Jackson Jambalaya

Now just wait a darn minute! I thought investigative reporting was illegal in Jackson and by any Gannett, network, or CNN owned company.

"Past mayors react to JACKON'S water crisis"

:slow blink:

“There was no investment in the 1980s and the 1970s into the infrastructure and so what you see here is a cascading effect that is having on the city leader ship now and the cities coffers.” — Tony Yarber

Essentially he is blaming Dale Danks who was mayor of Jackson from 1977–1989.

Dale Danks responds by saying that they built out the infrastructure in South Jackson when it was annexed, and they completed the O. B. Curtis water treatment facility.

Thanks KF. I enjoyed that very much.

Dale built the OB Curtis plant. I guess that don't count.

Dale also started a monthly $6 maintenance fee on water bills his successor discontinued. That fee was to maintain and improve the water system.

Yarber not know all of his facts?

Why do we waste time going back and forth about who is at fault???? Jackson has had a water problem. Jackson has a water problem. Jackson will always have a water problem.....until someone steps up and says, "F it, I am just going to fix the damn thing!" Take the help offered, and quit asking for only money.

I do not think Chokwe is good for Jackson. I would replace him immediately if I could. He's more concerned about looking like Drake than the COJ. And that type attitude has infected the COJ and spread like wildfire, so its not just Chokwe. I do believe I remember seeing a pic of Tony Yarber and his wife posted on his IG account stating "Looking rich until we get paid." This was concerning to me because it was posted at a NYE party shortly after he was elected. Hmmm, was he trying to get rich off COJ?

However, blaming this person, that admin, these people or those people, or white folks leaving, or the criminals, etc. is not accomplishing anything. We all know the COJ is on life support and will continue to be until someone drops the BS and just gets things done.

Dr. Williams' presentation states that 8% of the city water pipes are greater than/equal 100 years old. Therefore in 1980, for example, that same 8% was greater than/equal 59 years old. And yet, in the effort to make the issue one of race Lumumba, and his apologists, want to know why Danks and/or Ditto (but not Harvey Johnson, of course) were not digging up the whole damn city to replace water pipes that, at the time, were approaching the end of their useful life cycles. When Harvey arrived in 1997 that 8% was greater than/equal 76 years old and yet he did not proceed to immediately replace those same pipes.

I am doing an in-depth investigation on why you are such a bitch. My hypothesis so far? Because some of us have to be bitches, and it's just the way you are.

I appreciate them interviewing Dale Danks, but could they have recorded the interview at a time when there wasn't a jet engine being tested next door?

A brand new facility built under Danks, yet he is accused of not maintaining infrastructure. I do believe the problems started during Ditto's reign.

Melvin, please try to be a little more original. You're getting very repetitive.

EPA Report, May 2002 | Deteriorating Buried Infrastructure Management Challenges and Strategies

The rate of deterioration of a water system is not a function of material age but rather the cumulative effect of the external forces acting on it. During a recent water system valuation, 70+-year-old unlined cast iron main was found to be in excellent condition with negligible internal or external corrosion. Based on the field observations, there is no reason to believe that these mains will not provide another 70+ years of satisfactory service. Conversely, in another system, cast iron mains less than 50 years old are experiencing excessive and rapidly increasing break rates and severe corrosion activity. Planned replacement of these mains is needed in the 1
near future. Therefore, broad based decision factors regarding infrastructure replacement, whether based on age, pipe size, pipe material, linings, etc. will not result in an effective use of limited capital resources. Better information and decision making is needed.

The mayor like the president has a four year term, some decide they will extend their time and run for re-election, maybe several times. But their priority is the voter's perception of progress during their term. What happens after is someone else's problem. Dale Danks and mayors before him had a healthy tax base and had no conception of the decay and blight currently crippling the city's infrastructure. If they had a problem during their terms they had the resources to fix it...during their term. They would be widely approved for the good maintenance done while they were in office, not foreseeing problems that had not yet happened. That's the next guy's headache.

Example: What's Lumumba doing about the homeless migrants and vagrants who will take over downtown Jackson in the next twenty years. Whaaaat?

Danks, good democrat that he is, says a key solution today is 'federal dollars'.

No - a key solution would be for the city to require users to pay their damn bills. Allowing anyone who wants to receive water, flush it into the sewer, and have Waste Management pick up their garbage twice a week all for zero dollars does one thing. Lead to NO money to pay for maintaining the system.

If federal, or state dollars are to be injected into this system, then control must be ceded to either federal, or state officials. Pouring more money into the city's hands is nothing but patching a sieve with a single piece of chewing gum.


Not mentioned in Danks' conversation - the conversion from a Mayor with two Councilpeople, equal power type government to a Mayor and seven councilmen. The beginning of the end for Jackson in 1983.

"Better information and decision making is needed." Amen

@11:11 - Lumumba would have the resources to maintain and operate the water department if he utilitzed any reasonable kind of management - like disconnecting people when they didn't pay their water bills.

Yes, some of the bills were incorrect - and shouldn't make people pay those that were not properly issued. Some people didn't get a bill. But both these groups should have been required to pay at least a minimum bill, or an average of their previous bills. But no - not only those that got an incorrect bill, or didn't get one at all - NOBODY was required to pay a monthly fee for their water and sewer service.

And now - many people have large bills, due to their not having paid anything for a few years. So what is Lumumba's solution? He has gone to the legislature to get the authority to write off those bills for "people who can't pay". That way, the books won't look so bad and he can borrow more money. And his constitutents (those that he chooses) don't have to pay for years of free utilities.

And those that were straight piping - what happened to them? Nothing. They had to hook to the system and start paying (supposedly, except they were like everyone else and no penalty if they didn't.) No penalty for stealing water, and thus getting free sewer and garbage collection. Nothing. Nada. Teaching them good habits by making them hook to the meter (which is what they claim writing off their old bills will do under the legislation. Social teaching at the financial cost to the system.)

After hooking to the system, some went back to a straight pipe, sometimes installed by employees (off duty, of course) of the water department. No lessons learned, except how to avoid paying for utilities.

Fix the collection system by doing what every other utility does, and disconnect when someone doesn't pay. If Lumumba hadn't followed his ridiculous policies, the system would still have plenty of money, just like it did under Danks. And Ditto. And Johnson. And Melton. And Johnson. And Lumumba Sr. And even Yarber.

Lumumba has effectively pissed away that money through his inadequate administration of the city. But he is good at criticizing other elected officials, while holding his hand out wanting it to be blessed with OPM.

Water is a money maker in most all places except Jackson. Different is must collect for water used, real simple. A 10 year child selling KoolAid know that.

Some of you missed that South Jackson's water was repaired faster.

I, frankly, don't see the benefit of rehashing and revisiting the past.

What does the water system need now and what will it take to fix it and how can we accomplish that?

The problem with both news and politics is that problem identification and blame is easy. A sound plan to fix problems is hard and made harder by time spent wallowing in the mire.

Stop the spilt milk approach and find the mop!

What I don't get is the city figured out years ago that the wireless data collection piece didn't work. So until that got resolved why not return to manually reading meters in order to bill and collect? There were, and are, workarounds but seemingly no one with the ability to put a temporary rescue plan into action.

@10:18 AM, idiots call into Kim Wade's program and spout the same garbage. Why didn't the pipes get fixed 40-50 years ago?

People also lose sight of the fact that Jackson wasn't in charge when many of these neighborhoods were getting built. Hinds County was the governmental entity in charge. Jackson annexed many of these areas.

When a community squanders their tax base away (by prioritizing ideologies over good governance) ALL services will eventually deteriorate because of lack of funding.

Good point @12:03 - but why doesn't the wireless collection work? It works everywhere else (the same is true for billing). And don't say it's Siemens fault - they've been a part of tons of water systems across the country and THOSE all work. Gee, what could it be?

" Dale also started a monthly $6 maintenance fee on water bills his successor discontinued. That fee was to maintain and improve the water system."

That fact is very true KF.

It wouldn't have even solved the immediate water problems during Danks' watch, but at least it was healthy
start. Granted, such move was not popular ... but Dale made a first step to maintain the Jackson water/sewer system.

Kane Ditto reversed the $6.00 increase under pressure from the Back political leadership back during those days.

Speaking of Ditto ... I really don't remember anything he actually accomplished.

@ 4:22

"Speaking of Ditto ... I really don't remember anything he actually accomplished."

Ditto !.....sorry I couldn't resist.

12:07...that has nothing to do with water pipes, the water system in that annexed area has never been owned or run by Hinds County. Jackson is the certificated water supplier for areas outside of Jackson, including some of incorporated Byram. Clinton supplies water outside of Clinton city limits and parts of Clinton inside the city limits are on rural association water. Hinds County has never been certificated to supply water in any area. Sorry

"When you need an attorney...Don't cammmpromize"

Wait. Yarber is talking about planning and infrastructure?

It’s this the SAME guy that didn’t pay his mortgage to Wells Fargo and was eventually FORGIVEN by the bank?

That guy should hide his face in public.

There's an old saying, "When life gives you packs of Kool-Aid, make Kool-Aid." But when you cannot make Kool-Aid because there is no water, why would you keep adding cups of sugar to an otherwise-empty pitcher instead instead of fixing the water pipes and demanding Aid from sources who aren't responsible for your Kool. And Dale Danks' old gray ass has no more to do with water in 2021 Jackson than WT Sherman has to do with the traffic in 2021 Atlanta.

The current mayor is dumpster fire which will keep burning because there isn't any motherfucking water to put it out.

"Jackon, Jackoff - THE CRAPPER!"

Yeah, yeah, yeah, I know - I'm old, but I remember olden days when folks in a whole swath of central Mississippi had to go out to a crudely-built shed out in their yard and shit in a hole. You know, way back in...March.

Say what you will about Trump and Obama - both buck-passers extraordinaire - but best as I recall neither had the bucking gall to go back as far as Harry-bucking-Truman. Does the bucking ever bucking stop?

Interviewing Yarber about infrastructure problems? Really? Yarber had other concerns and was involved in other, ah, activities during his turn at the helm. He was drilling, but not for water. Danks had and has credibility. Yarber? Nope.

Piss Poor Planning Promotes Pain.