A rose to Emily Liner, owner of Friendly City Books, who is the recipient of a 2025 Public Humanities Awards from the Mississippi Humanities Council. Liner was honored with the Humanities Partner Award, announced earlier this month. The award is meant for individuals and organizations that make substantial cultural contributions to their communities through partnerships and organization. The bookstore was chosen in recognition of its many give-aways, book signings, student reading events and discussions. Since opening Friendly City Books in 2020, Liner has developed relationships throughout the community, becoming a key facilitator in promoting reading and literature throughout the area. Liner opened her bookstore months after the only other bookstore in Columbus closed. As this honor clearly indicates, her bookstore not only filled that void, but has enhanced and supported the community in a multitude of ways. We congratulate Emily on this richly deserved honor.
A rose to the Columbus City council, which has approved a plan that will convert most of the tennis courts at Propst Park into Pickleball Courts. According to the National Sporting Goods Association, the number of people playing tennis in the United States has dropped more than 40% since its peak in 2009. Pickleball, meanwhile, has been the fastest growing sport in the U.S. for each of the past three years with more than 36 million Americans now playing the sport. The smaller dimensions of a pickleball court compared to a tennis court is especially appealing to older adults, although people of all ages are discovering the sport. While there will remain plenty of tennis courts in Columbus, the conversion of the Propst Park courts to pickleball courts fills a definite void. We have urged the city to consider ways to bring more people to Propst Park through amenities that attract different groups. Pickleball courts are a great example of looking at the renovation program at Propst Park with a fresh perspective.
A rose to Aurora Flight Sciences for its contributions to Mississippi State University’s Advanced Composites Institute. Over the past eight months, the company has donated more than $1 million worth of composite materials to the MSU program which aids in educating and training engineers, some of whom may someday become employees at Aurora. The components are also providing MSU’s rocketry team, Space Cowboys, with resources that give the already-successful team another competitive advantage in its competition with rocketry teams from universities across the nation. Aurora Flight Science, which will celebrate the 20th anniversary of its Lowndes County facility in 2025, has long been a key economic driver in our community, providing well-paying jobs and tax revenue to support county government and schools. The company, which is owned by Boeing, has proven many times its interest in being a good corporate neighbor. Donations such as this are simply the latest example.
The Dispatch Editorial Board is made up of publisher Peter Imes, columnist Slim Smith, managing editor Zack Plair and senior newsroom staff.
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