It's crunch time for the Jackson garbage crisis with the mayor and the city council in a game of chicken. The looming specter of garbage piling up in the streets of Jackson is getting close to reality.
Jackson Mayor Chokwe Lumumba refuses to recommend Waste Management even though it scored the best, by 17 percent, on the mayor's own Request For Proposal (RFP) assessment process, according to city council president Ashby Foote.
The mayor has backed Richard's Disposal, the current contractor, from the start. A Northside Sun online poll shows residents prefer Waste Management over Richard's Disposal by a 5 to 1 margin.
The city is now seeking an injunction in Hinds County Chancery Court allowing the council to proceed with picking the second bidder, since the council rejected the first and the mayor has refused to submit another proposal.
The council has asked the court for an expedited ruling given the emergency. Earlier this month, the council prevailed over the mayor legally, when the state supreme court ruled unanimously in the council's favor. Even so, Lumumba has refused to back down.
The mayor's RFP process scored three garbage bidders on a variety of metrics, only 35 percent of which was price. Foote presented documents at a press conference today showing that Waste Management scored the best overall, even though Richard's Disposal was lowest purely on price.
Foote said he couldn't understand Lumumba's refusal to approve Waste Management despite the company's winning score on the mayor's own test, which was rated and analyzed by Lumumba's hand-picked staff.
Now a crisis is coming. Richard's Disposal is stating that they are planning to quit picking up garbage and Waste Management isn't ready or even willing to step into the void. A disaster is in the making. Deshun Martin, legal counsel for the city council, said the city council has voted against Richard's Disposal eight times and is unlikely to change its stance.
It was a beautiful day for Jackson’s Hal’s St. Paddy’s Day parade. The weather was perfect. The crowd was great.
Jackson only has one big parade a year, so I make it a point to attend. Everyone should.
A few years ago, I was ashamed by my lack of appropriate attire, so I ordered a bunch of whacky green stuff. Now I’ve got it down. It made the day so much more fun.
There’s something about the Jackson St. Paddy’s Day parade that warms the cockles of my heart. There’s no way you can attend the parade and not feel good about the future of race relations in Jackson. Everybody was dressed in green. Awesome Irish attire abounded. Everybody was smiling, celebrating, cooking, eating, drinking, catching beads and laughing.
It may initially seem surprising to find a huge St. Paddy’s Day parade in a city that’s 80 percent African American. But realize that the average African American has 25 percent European ancestry and much of that is Irish. Ireland is definitely part of African American heritage, especially down south where there is twice as much Irish and Scotch blood than English blood.
I took a ton of photos and posted them to “Friends” — the Northside Sun’s local social media alternative to Facebook. I urge Northsiders to check it out at northsidesun.com. Click on the Friends menu item.
You can actually make money posting to Friends. Dozens of Northsiders are doing it and getting paid right now.
It is truly amazing to me that this country has allowed Big Tech to literally track our every word and click and then sell this information to the highest bidder. How did this come to be? It’s illegal to tap someone’s phone yet tracking their every keystroke is perfectly fine???
Anyway, being part of the Resistance, Friends is my anti-snooping, anti-tracking local alternative to Fakebook. Give it a try.
But I digress.
The highlight of the parade was when parade founder Malcolm White caught my eye and surveyed my outfit. He came over, shook my hand and complimented me. What an honor!
I was actually in the first St. Paddy’s Day parade eons ago. All we had was a flatbed trailer. We all had big poster board signs with numbers on them. When the parade would pause, we would motion for someone to approach the trailer and then flash the signs, as though we were rating them (we each only had one number so we really weren’t rating anybody.) Definitely a low budget float but we had a lot of good clean fun.
I’m glad the Jackson parade is low-key and not overly indulgent with fancy floats and everybody trying to outdo the next. To me, Jackson’s St. Paddy’s Day parade hits a sweet spot: Just have fun, keep it simple and enjoy the day.
Sadly, the day was marred by a shooting, which left two innocent bystanders dead. The horror.
The shooter was probably drunk and enraged. He was fighting with his girlfriend. A bystander intervened and the shooting began. How tragic for everyone, including the shooter and his family, whose lives are now ruined. I cannot fathom the grief of those who lost family and friends. Peace be with you.
Sin is part of human nature. Drugs and alcohol distort our judgment and lower our inhibitions. Disaster can ensue. If you can’t handle it, don’t touch it.
