Mississippi
Mississippi Overlook Park access could improve with grant application
BAXTER — Greater access to Mississippi Overlook Park is where Baxter City Council members voted to start as they approved applying for federal grants.
The park’s 60 acres and the 820 acres next to it are city-owned property in southwest Baxter. It is open to the public but getting to the park overlooking the river and its shoreline facilities means walking a half-mile or a mile distance after parking on a dead-end residential street.
The council was presented with an opportunity to apply in a partnership with Sylvan Township for $10 million in federal grants to assist with the development of the trail, which could be part of the Camp Ripley Veterans State Trail, with statewide implications for connections to other trail systems. For the City Council, the decision came with the understanding there would be staff time needed as Baxter would serve as the fiscal agent and city costs associated with the project.
Ultimately, the council decided to go with a smaller option to start, identified as Option A with additional land acquisition, which would add greater access to Mississippi Overlook Park with a road, parking area, extending a dry pipe for future water and sewer, and a paved trail that connects to the Paris Road and Jasperwood intersection to link with the Paul Bunyan State Trail. The grant application is for the Baxter/Sylvan Township Community Trail Grant Project, which consists of the capital improvements in Baxter and capital improvements proposed by Sylvan Township.
The council heard
presentations and talked about options through several previous meetings
and in previous long-term planning discussions for the 60-acre park and 820 acres of public land next to it.
Contributed / City of Baxter
Baxter’s land use plan identifies south Baxter as a potential corridor for a future east/west trail, and new federal money is available to build trails and recreational facilities that gain from Camp Ripley’s Sentinel Landscape designation. A trail system, with Sylvan Township and Baxter each taking parts to connect it, is expected to have a price tag of about $10 million. That trail system could also take on a larger role as the Camp Ripley Veterans State Trail gains traction.
Renee Richardson / Brainerd Dispatch
What was different at the Tuesday, Feb. 20, City Council meeting was public feedback as property owners who live by the parkland said they only recently heard about the grant application option, money for the access road and trail, along with the potential need to buy property for it. The engineer’s estimate for total funding of eligible costs for the project was listed at $3,383,384 in 2024 with total city costs estimated to be $507,507. Those costs were similar if slightly higher for the funding year 2025.
Property owners said they should have been notified and found out about the meeting through a neighbor. Trevor Walter, public works director and city engineer, said if the council voted for the application, which may or may not be awarded to the city, the plan was to notify property owners. Walter also said the plan for southwest Baxter land was the subject of previous public meetings.
Tim Speier / Brainerd Dispatch
Dain Barrett said the whole area was once all Barrett land and now they have the last piece on the other side of where the access to Mississippi Overlook Park is proposed. Barrett told the council they have people on their property who don’t know where the public land ends and private begins, even though the land is posted as private. He said something needs to be done with more law enforcement in the area, noting people are trespassing routinely and using the land the wrong way. He pointed to potential conflicts with people on the trail and firearms hunting in the same area.
John Ring said his interest was Red River Drive, which continues to have safety concerns and should be a priority in funding. That area was part of the overall project but not included in the first phase of funding.
Dean Renneke proposed alternate routes, such as using Oakwood, for the access he said the city had not considered following the power line and using an existing easement and using Oakdale. The city noted a study that determined the best way to bring the public to the park was to use Jasperwood instead of using a residential neighborhood.
What they all agreed upon was their description of the public property as a phenomenal and beautiful area.
The city noted the grant application is a concept with a cost estimate and an application deadline of April 1. Mayor Darrel Olson said they looked at the grant opportunity and may not receive it but there is still time to talk about fine-tuning. He thanked the residents for being there. Council member Jeff Phillips said the residents brought up good points and he suggested they sit down with the police department and talk about the issues specific to this area.
About the park, land and project
The 880-acre area includes 50-foot-high rolling hills of high quality natural land that features high biodiversity forests and wetlands, 1 mile of frontage along Pike Creek, and ownership entirely surrounding Island Lake. The city of Baxter received the land through a combination of a land donation and various acquisitions through grant funding from the U.S. Department of Defense Readiness and Environmental Protection Integration Program and the Environmental and Natural Resources Trust Fund, among others.
The city has
studied the park and used consultants to develop a master plan
for the land with the idea of silent sports, educational opportunities, camping, greater park accessibility and potential soccer fields. Another part of the master plans was a future Camp Ripley Veterans State Trail, which is a legislatively authorized state trail.
The Veterans Trail’s master plan envisions a multi-use trail system, which can mean motorized and non-motorized in different areas, that would link the Soo Line Trail south of Little Falls to Crow Wing State Park and the Paul Bunyan State Trail. The Veterans trail would link the Central Lakes, Lake Wobegon, Soo Line, Paul Bunyan, Heartland and Mi-Gi-Zi trails into one continuous recreational route, as stated in the
executive summary of the trail alignment and development
.
Renee Richardson, managing editor, may be reached at 218-855-5852 or renee.richardson@brainerddispatch.com. Follow on Twitter at @DispatchBizBuzz.
Subscribe to the Clarion Ledger
If you are not a subscriber, consider subscribing now. You will also get access to the Clarion Ledger’s E-Edition, the electronic replica of the print publication along with print archives. The E-edition is also available on our app.
USA Today Network
A former federal attorney was arrested and charged with arson after a building and dumpster were set on fire Friday, Feb. 27, in the Fondren area of Jackson, authorities said.
Jackson Fire Department Chief of Investigations Charles Felton said firefighters responded around 12 a.m. Friday in reference to a reported building fire and dumpster fire at Yana Club of Mississippi located at 555 Hartsfield Street.
Felton said fire crews arrived and found two separate fires in the Fondren neighborhood that caused damage to the Yana Club and the dumpster.
No injuries were reported.
After the fires were extinguished, a fire investigator was called to the scene. Investigators spoke with Capitol Police, who had a suspect detained.
Felton said the Jackson Fire Department Arson Division arrested George McDowell Yoder III, a former federal attorney, and charged him with first-degree arson of Yana Club and third-degree arson of the dumpster.
In 2021, WDAM TV reported Yoder had been a special assistant U.S. attorney for the Southern District of Mississippi from 2009 to 2011. Yoder also ran unsuccessfully as a candidate for the Mississippi Court of Appeals in 2016.
According to a 2023 article by the Laurel Leader Call, Yoder was arrested in 2021 for residential burglary and faced multiple charges from 2021 to 2023. Yoder was also arrested in 2023 for arson charges, the outlet reported.
Documents from the Supreme Court of Mississippi also indicate that Yoder was admitted to the practice of law in the state in 1999 but later suspended in 2022 from practicing law for three years.
Court records show Yoder was found to be accepting fees from clients, abandoning them and then failing to deposit their retainers into a trust account. Yoder “commingled” his personal money with those of his clients and performed little to no work on a Madison County criminal case he was hired to resolve.
Jackson fire officials also said that a fire did not occur Friday morning at The Pig & Pint, a barbecue business located next to Yana Club.
Yana Club of Mississippi, a nonprofit organization, is described via their Facebook page as a “recovery community” that serves individuals seeking help with addictions.
The organization confirmed at 10:23 a.m. Friday via a social media post that the Yana Club building will be closed due to damages sustained from the fire.
“Due to the safety of our members, we will be closed through the weekend,” the organization stated. “We are working with [the] fire department and insurance to determine the best course of action. The building is currently deemed unsafe for meetings to be held. We will be in touch with updates when we have them.”
Pam Dankins is the breaking news reporter for the Clarion Ledger. Have a tip? Email her at pdankins@gannett.com.
LAUREL, Miss. (WDAM) – A world-renowned dance instructor from New York visited Laurel Thursday to conduct a special class and do some recruiting for a prestigious summer dance program in the Big Apple.
Melanie Person, who is co-director of the Ailey School in New York, taught a master ballet class Thursday morning at Laurel Middle School.
It’s part of a three-day residency in the Magnolia State, organized by the Mississippi Arts + Entertainment Experience in Meridian.
She’ll teach two other classes Friday in Meridian before hosting an audition Saturday for a prestigious summer dance program at the Ailey School.
“I typically tour in about six to eight cities in the U.S., and I recruit dancers to come to our summer intensive, so part of this weekend, in one of the classes, I will be accepting students to come to New York for our five-week summer intensive,” Person said.
“We accept the dancers we like, and we see if they are able to come. The decision to come to New York for the summer is a big undertaking for families, so we just hope that they can do it.”
Registration is required for that audition, which will be held at the Mississippi Arts + Entertainment Experience.
To do that, click HERE.
Want more WDAM 7 news in your inbox? Click here to subscribe to our newsletter.
Copyright 2026 WDAM. All rights reserved.
Mississippi State has won plenty of different ways during this 15-1 start, but Wednesday night in Atlanta felt like one of those games where the Bulldogs reminded everyone why they’ve looked so steady all month.
It wasn’t perfect, and it wasn’t stress‑free, but the 8-3 win over Georgia Tech was the kind of road win that shows a team knows exactly who it is and what buttons to push when things get a little weird.
Alyssa Faircloth set the tone again, even on a night when she didn’t have her cleanest beginning. She gave up a game‑tying homer in the second, shrugged, and then basically disappeared Georgia Tech’s lineup for the next three innings.
Eight strikeouts in nine batters the second time through the order, back‑to‑back innings striking out the side. The only real hiccup came on another leadoff homer in the sixth, and by then she’d already done the heavy lifting.
And while Faircloth was settling in, the lineup did what it’s been doing all year: spreading the damage around.
Des Rivera wasted no time, jumping on the first pitch of the second inning and sending it out. When Georgia Tech tied it, Nadia Barbary answered immediately with a solo shot of her own. It wasn’t loud or flashy, but it was the kind of response good teams make without thinking.
The middle innings were more about pressure than power. Barbary worked a walk, Kiarra Sells split the gap for an RBI double, and Anna Carder did her job with a sac fly. Suddenly it was 4-1, and Mississippi State had the game exactly where it wanted it with Faircloth cruising, the lineup stacking quality at‑bats, and the defense staying clean.
The seventh inning, though, is where the Bulldogs turned a solid win into a comfortable one. Sells homered again, and then Rivera and Tatum Silva kept the inning alive long enough for Morgan Bernardini to drop the hammer. Her three‑run shot to center didn’t just put the game away; it capped off the kind of night she’s been stringing together for a week now. She’s 7‑for‑11 during her four‑game hitting streak and looks like a hitter who’s seeing everything in slow motion.
Peja Goold handled the final outs, picking up her second save and slamming the door on a Georgia Tech team that kept trying to make things interesting late.
What stands out most about this win isn’t the four homers or the 11 strikeouts or even the 15-1 record. It’s how routine it all felt.
Mississippi State went on the road, took a couple of punches, and never looked rattled. Rivera homered. Barbary homered. Sells homered. Bernardini homered. Faircloth dominated. Goold closed. It was the same formula, just in a different ballpark.
Now the Bulldogs head to Clemson for a weekend that should tell us even more about who they are. But if Wednesday night is any indication, they’re traveling with a lineup that can hurt you anywhere and a pitching staff that doesn’t mind carrying the load when needed.
DAWG FEED:
Sheriff’s Office backpedals on controversial facial recognition deal
Soccer Frenzy: Cities, Fans, and What to Know | Futbol HQ
Fan behind Anthony Edwards’ orange bracelet has beaten cancer
New bridge over 96th Street adds to Nickel Plate Trail connections
Pittsburgh International’s T. rex could soon disappear from view
Florida High School Football Rankings: Top 25 teams – Oct. 21
Cleary's 21 help Le Moyne down Central Connecticut State 69-64 in OT
How old is Bo Nix? What to know about Oregon quarterback ahead of 2024 NFL Draft
99th annual Pony Swim held in Virginia
Indiana Members Credit Union announced as new anchor tenant at Bottleworks District
Where Iran’s ballistic missiles can reach — and how close they are to the US
Has India’s influence in Afghanistan grown under the Taliban?
Bill Clinton to testify before House committee investigating Epstein links
Read Judge Schiltz’s Order
Vulnerable House Dem lashes out at Trump’s ‘racist’ SOTU challenge: ‘That was uncomfortable’
-
World2 days agoExclusive: DeepSeek withholds latest AI model from US chipmakers including Nvidia, sources say
-
Massachusetts2 days agoMother and daughter injured in Taunton house explosion
-
Montana1 week ago2026 MHSA Montana Wrestling State Championship Brackets And Results – FloWrestling
-
Oklahoma1 week agoWildfires rage in Oklahoma as thousands urged to evacuate a small city
-
Louisiana5 days agoWildfire near Gum Swamp Road in Livingston Parish now under control; more than 200 acres burned
-
Denver, CO2 days ago10 acres charred, 5 injured in Thornton grass fire, evacuation orders lifted
-
Technology6 days agoYouTube TV billing scam emails are hitting inboxes
-
Technology6 days agoStellantis is in a crisis of its own making