson said the facility would take 18 months to complete, which would allow the center to be open for students in the fall of the 2017.
Education: Goodbyes and hellos
Some familiar faces in education said goodbye in 2015 and one said both “goodbye” and “hello” in a period of just a few weeks.
In January, Dr. Rick Young announced his retirement as president of East Mississippi Community College after 40 years at the school, including 11 years as president. Young’s tenure was marked by the enormous growth at EMCC — particularly at its Mayhew campus, which became the model of workforce development education.
In May, the EMCC Board selected Dr. Thomas Huebner, president of Shelby State Community College in Alabama, as Young’s successor. Huebner took over on July 1 and immediate immersed himself in the projects started by his predecessor, one of which led to another move by a well-known educator.
In January, Jill Savely, who had been principal at Columbus High School since 2002, announced she was leaving to become principal at Early College High School, a new dual-track school that opened in August on the EMCC Mayhew campus. ECHS began with a freshman class in the fall and will add a class over each of the new four years until the first class graduates in the spring of 2019. ECHS allows students to earn their high school diploma and EMCC associates degree simultaneously and is geared to low-income students who might not otherwise be able to pursue higher education.
Finally, Mississippi University for Women said a sad — albeit brief — farewell to its president, Dr. Jim Borsig, who became The W’s 14th President in 2012. Borsig announced he would be leaving MUW to take over as Commissioner of the state’s Institutions of Higher Learning (IHL) board. Borsig was a logical candidate to replace outgoing Commissioner Hank Bounds, who had left to become president at the University of Nebraska. Borsig had served as Bounds’ right-hand man at the IHL before taking over as president at The W.
Borsig was to begin his new job on April 15, but took over the job on an interim basis when a controversy erupted over the IHL Board’s decision not to retain Dan Jones as Chancellor at University of Mississippi. As the controversy escalated, Borsig began to have second thoughts. On April 9, just days before he was to officially take over as IHL Commissioner, Borsig announced he had changed his mind and would remain at MUW, an announcement made before a packed Poindexter Hall to a standing ovation.
Elections: Familiar faces give way to newcomers
Every time you turned around in 2015, it seems like there was an election. There was a school bond issue in May, a special election primary and general election for U.S. House Representatives, along with local and state primaries and elections. From May to November, voters went to the polls.
While most incumbents retained their positions, there were some notable changes.
In May, voters in the Lowndes County School District passed a $44-million bond issue. In June, Rep. Trent Kelly of Tupelo defeated Dem. Walter Zinn to serve out the remaining term in the U.S. House of Representative, a seat that had been held by Alan Nunnelee, who died in February.
In November, three long-serving incumbents were replaced — one by death, another by retirement and a third in a big-dollar general election campaign.
Esther Harrison, who served as District 41 Representative in the state Legislature since 2000, announced her re-election bid, but died June 9 after a long illness. That opened the door for Columbus City Councilman Kabir Karriem, who defeated a pair of write-in candidates to win the seat.
In January, six-term Lowndes County Circuit Clerk Haley Salazar announced she would not seek another term, opening the door to a crowded field of would-be successors. In November, long-time deputy clerk Teresa Barksdale moved into the top office, defeating three other candidates in the general election.
Finally, in the most expensive of local campaigns, Democrat Scott Colom, a 32-year-old Columbus attorney, defeated incumbent District Attorney Forrest Allgood, 61. Allgood had held the office since 1989.
The candidates spent almost $200,00 combined, with Colom outspending the incumbent by roughly a 2-to-1 margin.
Southside: Summer of violence
For a terrifying six weeks, residents of the Southside took the social media to express the fear that shook the community in the wake of a series of shootings. The epicenter of the violence came along Fifth Street South, where there were five separate reports of “shots fired” calls answered by the Columbus Police Department in May and June..
On June 12, Columbus Police Department officers arrested eight people, confiscating drugs and guns.
Other arrests of people believed to be connected to the violence were made later in the month and in July.
Couple charged with supporting terrorism
Starkville entered the national news cycle in August after two of its residents were arrested at Golden Triangle Regional Airport and charged with conspiring to provide material support to a terrorist organization.
Muhammad Oda Dakhlalla, 22, and Jaelyn Delshaun Young, 20, were arrested before boarding a flight that would have eventually connected with an international airport and taken the couple to Syria, where the duo allegedly would have met with Islamic State operatives.
A criminal complaint shows FBI agents began tracking both Young’s and Dakhlalla’s social media posts and interacting with the couple in May and June. At least one federal investigator posed online as a middleman for IS during their communications.
Their trial date is set for June 6. If convicted, they face a maximum of 20 years in prison each.
State flag controversy
When Dylann Roof shot and killed nine blacks in a Charleston, S.C., church in June, it sparked a nation-wide debate over the Confederate flag, something that was prominently featured in personal photos left by behind by the shooter.
While the South Carolina legislature removed the flag from its grounds almost immediately, the debate did not lead to a similar outcome in Mississippi. Although many of the state’s elected leaders said they supported changing the Mississippi flag, which features the Confederate Battle Flag, Gov. Phil Bryant demurred, first saying that the people of the state had already settled the issue by popular vote in 2001 and later insisting that any change should come from another vote, perhaps as early as 2016.
The Dispatch ran a front-page editorial calling for the flag to be changed on June 23.
Some cities, meanwhile, were not inclined to wait, voting to remove the flag from city property.
Both the Starkville Board of Aldermen and the Columbus City Council voted to remove the flag from city buildings.
A Freedom of Information Act request by The Dispatch for emails from citizens to both local governments showed that many residents in Starkville had written emails to their aldermen. In Columbus, City Attorney Jeff Turnage said no emails on the topic were sent to the city.
Later in the year, the University of Mississippi and Southern Miss also announced the flag would be removed from their campuses.
Slim Smith is a columnist and feature writer for The Dispatch. His email address is [email protected].
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Quality, in-depth journalism is essential to a healthy community. The Dispatch brings you the most complete reporting and insightful commentary in the Golden Triangle, but we need your help to continue our efforts. In the past week, our reporters have posted 36 articles to cdispatch.com. Please consider subscribing to our website for only $2.30 per week to help support local journalism and our community.
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Related Photos
In July, Lowndes County sheriff’s deputies escorted Christina Martinez Vasquez into Justice Court, where she was formally charged with the murder of her husband. Photo by: Luisa Porter/Dispatch Staff
In October, dignitaries joined together in West Point in honor of Yokohama Tire Manufacturing Mississippi’s grand opening. Photo by: Luisa Porter/Dispatch Staff
