Mississippi

Vicksburg District kicks off revetment season – The Vicksburg Post

Published

2 hours ago

August 30, 2024

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Vicksburg District kicks off revetment season

Published 12:12 pm Thursday, August 29, 2024

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The MSU crew joins in prayer for protection and safety during their season, led by crew member Carl Young.

Vicksburg District employees Renee Everage and Mary Bryan hold signs with well wishes for the MSU crew at the City Waterfront Tuesday. (Photos courtesy of USACE Vicksburg District)

Col. Jeremiah Gipson, right, speaks with Cary Young, MSU crew member, before departure.

Friends, family, and colleagues gather at the City Waterfront Tuesday to offer their support as the MSU begins its season.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) Vicksburg District’s Mat Sinking Unit (MSU) officially began the annual revetment season on the Mississippi River Tuesday, where the crew was greeted by cheers from family, friends, and colleagues at the Vicksburg City Waterfront as they set off on their multi-month tour.

The MSU typically performs revetment operations during low-water months (July-December), when the Vicksburg gage is at 27’ and falling.

USACE officials said the MSU places hundreds of thousands of articulated concrete mats, or revetments, along the Mississippi River. This work is crucial, USACE said, for protecting flood control structures, preventing erosion, and maintaining navigable waterways within the project authorized area including 953 miles from Cairo, Ill., to above Head of Passes, which is considered to be the mouth of the Mississippi River.

USACE Vicksburg District Commander Col. Jeremiah Gipson emphasized the project’s importance.

“The Mat Sinking Unit, and the teammates who perform the work, are essential for both flood risk management and ensuring reliable, navigable waterways for commercial vessels,” Gipson said. “The Mississippi River is a vital part of our national infrastructure, and our mission remains to secure our nation, energize the economy, and reduce disaster risk.”

USACE said the mat sinking crew includes a diverse range of seasonal professions, such as clerks, deck hands, drag line operators, electricians, gantry crane operators, mechanics, quarter boat utility operators, stewards, surveyors, tying tool operators and repairers, tractor drivers, truck drivers, and winchmen. These roles are integral to the success of the operation and the stability of the Mississippi River, officials added.

The crew is made up of approximately 300 men and women.

Revetment Section Chief John Mark Henderson said the work the crew will do in invaluable both locally and nationally.

“The MSU and its team of skilled revetment workers install critical armament to the banks of the Lower Mississippi River, to protect our levees and provide for a safe, efficient navigable channel,” he said. “Our most valuable asset is the people performing this difficult and challenging task. The team is commended for their selfless service and dedication to this vital mission.”

The USACE Vicksburg District continues to tackle some of the nation’s most challenging engineering problems, officials said. Spanning a 68,000-square-mile area across Mississippi, Arkansas, and Louisiana, the district manages nine major river basins and approximately 460 miles of mainline Mississippi River levees. With approximately 1,100 employees, the Vicksburg District is engaged in numerous projects aimed at addressing complex water resource challenges.

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Mississippi

Man wanted for Mississippi homicide arrested in Pearl

Published

9 hours ago

August 30, 2024

Press Room

Man wanted for Mississippi homicide arrested in Pearl

PEARL, Miss. (WJTV) – A man wanted in connection to a Lauderdale County homicide was arrested in Pearl.

Pearl police said officers stopped a Chevy Camaro around 1:00 a.m. on Thursday, August 29 for speeding on Interstate 20.

Man to appear in federal court for abducted child case

During the traffic stop, officers said they discovered that the driver, Onorious Earl Campbell, was wanted for homicide out of Lauderdale County.

Campbell was arrested without incident and transported to the Rankin County Jail.

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Mississippi

Mississippi State, Lebby begin new chapter against an EKU squad seeking first win vs. SEC

Published

19 hours ago

August 29, 2024

Press Room

Mississippi State, Lebby begin new chapter against an EKU squad seeking first win vs. SEC

Eastern Kentucky at Mississippi State, Saturday, 6 p.m. ET (SEC+, ESPN+)

BetMGM College Football Odds: No line.

Series: First meeting.

WHAT’S AT STAKE?

Jeff Lebby begins as Mississippi State’s third head coach in as many seasons, aiming to lift the Bulldogs from a 5-6 finish in 2023 that included the firing of Zach Arnett after starting 4-6. Eastern Kentucky seeks its first win against a Southeastern Conference in nine tries and its first against an FBS team since beating Bowling Green 59-57 in a seven-overtime thriller two years ago, which tied for the second longest game in Division I history.

KEY MATCHUP

MSU’s offense vs. EKU’s defense. The Bulldogs have switched from a pro-set scheme to the spread offense under Lebby, the former Oklahoma coordinator, who will call plays. MSU averaged 328.6 yards per game last season to rank 101st in FBS. More important is how 11 new starters will execute that system with former Texas Tech quarterback Blake Shapen debuting behind center. The Colonels are more experienced by comparison but face a huge challenge slowing down MSU after yielding 476.4 yards per game in 2023 and ranking 120th of 122 FCS teams.

PLAYERS TO WATCH

EKU quarterback Matt Morrissey succeeds longtime signal caller Parker McKinney and is entrusted to maintain a potent Colonels offense that ranked eighth in FCS at 437.4 yards per game last season. The Western Illinois transfer threw for 1,981 yards and 13 TDs in 2023 and earned All-Missouri Valley Conference honorable mention honors.

Shapen takes over behind center for record-setter Will Rogers, who transferred to Washington. Shapen battled injuries but passed for 5,574 yards and 36 touchdowns in three seasons at Baylor and helped the Bears win the Big 12 Conference championship game three years ago.

FACTS & FIGURES

EKU has one of the nation’s top kickers in senior Patrick Nations, a preseason All-American selection who tied for first in FCS with 1.73 field goals per game with a 76% conversion rate. … The Colonels went 5-4 against FCS foes with an average point differential of 4.8 per contest. … MSU has won seven consecutive openers since 2017, including three in a row at home. … The Bulldogs have 18 “super seniors” who will begin with an extra year of eligibility granted by the NCAA after the COVID-19 pandemic.

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UW-La Crosse library working on searchable database linking the Upper Mississippi River

Published

1 day ago

August 29, 2024

Press Room

UW-La Crosse library working on searchable database linking the Upper Mississippi River

A new collaboration between the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse’s Murphy Library and those with a wide-range of information about the Upper Mississippi River has formed.

University officials announced the start of the Driftless River Initiative this summer.

The initiative aims to grow an online collection related to all thing’s river — from maps and scientific studies to wildlife and culture.

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“We have loads of material, books and maps and historical images that relate to the Upper Mississippi River and the Driftless Region because of the proximity of the university,” said David Mindel, digital collections librarian at Murphy Library.

“It made sense in my mind to get the word out by harnessing the power in numbers we have and how they relate in different ways to the river and the region,” he added.

The library already has hundreds of images of steamboats that have been on the river and journals from a prominent bird watcher.

“It’s my hope that the material not only becomes more accessible through this initiative, but new knowledge is created in the end, connecting dots that have not been connected,” Mindel said.

Much of the material already collected dates back a century or more, including scientific agricultural work that relates to the Coon Creek watershed in nearby Vernon County. It was the country’s first soil and water conservation district more than 90 years ago.

“One collection leads to another,” Mindel said. “If you continue to add to this group of materials, it attracts more. That’s what we are seeing happening here.”

Recent donations have come from the Upper Mississippi River National Wildlife & Fish Refuge and the Upper Mississippi River Conservation Committee, which dropped more than 70 boxes of historical studies, scientific reports and other river materials off at the library.

Mindel said 95 percent of the Upper Mississippi River Conservation Committee, or UMRCC, donations have been digitized and are searchable online.

UMRCC is made up of habitat managers from five states along the Upper Mississippi River: Wisconsin, Minnesota, Iowa, Illinois and Missouri.

Jeff Janvrin recently retired after nearly 35 years as the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources’ Mississippi River habitat specialist. He’s also served in a variety of positions with UMRCC.

“When I started my career, you didn’t search Google for a document. You reached out to the author and asked for a copy, and they’d send it to you in the mail,” Janvrin said.

“Nowadays, if it isn’t digital or easily accessible via the internet, it’s quickly forgotten that people even worked on that,” he added.

Upper Mississippi River National Wildlife and Fish Refuge on the Illinois/Iowa border. John W. Iwanski (CC BY-NC)

Janvrin said it’s important to capture the work done by UMRCC as some of the materials date back to the 1800s.

“The human element plays a huge role (in management of the river), whether it’s recreational, society, water quality or in the history of how people have interacted (with the river) over the years,” Janvrin said. “Without that perspective, you don’t really accomplish much. You have to do that blending.”

Mindel said libraries are often places where people look to donate items they find when they clean out a home because they don’t want to throw something away that may be historically significant. He said the Driftless River Initiative is looking for flat items, like books, maps or pictures.

He said they are casting a wide net with the project and asking people to contact them if they think they have something significant.

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