The Yazoo-Mississippi Delta Levee Board and Staff Wish the Citizens Of
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
\ Yazoo-Mississippi Delta Levee Board • HAPPY HOLIDAYS • President Sykes Sturdivant Receives Volunteer Service Award The Yazoo-Mississippi Delta Levee Board President Sykes Sturdivant was the recipient of Volunteer Yazoo-Mississippi Northwest Mississippi’s President’s Volunteer Service Award. The award, established by the President’s Delta Levee Board Council on Service and Civic Participation, was given to 25 outstanding volunteers from eight counties. The official publication of the Yazoo-Mississippi Delta Levee District WINTER 2010 Vol. 4, Number 1 Sturdivant has served as Levee Board president for and Staff 14 years. He is a long-time member of the West Tallahatchie Habitat for Humanity and serves on the FEMA Map Modernization Program Emmett Till Memorial Commission. wish the citizens Arrives in the Mississippi Delta of our region In fiscal year 2003, the Federal used by FEMA in their map moderniza- Dabney, a gray fox squirrel, lives in a tree behind Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) tion project are accurate to only 5.0 feet. the Levee Board Building and has become the ________Copywriter ________Copy Editor a safe and festive began a multiyear map modernization The Upper Yazoo Project is a federally . official Levee Board pet. project of Flood Insurance Rate Maps funded project which began actual con- (FIRM) under the National Flood struction near Yazoo City in 1976 and holiday season! Insurance program with a total cost of has progressed upstream to just south of $1.6 billion as appropriated by Congress. Mississippi Highway 32 in Tallahatchie Artist ________Art Dir These new maps are referred to as County. The project is designed to . D-FIRM, which stands for “digital FIRM.” restore the capacity of the Yazoo River This fall, D-FIRM are being presented system to original capacities by channel to local leaders of six Delta counties width improvement. These new capac- Yazoo-Mississippi Delta Levee District that include Coahoma, Humphreys, ity improvements have resulted in lower _________________________________________________________Client ________________Date P.O. Box 610 Quitman, Tallahatchie, Sunflower, and river stages when comparing similar flood . Clarksdale, MS 38614 D-FIRM have been finalized in several Mississippi Supv Yazoo. DeSoto, Tunica, and Holmes counties. Shown is a view of the Mississippi River near events from differing years. County D-FIRM have been finalized and Robinsonville in Tunica County. The Yazoo Mississippi Delta Levee are effective. Board claims that FEMA is ignoring In rural, sparsely populated areas such ________Acct D-FIRM may trigger a number of as the Delta, FEMA is reluctant to spend the new technology available to it in . potentially disruptive and costly impacts the time and monies necessary to gather the development of D-FIRM and that Exec . 5˝x11˝ folded __________Spell Check ________Prod for the local Delta communities. Included necessary information for generation (Continued on page 6) . among these are: of sound, correct maps. Two major com- ponents available to FEMA that were not ________Acct INSIDE . • Mandatory flood insurance pur- considered in generating the maps, and FEMA’s Map Modernization . 1, 6 Mgr . chase requirements to obtain mort- which drastically affect the accuracy of Contact Information and Board Members . 2 gage loans from federally insured these maps, is the newly available LIDAR YMDLB District Map . 2 or regulated lenders; data just released by the U.S. Army Corps YMDLB Wins Awards . .3 ________Prod Teacher Workshop . .4 . • New floodplain management regu- of Engineers and the restoration of the Donahoe Honored . .4 lation (building elevation, flood- Yazoo River System through the Upper Fishing Rodeo . .4 proofing, and area development Yazoo Project. LIDAR is the integration Art Contest Winners . .4-5 and construction delays); of three technologies into a single sys- Essay Contest Winners . .5 GodwinGroup: YMDL 12216-1 Winter 2010 Newsletter 8 Cleanup Projects . 6-7 ________Creative Dir • Potentially irreversible property tem capable of acquiring data to produce Fayetteville Express Pipeline . .7 value and local tax base declines; accurate digital elevation models. These YMDLB President Sturdivant Receives Award . .8 • Business relocation and job loss. new models are accurate within 0.2 feet, Dabney — YMDLB Pet . .8 while the old digital elevation models YMDL 14084 WinterSpring.indd 1-2 12/9/10 3:42 PM CONTACT INFORMATION COMMISSIONERS B. Sykes Sturdivant, President Tallahatchie County Bishop David Cotton, Vice President Holmes County Ted Winters Sr. Coahoma County Robert P. Sayle Jr. DeSoto County N. Craig Brewer III Leflore County Yazoo-Mississippi Delta Levee Board Bobby Rushing Sunflower County Receives Statewide Forestry Award David Williams Jr. Tunica County Board Honored During MS Forestry Commission’s Celebration of Trees Event Willie Gregory Coahoma County The Yazoo-Mississippi Delta Levee been planted across the state. 400,000 hardwood seedlings annually at Ralph Sewell Humphreys County Board received recognition from the Jeff Carson (pictured above far right), a seven-acre nursery owned and operated Fred Robinzine Jr. Mississippi Urban Forest Council and the Levee Board assistant forester, received by the Levee Board. Quitman County Mississippi Forestry Commission during the award on behalf of the Levee Board. Out of this harvest, 60,000 seedlings are Clarence M. Cariker Jr. the annual Celebration of Trees statewide “The Yazoo-Mississippi Delta Levee given away to public and private entities. Tunica County awards event last summer. Board is committed to bettering not only Working out of a nursery in Coahoma William H. Dodd Jr. The Yazoo-Mississippi The Levee Board has partnered with the communities where we live and serve County, Levee Board employees are Yazoo County Delta Levee District the Mississippi Urban Forest Council for but also our great state of Mississippi,” responsible for the growth and upkeep Kelly Greenwood Chief Executive Officer is a Constitutional body the past four years by providing seedlings said Sykes Sturdivant, Levee Board presi- of nine different tree varieties, includ- Chief Engineer of the State of Mississippi at educational events held by the forestry dent. “Trees play an important role in ing persimmon, cypress, magnolia, cherry domiciled in Clarksdale, council across the state. In addition, the the quality and growth of our cities and bark oak, willow oak, and water oak. Miss., Levee Board has provided trees planted towns, including aesthetic value, flood Hobart and his crew plant between 600 and is composed of all or by Urban Forest Council volunteers in reduction, and lower energy costs.” and 1,000 acres of trees per year to refor- portions of ten Delta coun- areas devastated by Hurricane Katrina. Sam Hobart, Levee Board forester, est Levee Board property. ties, namely DeSoto, Tunica, To date, more than 315,000 trees have oversees the harvesting of 300,000 to Coahoma, Sunflower, INQUIRIES TO: Quitman, Tallahatchie, The Office of the Chief Engineer Leflore, Humphreys, Holmes, c/o Kimberly B. Easley Secretary, Executive Assistant and Yazoo Counties. Each county is represented by one Outstanding Helping elected commissioner, except Maintenance Hand Telephone: 662-624-4397 the front line counties of Award Award Fax: 662-624-2450 Tunica and Coahoma, which Postal Address: P.O. Box 610 are represented by two Pictured are (left to right) Kelly Greenwood, Yazoo-Mississippi Delta Levee Board Pictured are (back row, left to right) Shane Strider, Jeff Carson, Darron Banks; Clarksdale, MS 38614 CEO; Sykes Sturdivant, Yazoo-Mississippi Delta Levee Board president; Col. Tom (front row, left to right) Garden Club President Eve Ann Boschert and commissioners each. Smith; Melissa Mullen; Loy Hamilton; and Board Attorney John Henson (seated). Yazoo-Mississippi Delta Levee Board Forester Sam Hobart. Shipping Address: 140 Delta Avenue Clarksdale, MS 38614 The Yazoo-Mississippi Delta Levee Board recently received The Yazoo-Mississippi Delta Levee Board recently received the 2009 Outstanding Maintenance Award from the Memphis a Helping Hand Award from the Clarksdale Garden Club for E-mail: [email protected] District, U.S. Army Corp of Engineers. Melissa Mullen and assisting with the beautification of Clarksdale by planting Web Site: www.leveeboard.org Loy Hamilton represented the Memphis District in the award flowers around the city. presentation. 2 3 YMDL 14084 WinterSpring.indd 3-4 12/9/10 3:42 PM HAPPENINGS Art Contest Gallery 2nd Place — Shia Cooper, Walls Elementary, Walls Teacher Workshop 3rd Place — The Delta State University Delta Center for Jennifer Garcia, Culture and Learning conducted a three-day St. Francis workshop funded by the Yazoo-Mississippi Catholic School, Delta Levee Board . Fourteen Delta State Greenwood teachers participated in the workshop on the Mississippi River and flood control . The work- Best in Show — Aubrey Williams, St. George’s Episcopal Day School, Clarksdale shop was held at the Levee Board offices, and participants also visited the site of the levee break, near Scott, that created the Great Delta Arts Alliance Contest Winners 1st Place — Aliyah Haggan, Kirkpatrick Flood of 1927 . Teachers then created a lesson This year, the Yazoo-Mississippi Delta Levee Board partnered with Delta Arts Elementary, Clarksdale plan entitled “The Mighty River and the Yazoo Alliance to hold an art contest open to any student in kindergarten through second Mississippi Delta Levee Board,” to educate grade who attended