Content about mayor

The University of Mississippi Medical Center has been approved to receive a $112 million bond, which was recently granted by the state college board to go largely go toward construction projects.

This bond is the largest amount of money UMMC has ever received, and it will be used to reimburse the medical center for $34 million in debt from previous projects, as well as pay for 61 other projects.

James Keeton, UMMC’s vice chancellor for health affairs, said the money will act as a bridge to fund projects past, current and future. 

For at least 30 of every 365 days, cyclists will have a reason to feel safe when they ride around the streets of Oxford.

Mayor “Pat” Patterson and the Oxford Board of Aldermen have announced that November is now Bicycle Safety Enforcement Month. 

During this month, the Oxford and University Police Departments will be cracking down on bicycle safety enforcement. 

The idea came out of the Pathways Commission and was announced at the Nov. 1 board meeting. 

Oxford Mayor Pat Patterson and a group of University of Mississippi students teamed up this past weekend to make the city of Oxford cleaner and a little more beautiful.

At 9:30 a.m. Saturday morning, Patterson, along with a group of National Pan-Hellenic Greek Organizations led by assistant dean Valerie Ross, participated in an event to help clean up litter in Oxford. 

The group of a few dozen were accompanied by two Oxford police officers and two university police officers to clean up trash on major thoroughfares.

Two months and $37,000 later, Oxford Police Department’s security cameras on the Square are still filming in an effort to decrease crime.

After working on the idea of adding 10 extra video surveillance cameras on the Oxford Square since April, the Oxford Board of Aldermen approved the purchase July 5, and the cameras were installed on Aug. 15 by the Madison-based company ADGIX. 

Students who use the many taxi services provided in Oxford may see some changes in the months to come. 

The Board of Aldermen held a public reading Tuesday on eight new amendments to the city taxi ordinance.

This could make it harder for new taxi companies to open shop in Oxford. 

“We’ve got to clean up our act here,” Mayor Pat Patterson said. “I mean, I hate regulation but this is too important. If you ask me if I would rather not have the taxis then them not have the insurance.”  

In just over a month, University of Mississippi students will make their way to the polls to cast their votes in the Mississippi gubernatorial election. But for some students, involvement with the election began months ago.

Megan McBeth, co-chairperson of the Ole Miss College Republicans, spent her summer working as a head intern for Republican Party candidate Phil Bryant.

Multiple vendors who lined the sidewalk and alleyways of the Square will no longer be present for midnight snacks. 

“We don’t want everyone that can cook a turkey leg to sell on the Square,” Mayor George “Pat” Patterson said.

The vendors, like restaurants, are required to obtain a license. Patterson said this occurs every year. 

City officials debated on the authorization of the sale of silver recently found during the closing of the sale of Baptist Memorial Hospital. 

Two-hundred thousand dollars worth of silver was discovered in a safety deposit box that was once owned by the hospital’s original administrator.

Forty-two bars of silver will be divided between the city and the county. 

Officials discussed the sale of the silver. 

The national economy is stagnant, unemployment is high and investor confidence is low. However, the construction and expansion of new and existing businesses make it seem as though Oxford defies national trends.
Much of Oxford’s stability can be attributed the University of Mississippi. In 2006, the Oxford-Lafayette Chamber of Commerce estimated that the university’s impact on the local economy was more than $733 million.

Mississippi’s two Democratic gubernatorial candidates debated one another Wednesday at the Overby Center. The answers to their questions highlighted the most pertinent issues to Mississippians, namely education, poverty and health.

In front of a packed house at the Overby Center for Southern Journalism and Politics, the top two candidates for the Democratic nomination for governor debated over issues of the state. 

Bill Luckett, an attorney and businessman from Clarksdale, and Johnny DuPree, mayor of Hattiesburg, answered questions from a panel of journalists. The two candidates tackled issues involving early childhood education, job creation, health care and the state budget. 

Ole Miss alumnus Jordan Bankhead is a man of many titles. 

Lawyer, broker, business owner, professor and husband. He hopes to add another title to that list this November -- Mississippi’s District 10 representative.  

Bankhead, 34, is a managing broker at BC Real Estate, has his own law firm, is an adjunct political science professor at the university and also owns Rebel Paintball.