Carnival Prep Is A Collective Effort
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City workers (from right) Jermaine Kee and Mario Mosley along with trusties
Dee Morrow and Tim Walker cut grass in Oak Hill Cemetery Tuesday. Electric Department worker Shepp Castle (bottom photo) installed carnival banners with the help of Robby Leard (not pictured).
DAVE’S WORLD
By David Howell
It’s all hands on deck in the city as the final push to make the city spic and span for the big carnival weekend is underway.
That was Mayor Donald Gray’s words – spic and span – and we all know how good the city looks each summer for the biggest event in the county. Mayor Gray explained that the preparation is a collective effort that includes all of the city departments, the Water Valley Area Chamber of Commerce and residents in the city.
Gray also noted that we are at crunch time as the carnival is only a little over two weeks away. The electric department crew was busy Tuesday morning replacing the Fourth of July banners that line the streets with carnival banners. Their carnival duties also include checking electrical outlets in City Park and behind Renasant Bank for the barbecue contest.
The police department is gearing up with hiring extra officers for the weekend. The fire department handles plenty of miscellaneous details.
Mike Scroggins heads up the street, parks, cemetery and sanitation departments and his crews are the busiest. The biggest chore is keeping all the grass cut, especially with an unusually wet July. On Tuesday he was out with his crew at the cemetery. He explained that a lot of people come home for the carnival and check on the grave sites where their loved ones are buried.
Scroggins’ crews also tackle some of the eyesores in the city, private residences that are overgrown and have been condemned by the city. He also reaches out to the Mississippi Department of Transportation each year to request a special grass cutting on the Hwy. 7 bypass.
Scroggins urged everyone in the city to help with a couple of simple tasks – pick up the trash along the street in front of your house and cut the grass between the sidewalk and curb at your house.
“The city would deeply appreciate it,” Scroggins said. “We have 70 miles of streets to cover.”
This year the city added a new item to the lengthy list of carnival preparations – renovation work at City Hall.
“It still has the same carpet that it had when I started in 1976,” Scroggins explained.
The work started in the mayor’s office on the east side of City Hall after a leak caused water damage that was compounded by termites. Scroggins’ crews are helping with the demolition in city hall as the effort continues room by room. Fire Chief Mark McGavock is the floor man, replacing that 40-plus-year-old carpet. Mayor Gray was in charge of painting his office.
After retiring from Farm Bureau last month, the mayor explained he has more time for projects at home and in the city. Years ago when he was a schoolteacher he supplemented his salary with painting jobs, especially in the summer months.
“But I think I lost my touch,” Gray joked. “This physical labor is a little different now.”
Yep, it is a collective effort that makes Water Valley shine for the carnival. That effort includes the smallest details, poisoning the fire ants in the park or a new floor and paint in city hall. That includes the herculean job of cutting miles and miles of street rights-of-way.
“It takes a lot of man-hours,” Gray added about all of the work. “And it is a hot July, I hope all of our citizens appreciate our hard-working city crews.”
