Jackson Free Press

The Problem With Lakes and Levees

When famed New Urbanist Andre Duany came to Jackson to examine creative solutions to both flooding and economic-development options, he didn't get excited about the Two Lakes development plan developed ...

Tell Whole Story on Levees and Lakes

Now that the Rankin-Hinds Pearl River Flood and Drainage Control District has officially agreed with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers' levees-only plan for flood control, expect the Two Lakes ...

McGowan: 'Everybody's Together' on One Lake

Since scrapping the highly controversial Two Lakes plan in favor of a more modest single-lake concept in 2011, Levee Board meetings have been relatively tame.

Corps Rejects Lake 255

Read Billy Orr's letter to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (PDF, 256 KB)

Speed to Turn Over Property, Calls Ethics Issue ‘Moot'

Jackson businessman and Levee Board member Leland Speed is donating a portion of the property that spurred charges of an ethics violation to Mississippi College. Speed told the Jackson Free ...

Lake Developers Detail Plan, Hope for Corps Blessing

A Jackson oilman who has long lobbied for ambitious development along the Pearl River in Jackson is hoping that the U.S. Corps of Engineers will give at least an initial ...

'One Lake' Bond Bill Passes House By Slim Margin After Questions

Proponents of the "One Lake" project along the Pearl River through Jackson got a financial boost when the Mississippi House of Representatives passed a nearly $100-million bond and loan measure ...

[Stauffer] Facts, Damn Facts and Opinions

The Jackson Free Press publisher explains why the newspaper does not support Two Lakes or the 1996 Levee Plan. Instead, we need to put politics aside and seek a basin-wide ...

[johnson] Drowning Jackson

When you look at it abstractly, Two Lakes developer John McGowan makes an easy villain: an old, wealthy white landowner intent on taking public lands for private profit with the ...

Flood Control 'Kumbaya'?

The two-dozen officials representing various government and civic agencies couldn't decide on which song was best suited for the signing of a document that enables work on a long-awaited flood-control ...

One Lake Instead of Two?

The Rankin-Hinds Pearl River Flood and Drainage Control District Levee Board is pressing the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to take seriously a lake plan to coincide with a Corps-preferred ...

‘One Lake’ Draws Mixed Reax

After years of planning, debate and revision, public sentiment about a plan to dam part of the Pearl River and create a lake that is designed to reduce flooding in ...

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‘One Lake’ Tax Sails Forward

Previous plans to dramatically remake the portion of the Pearl River that flows through the Jackson metropolitan area ran aground, but legislation is sailing toward the governor's desk that would ...

Developers Push a Lake for Downtown

UPDATED: December 15, 2009

Jackson developer David Watkins, whose ventures include the King Edward Hotel and the Farish Street entertainment district, unveiled plans for a downtown lake and riverwalk at a media event yesterday. ...

Little Love for Levees

The meeting room for the Rankin-Hinds Pearl Flood and Drainage Control District Levee Board in Flowood filled with rancor Monday, Feb. 8, after the board learned that the state Legislature ...

Saving Two Lakes: Is It Worth It?

The Pearl River is an easy force of nature to contend with, providing you are an optimist about it.

McGowan Reveals New Lake Specifics

Jackson oilman John McGowan said Monday that his latest lake plan will cost about $150 million and require the use of eminent domain to "condemn" some property into a "public ...

State Agencies Silenced on Lake Plans?

The Mississippi Department of Wildlife, Fisheries and Parks remains strangely silent and without comment on two plans to partially inundate a state park stagger drunkenly forward.

McGowan Non-Profit Foots Study Bill

Flowood Mayor Gary Rhoads says the Rankin-Hinds Pearl River Flood and Drainage Control District (aka the Levee Board) is working with a non-profit foundation backed by McGowan Working Partners for ...

All About Water

The capital city is all abuzz about water, and so are we. This issue, Ward Schaefer writes about the broken water mains in "Singing the Broken-Pipe Blues": why they broke, ...