My Hattiesburg

Who will be the next mayor of Hattiesburg?

Well, the Hattiesburg mayor’s race is off and running. There are many candidates pining for the position that Johnny Dupree is now filling. Republican candidates includes State Rep. Lee Jarrell Davis, Walt Coker, Betsy Rowell, and David Senne. The list of Democrats who’ve qualified includes incumbent Mayor Johnny Dupree and Catherine Starr.

If there have been press releases about what these candidates are going to do for Hattiesburg, I have missed them. I’ll save my thoughts about Johnny Dupree’s term and let the voters decide if he did a good job or not. Although, unless these candidates get out and start campaigning, I doubt he will even have a chance of not being re-elected.

The Hattiesburg Republican primary is on May 3rd, where the field will be narrowed to who the Republicans think will be the best person for the job. Whether the voters will agree, is yet to be determined.

Auto Insurance may get reform

The House has introduced bill number 722, which would increase minimum coverage requirements for automobiles in Mississippi. Here are the specifics, $25,000 for bodily injury (up from the current $10,000); $50,000 for personal injury (up from the current $20,000); and $25,000 for property damage (up from the current $5,000). The current minimums, by the way, were set in 1972.

This is great news for all of Hattiesburg Mississippi, since the current minimums are really deficient. With only $5,000 being required, if your hit by a driver with this coverage, and you have a new car, your out of luck. I personally was in this exact situation, and had to be covered by my own insurance company. I would like to give a personal vote of support for this new law.

Hattiesburg gets paintball

A new sport is in town in the form of paintball. Formerly Rage Skatepark, it is now has a paintball field and pro shop instead. From the site: “Hattiesburg Paintball will have rental guns, safety equipment, and paintballs to buy so you can have unlimited fun and competition.” The site also has rates, pictures of the field, and forums. I’ve never played before, but on TV it looks pretty exciting and I can’t wait to try it out. I’m glad we’ve got something like this locally.