Jackson Jambalaya

The rich people screw over the poor people once again.

Maybe so but who are you going to blame for your getting screwed out of a brain?

Keep that up and I'll support One (or Two?) lakes just to drain their little pond for 10+ years until it refills.

7:08 go jump into the rez and kiss an alligators rear.

Doesn't look like anyone took the time to read the reply letter...

It was a VERY small group of leaseholders as well.


mountains... molehills... etc

Back in the late 70's, the bruthuhs and sistuhs were taking over the free park managed by the PRVWSD on Old Canton Road. Loud obnoxious music, trash talking and the like.

They solved this problem, and it is solved to this day, by simply charging $1 per car....PER CAR....for entrance to the park.

POOF. Problem solved. Unbelievable.

9:16....The park back then was referred to as "Cocoa Beach".

Thanks for walk down memory lane.

As one who signed the letter to the PRVWSD let me provide some history.

The mini-parks are located in the older subdivisions along Spillway Rd. known as the South Shore of Pelahatchie Bay. When the PRVWSD developed those subdivisions the parks/launches were designated for the PRIVATE USE of the residents in those subdivisions.

You lease a lot/home in a subdivision (Audubon Point, for example) - you have access to a private park.

The PRV even provided bumper stickers for the residents as a way to identify who had access to the parks.

In the mid 1980's the PRVWSD took the parks from the residents and made them public.
This was the result of a lawsuit settled by the PRVWSD agreeing not to use public funds for private use.

The PRVWSD found away around this for the subdivisions built on the North Shore, which still have private parks - by the way.

The older subdivisions? The PRVWSD simply turned the parks into public parks.

Essentially breaking a commitment made to the leaseholders on the South Shore.

Today the parks generate high rates of non-resident traffic into and out of private subdivisions.

Trash and noise is also a problem. The parks are adjacent to private homes - not exactly a ideal location for a public park.

The South Shore residents are simply looking for a way to solve the problem and get back something that was taken from them.

Other suggestions have been made, some want to close the parks altogether. One homeowner association is exploring the possibility of leasing the park and turning back into a private park.


Jim McDowell
President
Reservoir Leaseholders Association.

Those mini-parks were originally limited to use by neighborhood residents. I'm sure there are plenty of people who wouldn't necessarily have bought or "leased" so near to a public park had they known that the restriction would be lifted. The problems have become more than just heavy traffic and I hope PRV and leaseholders can come up with a fair solution.

I have been a resident on South Shore and North Shore. I have paid a fee for over 20 years to live in this area and lived on a canal area close to a mini-park or I would call a boat launch. We had the worst of the worst driving thru our neighborhood looking for a free place to put their boats it. There was always trash left behind and undesirable people that seemed to case my neighborhood.

We pay fees to live here and enjoy the water. Others should use the public launches and stay out of the neighborhoods.

As a resident, I have always wondered what the thousands of dollars I pay them goes toward. That is the BIG QUESTION.

I anything is truly "public" and left up to the "public" to maintain, it becomes a pig pen overnight, and especially here in this redneck ass state.

Jim McDowell:
Apparently the PRVWSD followed the settlement reached by the lawsuit over using public funds to maintain private parks. Exactly how did the PRVWSD find a way around this use of public tax dollars for the "private" parks built on land leased from the public?
After all, the reservoir was built on the premise that it would be for the use of the public? Which, of course, raises the question over how public land used for fishing, over near where the Dock was and the Breakers are, is somehow covered with "no trespassing" signs? Is the lake public, or not? Who approved the wholesale taking of the land by the Breakers?

Someone want to cite an example of a Private Park on the Northshore?

I'll try again.

I thought the new public park in "Fondren" would help ease the overflow to the other "public parks" outside
of the Capitol "City of Jackson" .

The leaseholders are having to pay for trash pickup. If the general public is allowed to use parks kept clean by leaseholders, why not charge a fee for every boat launched from a park the leaseholders must pay to clean. I'd say $100 per boat and $20 per occupant of the boat. Then the "rich" leaseholders won't have to pay for the mess left be the "poor" boat owners.

6:41
If you "rich" leaseholders are having to pay additional fees for the PRVWSD to clean up these PUBLIC parks, then I would have to say that your beef is with the PRVWSD. Or better yet, perhaps the PRVWSD should raise the lease amount of you people that are living in prime land on the tax payers backs. We built that lake, not you. You just enjoy the lifestyle afforded you by the "poor" people of the state that subsidize you, asshole.

Maybe the fact that once busy ramps like Main Harbor are now plastered with no trespassing signs is pushing more and more people to use the ramps that they didn't used to frequent. Correct me if I'm wrong about Main Harbor, is it still open to the public? All other ramps seem to be busier and busier. There seems to be a clash coming between those that feel entitled and those that used to be able to use areas that are being closed off. First they got rid of the Dock, now it's time to close off the rest of the West side of the lake and get rid of the riff-raff.

1:21,
How about Bridgepointe. There you go, oh wait you will not see it because the neighborhood is gated!!!!!

There are public launch sites across from Rapids, Fannin Landing Circle, Main Harbor and at the old Dock location. You can even go up 43 and drop it in at Tommy's Trading Post. There is one on 471. There are plenty of places to drop your vessel in the lake. Just not in the neighborhoods.

THANKS JIM FOR YOUR LETTER!!!!!
8:26,
when is the last time that the "POOR" have subsidized anything, ASSHOLE? that would be an oxymoron.

Wow. Such nastiness on both sides!

I am sympathetic toward both points of view, but I have lean toward the residents. I would wager that those griping about these parks being "our land" and all do not use these parks.

It's not as if there are no parks available to boaters, picnickers, etc. Someone above mentioned several, and Pelahatchie Shore Park, Lakeshore Park and Brown's Landing offer much more amenable picnic settings compared to these small pocket parks.

If the residents are somehow able to fight city hall and close off their parks, I won't lose any sleep of my restricted access to those places.

Screw the po ass general public. Get off your redneck asses, but down the 1 pm beer, put yo fat ass redneck wife on a diet, go to college, get a career and create wealth. Get OFF my tit.

8:26
Who told you the Reservoir was built with taxpayer money? If you don't know what you're talking about, STFU.

Thank you 9:59. I needed that. Perfect (and ditto)

Rez leaseholders are taxpayers, too. They pay extra to live there and should reap certain benefits accordingly. That is fair. As previous posters have mentioned, there are plenty of boat launch/park alternatives for the general public to enjoy- and that were built to accomodate the larger public, without forcing the South Shore residents to open up their (typically modest) neighborhood resources for all.

I live 6 houses down from a mini park/boat ramp in pelahatchie bay. our hoa is one of the ones trying to take our boat ramp back. the reason? on any given saturday morning i can hear radios and boat motors at 6am. which is no biggie to me i'm up anyway, but i imagine it gets on the nerves of the people who live next door. any given weekend during the summer you can go to the boat launch and find trash, used condoms, fishing line and anything else that was used that day that the thoughtful boater left for someone else to clean up.(nice to see this when you are walking your 4 year old niece through the park) ever seen a person pull a boat behind his truck at 50 mph? in a subdivision? with a 25mph speed limit?...you can...any given weekend in my neighborhood. not to mention the 4th of july and pepsi pops when they think its ok to park in the street where you can barely squeeze by. most of these same people who do this are the very same ones that turn their noses up at the no wake zones put in place by prv. they weren't put their just to see how fast you can go by them, they are placed there for your safety and to help protect the seawalls of the people who live on the water, and to keep boats from banging on piers and seawalls.
do the homeowners have a gripe? yes we do. and i'll lead the charge on shutting down the mini parks/boat launches. we pay taxes AND lease hold fees to live where we do, we ought to have a say into what goes on in our own neighborhoods.

ps...i was poor one time too, i got off my butt and got a JOB, ya'll who are griping about that need to try the JOB thing ....who knows, you could be living on the water and griping about the noise and trash yourselves!.....chris

I hear ya, 4:10. I also live on the South Shore and only a few houses down from our neighborhood boat launch. I don't think my neighborhood has it as bad as yours but there are definitely problems with trash and noise. To make matters worse, of the houses closest to the launch, I believe most are occupied by senior citizens and some are the original builders of the homes. For sure, they are getting more than they bagained for with their "prime" location.

I really hope we can get our parks and launches back to private use only. We work hard to pay to live here and enjoy life on the water and I think a certain amount of nuisance is to be expected and just comes with the territory. We have occasional problems with folks playing insanely loud (and sometimes profane) music at all hours, ignoring the no wake zones, cursing like crazy and operating watercraft recklessly. Usually they are drunk college kids who enjoyed the water a little too long that day...We try not to get too uptight about most of these things because they are the exception. Most all of the boaters are friendly, respectful and law-abiding. However, expecting our neighborhood facilities to be open for public use is something I won't ignore. Hopefully the Reservoir Leaseholder Association can help facilitate change.

My point: We are not trying to be stingy with the Rez or pretend to have superior rights over others to enjoy the water. We just want to protect our neighbors, the neighborhoods as a whole and the peaceful way of life we moved here to enjoy.

Best comment yet....

Doesn't look like anyone took the time to read the reply letter...

It was a VERY small group of leaseholders as well.


mountains... molehills... etc

Small group tells me is a bunch of old farts who have little or nothing to do except bitch and moan. Fact is, they have not started HOA's like the NorthShore. Why? Why go the route of extremism of trying to disprove the validity of the PRV?

No conspiracy here folks...keep walking... soon enough the debate will be a faint blip.

Bunch of blue coller losers. booooo hoooooo.

Is a blue "coller" like a blue collie?

I'd bet the blue collar on my shirt it isn't!

You would have to have a job to call us a bunch of blue collar losers.

Please ... can we leave out the name calling...

OK. BLUE COLLAR LOSERS. IS THAT A NAME?