Enterprise-Journal from McComb, Mississippi • 1

1 IEnntap prnsa JJ (Dump mm The one newspaper in the world most interested in this community 25 Cents McComb, Wednesday, Aug. 10, 1988 99th Year No. 99 1 section, 14 pages Pageant gets into full swing for contestants By Phyllis Thomas E-J Family Editor 1 ii iT 11 If any of the 38 contestants in the Miss Mississippi U.S.A. and Miss Mississippi Teen U.S.A. pageants are nervous nail-biters, this morning was i 1 4 wV HhHJU golf for the parents, coordinated by Don Ebbert of Trustmark National Bank; a party for the pageant judges at the home of Gary and Dayle Felder after Friday night's preliminaries, planned by Martha Jones and Mrs.

Felder; and a wine and cheese party and style show for the parents at Randazzo's Thursday afternoon, planned by Carolyn Garner and Peggy Randazzo. Mrs. Mim's committee, which included Tina Brumfield and Jennifer Richmond, sent a welcoming letter to the parents of the contestants that included information about the activities planned; designed the pages in the pageant program that provided information about McComb; held a photograph session in McComb with the current Miss Mississippi Teen U.S.A., Honey East of Jackson; and arranged to have more than two dozen businesses welcome the pageant contestants on marquees and portable signs. OTHER MEMBERS of the host committee included Scott's wife Beverly; Kay Day; George Rummel, McComb's director of planning and development; and Bill Pendleton. The chamber of commerce is also holding a retail promotion called "Pike Proud" in conjunction with the pageant.

A 56-page guest directory and V.I. P. buttons were printed for distribution to the contestants' families and posters with the same theme displayed by area merchants. Tickets for the final two days of the pageant are on sale at the Pike County Chamber of Commerce and Economic Development Foundation office on Third Street. The tickets are $15 each or can be purchased for both Friday and 4 few LI mate 1 1 i Ap Lawrptioto A systems go the time to start gnawing.

The two pageants officially started at the 10 a.m. registration and orientation session today at the Ramada Inn. And if they didn't do too much damage today, the young women have three more days to ruin their manicures. The suspenseful ending is still three days away. The two new Mississippi representatives will be crowned Saturday in the pageant finals at Southwest Mississippi Community College's Fine Arts Auditorium.

The suspense was nearly over for the pageant host committee in its final formal meeting Monday at the Pike County Chamber of Commerce and Economic Development Foundation. "All that's left to do now is go to the pageant and have fun," said Betty Sue Mims of First Bank, the host committee's director of promotion and publicity. THE COMMITTEE, headed by Pike County Fair Board President Ray Scott, has been working for months to help provide a hospitable atmosphere for the contestants, the contestants' families and the pageant's directors, Dinnie Bright and Rick Caccamisi. All that remained of the committee's work was the delivery of "welcome" baskets of fruit and other items to the contestants. Committee members Sam Mikell and Almatine Nichols were in charge of obtaining the baskets and said they planned to deliver them in person to the contestants' rooms today.

Other things planned by the committee included a day of tennis or The Space Shuttle Discovery passed a officials successfully fired its main crucial test this morning when NASA engines in a Flight Readiness Test Firing at Kennedy Space Center. For more details, see story on Page IT Trial over ad ends; no verdict yet Commonwealth's owners are E-J publisher John O. Emmerich his son Wyatt Emmerich, who works in New York and Charles Dunagin, editor and general manager of the newspaper. The company runs low-power station W36AC, which offers subscribers a 24-hour movie service called SelecTV. Chancellor R.B.

Reeves said his ruling in the case may take up to 60 days. Although attorneys for both sides rested their cases yesterday, they will file written closing arguments over the next (See Trial, Page 14) by earmuffs, told readers not to be "left out in the cold with a useless or very expensive satellite dish." It listed 18 major, cable channels that planned to scramble their signals that year and said satellite dish owners couldn't get the channels without buying a decoder box. Seven satellite vendors, claiming the ad false and misleading, originally filed suit, seeking an unspecified amount of actual damages plus $200,000 in punitive damages. Five vendors have since withdrawn from the suit. There was no jury in the Pike County Chancery Court hearing.

By Jack Ryan E-J City Editor A satellite dish vendor reasserted Tuesday that newspaper advertisements in 1986 cut his business by more than half, but two people with the company that bought the ads defended their information as correct. The satellite vendors, W.G. Polk and Richard Thurman, sued Commonwealth Venture Systems Inc. for an ad that ran 16 times in early 1986 in the Enterprise-Journal. The ad, which depicted a satellite dish covered Saturday night for $25.

The pageant preliminaries begin Friday at 7:30 p.m. The finals begin Saturday at 8 p.m. A coronation ball at the Ramada Inn will be held following Saturday's finals. Admission will cost $5. rHighlights-i Poll shows Dowdy gaining ground A ft included rating Gov.

Ray Mabus' programs and performance. In rating Mabus' performance, 70 percent of the state voted either "excellent" or "good." Only 16 percent rated him "fair" and 7 percent "poor" with another 7 percent undecided. IN JACKSON and southwest Mississippi, 20 percent rated the governor's performance as excellent, 52 said good, 14 said fair and six poor. Other questions in the survey dealt with the county unit system that will be considered in the upcoming special session of the Legislature, and the governor's proposed reorganization of the executive branch of state government. Statewide, 54 percent favor abolishing district systems, 29 percent are opposed and 17 percent remain undecided.

In Jackson and southwest Mississippi, 55 percent of the respondents favor the unit system over the (See Dowdy. Page 14) Democratic Congressman Wayne Dowdy has made gains on Republican Trent Lott in their race for the U.S. Senate, according to results of a new poll. Mason-Dixon Opinion Research Inc. of Columbia, contacted 816 registered voters in the state on Aug.

1-3. The results were released Tuesday. According to the poll, Dowdy had reduced Lott's lead from 11 percentage points to 6 points 47 percent to 41 percent with 12 percent undecided. In June, Lott led Dowdy 50-39. Lott and Dowdy meet in the Nov.

8 general election for the post being vacated by Sen. John C. Stennis. Stennis is retiring after 41 years in the Senate. According to the survey, Dowdy can attribute his gain to the black vote.

THE SURVEY analysis states, "The movement over the last two months is exclusively from Dowdy's gains among black voters in the state. In June, Lott's advantage over Dowdy among whites was 66 percent to (Dowdy's) 22 percent statewide, almost identical to the current 65 percent-21 percent figure. "Among blacks, however, Dowdy has widened his lead from 76 percent (to Lott's) 14 percent in June to 83 percent to 9 percent statewide at present. This race promised to remain tight, but Dowdy will also need to increase his share of the white vote to catch Lott." Dowdy also holds the majority of the women's support with 44 percent to Lott's 43 percent. Lott holds a 52 percent to 38 percent lead over Dowdy among men.

Dowdy, from McComb, has a big 67-26 percent lead in the Jackson-southwest Mississippi region of the state, much of which includes his home district. Lott, on the other had, is from Pascagoula and leads 73-15 percent in southern Mississippi. In other regions of the state surveyed, Lott leads Dowdy 48-37 percent in northern Mississippi, 44-42 in the Delta and 49-38 in eastern Mississippi. Another major question asked in the survey Wayne Dowdy Youth hit by cor in intensive care A McComb youngster is in the intensive care unit at University Medical Center in Jackson after being hit by a car Saturday night around 8 p.m. According to police, Zebedee Lee, 9, of 109 Quitman Drive, McComb, was playing with three friends when he ran in front of a vehicle driven by Willie Hayes of Osyka, who was driving west on Old Summit Road when the accident occurred.

No charges have been filed. Lee was taken to Southwest Mississippi Regional Medical Center for treatment and transported to Jackson Sunday. Witnesses told police that four children were playing with a dog when they ran into the street. The witnesses said two boys made it across the street and the third one, Lee, didn't. The other three boys scattered in different directions when the accident happened, witnesses said.

1st hispanic nominafed tor cabinet position WASHINGTON (AP) Hispanic Americans say they're pleased that President Reagan has made history with the first-ever selection of a Hispanic for the Cabinet, but some see it as a last-minute, election-year ploy. Calling it "a proud day for all Americans," Reagan announced on Tuesday his selection of Lauro Cavazos, president of Texas Tech University, to succeed William Bennett as secretary of education. i McComb schools seek grant for outdoor lab City asked to raise funding for library By Jack Ryan E-J City Editor McComb selectmen sold a piece of property Tuesday the city had long intended to "use as a site for a fire station, and received a request to increase its public library support by $2,000. The board sold the property, located on a corner of Georgia Avenue and Elmwood Street in east McCornb, to Zachary Patterson of Montgomery, Ala. City officials said Patterson is a former McComb resident who currently is in the U.S.

Air Force and wants to retire here. Patterson's bid of $8,111 was the highest of the two the city received. Selectmen also heard from Toni James, director of the Pike-Amite-Walthall library system. She asked the city to give the library $42,000 for the 1988-89 budget year, which begins Oct. l.

to recent years the city has given the library $40,000. Mrs. James said the library must pay for the increasing cost of postage, magazine subscriptions and electricity. The library also wants to improve its computer and begin stocking instructional videocassettes that would be rotated among its branches. The library would also need more money for salaries if Congress raises the minimum wage, she added.

Mayor Baker Gunter said the city is working on the new budget, and the board took no action on her request. The (See City, Page 14) By Linda Townes E-J Staff Writer McComb school district trustees on Tuesday approved a request to submit a proposal for a $25,000 grant from the Phil Hardin Foundation to set up an Outdoor Learning Laboratory on 16th Section land near Park Drive and Highway 24 west of McComb. The project would be completed over three years and the district would match the amount of the grant with local funds and resources, district superintendent Dr. David Powe said. "A lot of people are excited about the potential for learning on the 16th Section land," Powe told trustees.

The site is about 640 acres, 585 of which are planted in pine trees. Powe said the lab would develop trails for various learning situations and would serve as a state model for development of such land. HE SAID THE Mississippi Secretary of State's office "has fully endorsed the project," and once the lab has been established, it would be under that office's supervision. In another matter, trustees got a first viewing of a rider to teachercoach contracts that would become effective for the 1989-90 school session. Powe said that in the past, teachercoaches have sometimes decided to give up the coaching aspect of their jobs, which has prevented another teachercoach from being hired for that position.

"This rider will correct this problem," his proposal said. The contract portion states that if the employee "contracts both to teach and to coach an athletic sport," any resignation submitted for the coaching assignment "shall automatically constitute a bona fide resignation" for the teaching assignment, as well. TRUSTEES ALSO approved a request from Powe for the district to borrow $800,000 "in anticipation of revenues for fiscal year 1988-89." Powe's request said that due to the difference between the school district's and the city's and county's fiscal years, the district's "tax revenues will not come until March and April of 1989." But many of the district's expenditures, such as salary increases and the cost of various supplies, come at the beginning of the school year. And Powe said the district would "experience a severe cash flow problem." He proposed that the district borrow the $800,000 in increments of $400,000 and repay the sum in March of 1989. (See McComb, Page 14) Calendar 3 Classified 12-13 Comics 10 Crossword 10 Family 4-5 Obituaries 14 Opinions 2 Sports 8-9 State 3 Stocks 7 TV log 11 Weather 14.