Archives November 2024

by Emma Embellischer

Daylight saving time (DST) ends each year in November. We all have to “fall back” an hour every November, and the time change is very unpopular among Americans. We do gain an hour of sleep, but we lose an hour of daylight in the evenings after the time change in November. There has been talk for years in DC about keeping DST year round, but nothing has happened. There was a bill passed in the Senate in 2021 called the Sunshine Protection Act, and it would’ve made DST permanent. But, the bill did not pass the House. There are multiple states and US territories that don’t observe DST, and they include Hawaii, parts of Arizona, American Samoa, Guam, and Puerto Rico.

Valley County just became the first US and Mississippi county to keep DST permanent. The county’s board of supervisors held an emergency meeting yesterday to discuss the matter. The media was notified about 15 minutes prior to the meeting, so the SRVO was not able to have a representative present. However, I read the minutes, and I was able to talk with multiple supervisors about the change.

Beat 1 Supervisor Ghittar Dunn said, “I’ve always wondered why we didn’t just keep DST year round. It should be pretty simple. Just about everyone I’ve ever talked with would like to keep DST year round, but no one in DC or Jackson does anything about it. Well, my wife kept complaining about how she hates when DST ends each November. I thought that I don’t like it either, and I’m gonna do something about it. I took an unofficial poll with the other supervisors and just about everyone I encountered on Sunday, and only one person didn’t want to keep DST permanent. Unfortunately, he’s a supervisor, but I still had the votes.”

Dunn garnered a ton of support for keeping DST year round, and he and other supervisors called the emergency meeting yesterday to discuss it. Four of the five supervisors were gung-ho about making DST permanent. Beat 5 supervisor, Diffy Culte, was the lone dissenter. According to Dunn, the meeting would’ve only lasted about ten minutes, but Culte took about 15 minutes voicing his opposition. Board attorney, Jonny Cockren, also discussed the potential issues and drawbacks to making DST permanent.

Culte said, “I’m just not in favor of it. Ghittar thinks he can run the county, but he doesn’t. We’re gonna stick out like a sore thumb. Media from all over the country is gonna start calling me and the other supervisors about this. I’m ok with keeping DST permanent, but you gotta consider all the fallout. Plus, Ghittar is only doing this for political reasons; everyone knows he wants to get more publicity and run for state representative.”

Board attorney, Jonny Cockren, did a good job of playing devil’s advocate in the emergency meeting like he always does. Cockren said, “You have to think about all the potential issues with this. Every time Valley County residents travel outside the county, the time will change. Will our residents like that? Also, when out of county residents travel to Valley County, the time will change. That could cause major chaos. I understand the intent here, but I’m not sure the fallout is going to worth it.”

The main concern for the board was whether cell phone providers would be able to accommodate the change, and all the major providers have said they can and will. Also, Cockren was notified after the meeting that it is illegal for states to keep DST year round. Cockren said, “I had no idea it was illegal for states to keep DST; the good news is the federal law doesn’t mention counties and municipalities. We could face a legal challenge; we’ll see what happens.”

All the Valley County residents I talked with were happy about keeping DST permanent. One Valley County father said, “It always sucks when the time changes in November, because it’s dark when I get home from work. So, I don’t get to play outside with my kids. I’m pretty pumped that we’re keeping DST permanently, and my wife and kids feel the same way.”

This has gotten a ton of publicity for Valley County and The Valley from state and national media, and the vast majority of the coverage has been positive. Multiple Mississippi political leaders are now discussing keeping DST permanent as well, so we’ll see if a bill is passed in the 2025 legislative session. It will be interesting to see if other Mississippi counties and cities follow Valley County’s lead.

by Tre McGyver

Hello my fellow Valleyans! It’s been a while since I wrote a story for you. I’ve been busy trying to keep the zoo we call Valley Meadows (the Valley’s premier mobile home covenant community) straight. It’s a tough job folks, but someone has to do it. Whatever is going on, I’ll always have to take time to tell you about Halloween at Valley Meadows. It’s always crazy, and this year was no different.

I’m sure you’ve seen the massive skeleton decorations this year. They’re about 12 feet tall, and you can’t miss them. Well, we decided to put one on each side of our entrance. The residents were so excited. It was a community event when we put them out; we had about 50 Valley Meadows residents out there helping me set them up. We put a lot of time into decorating those bad boys, and they look pretty scary. We made them even more scary by putting a MS State hat on one and a Saints hat on the other. Maybe, we just should’ve put paper bags over their heads! These weren’t the only huge skeletons in the neighborhood; there were 8 scattered throughout the neighborhood too. You wouldn’t believe how some of them were decorated.

We had a ton of vehicles driving thru Valley Meadows again this year checking out the decorations. No one cares about Valley Meadows until Halloween every year, but we’ll take it. I sent a Facebook message to our Valley Meadows group begging our residents not to scare the crap out of the visitors. Evidently, no one read it. I know of four incidents where some of our teenagers hid behind vehicles, and they ran up to visitors’ cars trying to scare kids in the backseats. One poor grandmother got so startled that she drove her car into a tree, and she almost had a heart attack. Luckily, no one was hurt, but her grandkids were scared to death too. I had to threaten the teenagers and tell their parents.

This year, we started a Halloween party exclusively for our residents the day before Halloween. We had a ton of fun, and it got a little crazy. I did a Halloween costume contest for the first time, and the winner won $100 cash. People went all out for it! Little Billy Buford won the contest; he was dressed as Donald Trump. The hair did it for him; he and his mom nailed Trump’s hair. Little Sally Sellers came in a close second, and she was dressed as Taylor Swift. I don’t like Taylor Swift, so I chose Billy as the winner. I’ll definitely do the costume contest each year going forward.

I probably need to try to find a mobile pediatric dentist to visit Valley Meadows in November or December every year, because these poor kids eat a ton of candy for Halloween. If a dentist came to us, they could make a killing after Halloween. Y’all contact me if you know of one.

Valleyans, I hope to bring you another story about the zoo called Valley Meadows soon. Y’all come see us; it’ll be a life-changing experience!