Letters to the Editor

IDD Awareness Month Observed In March Editor: March is national Intellec-tual/Developmental Dis-abilities Awareness Month. In Mississippi, an estimated 42,000 persons have intellectual and developmental disabilities ranging from mild (requiring minimal supports) to severe (sometimes requiring 24-hour, seven-day-a-week care). Agencies operating under authority of the Mississippi Department of Mental Health provide services to assist these individuals…

City Fears Bars That Sell Beer Dear Editor,             The reason behind the new beer ordinance is not to raise revenue for the city (they’ve cut that part), nor to prohibit single-can sales (ditto), nor to require beer served only with food (ditto), nor to regulate restrooms (“grandfathered in,” so we’re told). I suspect the…

Original Ordinance Hastily Done Dear Editor,              Signage is one of the many flawed provisions in the new beer ordinance. Mayor Hart talked about it at the last Board meeting, as the Herald reported. “The rationale, [the Mayor] believed, was to hold down on some of the things you see in some towns. ‘Banners flying…

Officials Don’t Trust Citizens Dear Editor,             Nothing against my bourbon-drinking friends, but the State of Mississippi understands that beer is less harmful, and more widely enjoyed, than hard liquor. That is why, even though hard liquor cannot be sold on Sundays in Mississippi, our cities are explicitly given the authority to allow beer sales…

Dear Editor,             I am writing to address my concerns over the continuing discontent over the most recent beer & light wine ordinance for Water Valley. I have attended both Board of Aldermen meetings, in January & February 2015, where the ordinance was addressed by members of the public, and I anxiously await the revised…

Help Needed For Dyslexic School Children Dear Editor,   Autism affects one in 52 or two percent of the population, dyslexia affects one in five or 20%. Despite the mountain of research for the child with dyslexia we are stopped at the door by Special Education Adminis-trators, without effort or knowledge to guide a parent in…

Poorly Crafted Ordinance Needs Undoing Dear Editor,  Nine businesses in Water Valley deal with beer. They represent a spectrum of wholesale, retail, manufacture, on-premise consumption, and off-premise consumption. Each is subject to numerous federal, state, and county regulations.  One would think that if our city was going to impose an additional set of regulations on…

Church Waiver Reduces Value Of Business Dear Editor,     A “church waiver,” supposedly, was the sole reason for creating Water Valley’s new beer ordinance, to accommodate someone who planned to open a restaurant here. The waiver creates a way for a beer-selling restaurant to be closer than 150 feet from a church. Well, that sounds…

New Beer Ordinance Has Many Problems Dear Editor,     Water Valley’s new anti-business beer ordinance has many, many problems. Let’s take just one of the 24 sections in the ordinance (the last beer ordinance had 14).     SIGNAGE. The new ordinance forbids any beer sign that is visible from the street. If a storekeeper has…

TVA Fuel Adjustment Cost Questioned By Utility User Dear Sir,    As I was averaging my City of Water Valley Utility bills for the last year I was shocked to see that we paid almost $500 for the “TVA Fuel Cost Adjustment,” this seems to me to be excessive for any utility company.    There…