Archives December 2024

by I. B. Lyon

There have been rumblings in Valley County for a couples months now that the Valley County garbage workers were going to strike. Those rumors have come true. The county announced this Monday that the garbage workers had gone on strike. They are demanding higher wages.

I was able to have a phone conversation with Tony Trascherie, the Director of Valley County Solid Waste, yesterday. Trascherie said, “We’ve been underpaid and underappreciated for far too long. It’s time we take a stand. We’ve been warning the county for a while now, and we haven’t been taken seriously. We mean business! We chose the week of Christmas because we knew it would be the most impactful. Valleyans are going to have a ton of trash, and there’s not going to be anyone to pick it up.”

Word got out on social media and in the community that the garbage workers had gone on strike. Many people on the Let’s Talk Valley County Facebook group said they would just burn their trash, and that’s what they did. This caused another issue for the county. The 911 phone lines were inundated with calls about residents seeing smoke. People had no idea what was going on. Deputies began responding to calls, and after about 10 calls they stopped responding. None of the calls were emergencies; residents were just burning their trash.

911 dispatcher Billie Shatner said, “I thought this was some joke to begin with. I had no idea what was happening. I thought we had a huge forest fire or something. A colleague pulled up Facebook, and she saw all the people talking about the smoke and burning their trash. She told me what was going on, but we still had to respond to the calls. It was pretty darn stressful for a couple hours. I thought was I was going to lose my mind.”

Many Valley County residents had no idea what was going on. Some thought there was a forest fire, some thought the pipeline had exploded, and some thought it was the Apocalypse. One resident said, “I looked out my window and I saw smoke everywhere. I walked outside and looked around for a bit, and I thought this is it. This is the end I guess. The world is going to be destroyed by fire, and here it is. Revelation is playing out right in front of my eyes. I was in shock.”

Trascherie added, “I’m sorry about this unintended consequence of our strike. We in no way want to hinder the county’s ability to respond to emergencies. But, there’s an easy fix to the problem. Increase our pay! I hope the supervisors will call an emergency meeting next week to discuss our pay. We’ll strike for weeks if we need to.”

Valley residents hope the issue is resolved as soon as possible. We’ll see how the county leaders respond to the strike. The SRVO will keep you updated on the strike.

by Ima Phibber

2024 has been a great year for The Valley and the SRVO. It’s a great time to live, work, and play in The Valley. It’s that time of year that we recognize the Valleyan of the Year award. This award is given to a Valleyan that has made a significant positive impact on The Valley and its residents. It’s very subjective, but we make sure it’s never politically influenced. It has become a coveted and prestigious award.

We have some great candidates for the award this year, and they’re listed below. We’ve included a brief description of their impact along with our stories.

• Andy Fife and Barney Griffith– They courageously squashed a pro-Palestinian protest at Valley Tech. Read the story HERE.

• Col. Dwight Patton– He created a unique summer camp called Camp Ayntnocissy to fight the softness of today’s kids. Read the story HERE.

• Dr. Siggy Froyd– He diagnosed a new mental disorder called climate dysphoria disorder (CDD) affecting many of our kids today. Read the story HERE.

• Ghittar Dunn– He led the charge in Valley County to make daylight saving time permanent. Read the story HERE.

• Eddie Grizwald– He embodied the Christmas spirit by forgiving Harry Grinch for vandalizing his Christmas decorations for the Christmas lights/decorations contest Valley City’s Lit. Read the story HERE.

VOTE BELOW!

by I. B. Lyon

It’s Christmas season, and there’s nothing that gets you in the Christmas spirit like Christmas lights. Many towns and communities have Christmas lights shows and displays. Valley City joined the fray 2 years ago with its Christmas lights competition called Valley City’s Lit. This year will mark the third competition, and people are going all out this year.

Valley City residents have to complete an application to enter Valley City’s Lit. On the application, they have to give a brief description of their decoration and light plan along with an estimate of the total number of Christmas lights. Only 7 applicants will be chosen to enter the competition, and there will be 7 judges as well. Unfortunately, the selection process for the competitors and the judges has been politicized. It seems that only people that are politically connected get chosen, especially as judges.

Eddie Grizwald has won Valley City’s Lit the first two years. His setup was well known around The Valley before Valley City’s Lit became a thing. People would drive from around The Valley to see his lights and decorations each year. Most people consider him the favorite again this year, but there is an upstart that could challenge Grizwald.

Harry Grinch wasn’t selected to compete in the inaugural Valley City’s Lit, but he did compete in the competition last year. He finished second last year behind Grizwald; it was a 5-2 vote in Grizwald’s favor. Grinch was not happy with the results, and he vowed to win this year’s competition. Evidently, he planned to do whatever it takes to win.

The voting for Valley City’s Lit is tomorrow night. The judges drive around to each house and cast their votes after viewing all 7 participants’ setups. Grizwald contacted City Hall yesterday morning to let them know he may have to drop out of this year’s competition. Grizwald’s lights and decorations were vandalized on Tuesday night.

Grizwald called the police Wednesday morning after discovering his lights and decorations had been vandalized. He and the police reviewed his security camera footage. After a brief investigation and some questioning, the police arrested Harry Grinch. Grinch was easily identified by his build and gait. Grinch is 5’4″ and weighs in at approximately 300 pounds, and he walks with a limp. The security footage showed a man of Grinch’s build wearing a ski mask and walking with a limp. After some questioning, Grinch admitted to the crime, and he was booked into the city jail. Grizwald agreed to drop the charges Wednesday if Grinch gave him a sincere apology, and Grinch did apologize.

Grinch cut Grizwald’s light wires in 5 different places, and he spray painted 3 of Grizwald’s decorations including his nativity scene. As of this morning, Grizwald was able to repair his lights, and he’s been able to paint over the spray paint on his decorations. He said he’ll be ready for the judges tomorrow night.

I was able to get a comment from both Grizwald and Grinch. Grizwald said, “I couldn’t believe Harry would do something like this. Harry and I aren’t best buds, but we were always cordial until the past couple months. Something changed with him. I think he may have been solely focused on beating me this year, and it just started eating at him. I really hate that. Even though he tried to sabotage me, I still forgive him. Jesus forgave me, and I forgive him. That’s what the Christmas season should be about.”

Grinch said, “I’m embarrassed by what I did. I let Eddie and the powers that be really get under my skin. I was so mad that I didn’t get selected the first year, and then I felt I got hosed last year. I just couldn’t let it go. Folks, if you have a grudge against someone, don’t let it eat at you. Give it up to Jesus, and let Him take care of it. I’m grateful that Eddie forgave me, and I’m glad he let me help him clean up the mess I made with his decorations. Merry Christmas! Jesus is the reason for the season!”

The winner of Valley City’s Lit will be announced tomorrow night at 7:00 pm. We’ll go live on our Facebook page tomorrow night to announce the winner, so stay tuned.

This could’ve ended up being a sad Christmas story. But, thank God both guys set their emotions and hostilities aside and let Jesus take the wheel. We can all learn a valuable lesson from Eddie and Harry this Christmas season. Merry Christmas Valleyans!

by “Stretch” DeTrooth

Youth sports has become big business these days. Select baseball and softball has seen massive growth over the past 10-15 years. It’s not only baseball and softball, select or travel soccer has grown significantly. Currently, select volleyball is seeing huge growth in our area.

Participating in these select or travel sports is very expensive. You have to purchase the equipment and uniforms, and you have to travel to practices and tournaments each week. Some weekends, you have to travel out of state or hours away from home, and you may have to get a hotel room for one or two nights. Some teams pay their coaches, so that’s an added expense. Tournament directors are making big money from tournaments as well. Parents are having to dole out money constantly it seems, and someone is benefiting financially at every step of the way.

In addition, many parents pay for specialized coaching or training for their kids. Many parents pay for hitting lessons for their sons and/or daughters, and some parents pay for pitching lessons as well. Recently, speed and agility training has become a necessity for some parents and kids also.

Until now, one area that has remained untouched in select youth sports is sports psychology. Sports psychology is popular in pro sports and college sports. Many teams or individual players use the services of sports psychologists. Nick Saban was ahead of the curve, and he started using sports psychologists with his Alabama teams years ago.

Valley psychologist, Nick Bryant, has been practicing for 20 years. About five years ago, he shifted to sports psychology, and his practice, Pinnacle Sports Psychology, has taken off since then. He currently works for multiple high school, community college and NAIA teams. Now, he’s going to offer his services to select ball teams, individual players, parents, and coaches.

Bryant said, “I’m very excited about this new line of business for my firm. Everyone seems to be making money in the travel sports ecosystem, so we’re going to jump in and carve out a niche for sports psychology. In my opinion, our services are needed in a big way. I’ve attended some select baseball and softball tournaments, and the players, parents, coaches, and umpires could all benefit from our services.”

Bryant said, “Players, coaches, and parents can all benefit from our services, and they’ll all benefit in different ways. We do a great job with visualization success training with the players; you have to visualize yourself being successful. The main focus for coaches is balance; you have to manage and balance everything (unfocused players, bad players, crazy parents, mad parents, etc). With parents, our main focus is empathy. They have to think about putting themselves in other peoples’ shoes (their kids, their kids’ coach, the umpires, etc.)”

People that I have spoken with are excited about Pinnacle Sports Psychology. One baseball dad said, “I hope Pinnacle can help my son block out all the noise from the parents. He gets flustered and nervous when games get tight, and he starts to listen to the crowd and his performance suffers. I’m hoping he can get mental training to help with this.”

One softball coach said, “I really hope Pinnacle can help my pitcher with mental toughness. She’s basically the only pitcher I have, and I realize we play multiple games every weekend. She often complains about her arm, but I think it’s in her head. She really needs some mental toughness training so she can power through.”

An umpire I talked with said, “I am so glad Pinnacle is doing this. You have no idea what we go through as umpires. It can be brutal. I’m excited about the empathy training they do. People need to realize umpires are humans too, and we have feelings. We hear all the negative comments about us. We put up a front and act like we don’t hear things, but you can’t block it all out. I really look forward to this (tearing up).”

Pinnacle Sports Psychology will start counseling and training in January before the spring season kicks off. You can contact them now to reserve sessions for your team or your kids. This is a new frontier in select/travel ball, and it will be interesting to see how it goes.

by Ima Phibber

There has been a ton of excitement about the new scenic byway, 40B, coming to The Valley. The SRVO broke the news about 40B in July, and you can read the story HERE. Construction workers broke ground last week on the much anticipated project, but work has been halted. A biologist has discovered what is believed to be a new species of water beetle in the Strong River. The US Fish and Wildlife Service along with the EPA have halted construction.

I was able to catch up with Styfel Prahgrez, the biologist that discovered the minnow. Prahgrez works with the left wing activist organization Anarchy for Animals located in San Francisco which does everything it can to stunt economic growth and progress under the guise of preserving nature and animal species. Prahgrez said, “When we heard about 40B, we knew we’d be sending someone from our headquarters in California down to The Valley to do what we could to keep this project from happening. We knew protests wouldn’t work here; these people won’t put up with that. It took me a few months, but I accomplished my goal.”

Prahgrez has discovered a new species of water beetle, and he has named it the Zigzagger water beetle. Prahgrez said, “I was wading in the Strong River one day a few weeks back, and I noticed a small water beetle that was swimming in a zig zag pattern. I found that very interesting, and I was able to collect 5 of the beetles. I observed them for a couple hours swimming in water, and they all constantly swam in a zig zag pattern. I did some research, and I talked with multiple coleopterists (biologists that study beetles). They all found that very interesting, so I sent them some videos and close up pictures of the beetles. I was told by a couple coleopterists that they didn’t recognize that beetle, and I might have found a new species. Sure enough, after some more digging, I had discovered a new beetle species. And, even more importantly, I stopped the construction of 40B! This is the best accomplishment of my life!”

Prahgrez immediately contacted the US Fish and Wildlife Service and the EPA, and they contacted local authorities and ordered the project to be halted. The discovery of the Zigzagger could have put 40B on hold for good or for a couple weeks; no one really knows at this point.

EPA spokesperson Pharr Lleft said, “We’re grateful Mr. Prahgrez made this discovery. Now, we’re going to study the Zigzagger and its impact on the Strong River Valley ecosystem. It’s a very fragile and diverse ecosystem, and we don’t want to alter it in any way. This could take weeks or months, but it’s really not clear at this point.”

Most Valleyans I talked with about this are not happy. Construction company owner Dert Pushar said, “I bought hundreds of thousands of dollars of equipment for this job, and now they’re stopping construction before we’ve really gotten started. All this over a freakin water beetle! Really?! Are they gonna make my loan payments now? This is so ridiculous!”

A Valley resident I talked with said, “I can’t believe this. This is something that happens in California or New York; this is not supposed to happen in Mississippi and The Valley. Great! We found a new species of beetle, but no one cares. Has anyone even seen one of these beetles? How do we know this is not made up? Get on with 40B! We’re ready for 40B!”

No one knows how long construction will be paused, but the residents of The Valley are anxious to get construction going again as soon as possible. The SRVO will keep you updated on the situation with 40B.