Fernwood, Mississippi?

[Kitty]

Will Pike County create a fifth municipality? (http://www.enterprise-journal.com/articles/2007/09/05/news/01.txt)

Different county in south Mississippi, yet the story sounds very familiar.

Very.

[wilebill]

Fernwood is still there? I figured everybody would have abandoned it by now.

[Kitty]

Fernwood is still there? I figured everybody would have abandoned it by now.

It appears two men have a dream for a city.

Where have I heard that before?

[wilebill]

It appears two men have a dream for a city.

Where have I heard that before?Yeah, I read the article and there do seem to be a lot of similarities. At least they hired a firm to look into the costs and whatnot associated with it.

[Bella]

Yeah, I read the article and there do seem to be a lot of similarities. At least they hired a firm to look into the costs and whatnot associated with it.


Wilebill,

Just letting you know that the OG City group started meeting nine months prior to going public with the idea. The group spent lots of money hiring a planner, attorney and many more involved with creating a city. Once they had a plan is when they went public.

I'm not saying things went great after that but .......

[TDaleBeavers]

To compare Fernwood to Oak Grove is -- to put it in one word -- preposterous. I have been to Court in Magnolia in Pike County probably 100 times in the past seven years and driven each time through the Fernwood community. Most of the commercial growth in McComb is on the north side of town (i.e. restaurants, the Mall, Super Wal-Mart etc), and a lot of the residential growth is in the Summit area.

Both McComb and Magnolia are now slightly majority African American and to annex an area that is 70 percent white, would never get preclearance from the Justice Department. So I don't think the proponents have a legitimate fear of annexation by any "evil empire", unless perhaps McComb is eying some predominantly black residential areas east or west of town to annex along with it.

The Fernwood community has no real commercial base, and no real likelihood of one coming in the foreseeable future. It is not a booming area in need of city services, such as added police protection, fire protection, zoning, and the like.

If Dan Quayle was no Jack Kennedy, Fernwood sure as hell isn't Oak Grove!

[SoMissTV]

Fernwood sure as hell isn't Oak Grove!

you mean West Hattiesburg. :bowrofl:

[wilebill]

To compare Fernwood to Oak Grove is -- to put it in one word -- preposterous.
I don't understand why you'd say things like this when they seem to be just as sincere about their desires as anything that I've heard coming from the OG incorporation effort. It's just so hypocritical, IMO.

[Kitty]

To compare Fernwood to Oak Grove is -- to put it in one word -- preposterous.

I don't think anyone compared Fernwood to Oak Grove.

The approach to incorporation sounds very familiar. That is not a comparison of the two communities.

[TDaleBeavers]

I don't doubt their sincerity, I just doubt the real need to incorporate Fernwood. There would be numerous benefits to incorporating Oak Grove into a city -- I simply don't see the same benefits for Fernwood.

And, of course, I know the primary purpose in this thread was not to compare the Oak Grove and Fernwood incorporation efforts or communities, but to take a belated swipe at Joe Fortenberry and myself. I guess seeing both of us soundly defeated at the polls (partially over this effort) isn't enough for some people.

[Kitty]

And, of course, I know the primary purpose in this thread was not to compare the Oak Grove and Fernwood incorporation efforts or communities, but to take a belated swipe at Joe Fortenberry and myself. I guess seeing both of us soundly defeated at the polls (partially over this effort) isn't enough for some people.

To suggest this thread was created in order to take "a belated swipe" at people is truly preposterous.

The primary purpose for creating this thread was to point out the similarities in the incorporation efforts. Similar rhetoric, similar approach.

An issue that has been much discussed, much debated in our own backyard is now being played out in a county not too far from here.

I found that interesting, and thought others here might find it interesting as well.

The "two men" I was referring to are the ones who have sustained their public support for and involvement in the Oak Grove incorporation effort.

[Elle May]

I don't doubt their sincerity, I just doubt the real need to incorporate Fernwood. There would be numerous benefits to incorporating Oak Grove into a city -- I simply don't see the same benefits for Fernwood.

And, of course, I know the primary purpose in this thread was not to compare the Oak Grove and Fernwood incorporation efforts or communities, but to take a belated swipe at Joe Fortenberry and myself. I guess seeing both of us soundly defeated at the polls (partially over this effort) isn't enough for some people.

Are you sure you're correct in this assumption. I don't know Kitty personally but I've never read anything that she started a thread on or posted about that would bring me to this conclusion.:smt102

[wilebill]

I don't doubt their sincerity, I just doubt the real need to incorporate Fernwood. There would be numerous benefits to incorporating Oak Grove into a city -- I simply don't see the same benefits for Fernwood.

And, of course, I know the primary purpose in this thread was not to compare the Oak Grove and Fernwood incorporation efforts or communities, but to take a belated swipe at Joe Fortenberry and myself. I guess seeing both of us soundly defeated at the polls (partially over this effort) isn't enough for some people.Regardless of what you may believe, we don't think that everything is about you.

[Bella]

Dale,

The reason I didn't vote for you and Joe is that you both left the OG City effort way to quickly. Just because the work got hard you both bailed. IMO. I have nothing against you two, actually like you both, but thought you should have stayed to fight for something you believed in.

Thomley believed in this effort....and he almost won. It might could have happened that way for you.

[Guru]

If you ride up Highway 51 from just South of Magnolia you will find that it is a complete succession of small towns all incorporated in a chain all the way up to McComb.
It is a jewel of an area that geographically has a totally different identity of Hattiesburg and it's amenities or New Orleans and it's circle of amenities. I personally love the non-stop cafe's and antique shops on the drive North.
Totally different geography, totally different logistics, totally different agenda.
Personally I don't agree with the idea that any area has made an attempt to escape from the Mother-Land; I only see it as an evolution. Just because you finally see a service station in no-man's land that can be an excuse to tie a community to another municipality that doesn't mean that it was originally one big happy family.
I also think it ludicrous that change is avoidable. Sometimes we just have to embrace a growing child and revel in it's maturing.