Following is the list of top 10 stories of the year in Calhoun County as voted on by the staff of The Journal.
1) Golden shooting in Bruce
The reward for information on the whereabouts of Adrian Leon Golden, of Pontotoc, the man wanted for the shooting of his wife in broad daylight near Joe’s Market in Bruce last June, is currently at $5,000.
Authorities have pursued numerous leads over the past many months, but Golden remains “on the run.”
Golden and his wife Kimberly Sisk, 31, were reportedly involved in a domestic incident the night of May 31 that resulted in Pontotoc deputies coming to their home on Palestine Road between Randolph and Pontotoc, but Golden was not there. Sisk took out papers on him for abuse that morning, but when she returned home he had kicked in the back door and was there waiting and kidnapped her.
Phillip Brackett watches an open field on the edge of the woods as teams of officers search the area for Adrian Golden, the man wanted for the shooting of Kimberly Sisk last Thursday.
The shooting occurred on Thursday, June 1 on Hwy. 32 near the intersection of McSweyne Street in Bruce around 11 a.m. Police were never able to confirm why they were passing through Bruce. Golden was driving west when Sisk jumped out of the car as he slowed down just past Joe’s Market.
Golden shot at Sisk, hitting her in the back. The shot came out of her chest. Sisk ran to a passing vehicle yelling for help.
Golden made a U-turn in the highway and came back toward Joe’s Market attempting to run over Sisk. He missed and crashed in the roadside ditch.
Sisk fell on the side of the road avoiding the vehicle and Golden jumped out, ran up to her and shot her in the head at close range in front of several witnesses.
Many of them came to the aid of Sisk on the roadside until Bruce EMRs and later paramedics arrived. She was transported by ambulance to the Bruce football field parking lot from where she was airlifted to North Mississippi Medical Center in Tupelo. She is still alive and recovering after numerous surgeries.
Once securing the crime scene, officers raced south to try and catch Golden, following the directions of witnesses who saw him running. Exhaustive searches over the next several weeks were unsuccessful.
State and federal authorities are involved in the ongoing search for Golden today.
2) Charges levied against teacher, school officials
A Bruce teacher, principal and the county school superintendent are all facing charges stemming from an investigation by Bruce Police of an alleged sex crime at Bruce High School.
Loray Jordan, a former teacher and assistant football coach at BHS, was indicted by the Calhoun County Grand Jury in October for touching a child for lustful purposes. Jordan, who remains free on bond, is scheduled to go to trial in the upcoming January term of circuit court.
Bruce Police also charged Sup. Mike Moore and Principal Michael Gillespie for failing to report the alleged incident to proper authorities. Those charges were upheld in an initial probable cause hearing, but prosecutors have since changed the statute being applied in the case, requiring another probable cause hearing to be held.
At last report, there was a tentative schedule for that to occur in the same upcoming January term of court.
3) Lots of change in school leadership
Mike Moore
Three new principals and the departure of the superintendent highlighted a year of big changes in Calhoun County Schools.
Sup. Mike Moore is stepping down at the end of this month to enter retirement. He presided over his final school board meeting earlier this month.
“I started my career here and ended it here, which was really important to me,” Moore said in the meeting.
Jean Ann Casey, of Vardaman, was appointed as interim superintendent to complete the school year. The School Board is beginning the search process to find a new superintendent that will take over in July. That person will be the county’s first superintendent not elected by the voters, per the new state law.
There were leadership changes at three schools in the county as well. Dallas Gore moved from Bruce Upper Elementary to become principal at Bruce High School. Julia Aron was hired as his successor at BUES. Dr. Tim Cook became Vardaman High School’s new principal.
4) Effort started to legalize alcohol in entire county
The past year saw the latest, and thus far most productive effort to legalize the sale of alcohol in Calhoun County.
Bruce Mayor Rudy Pope initiated the effort citing the “unfairness” of alcohol being sold at the Mexican restaurant in Pittsboro, which is wet, when restaurants in other towns in the county don’t have the same option.
Pope and a team of volunteers organized public meetings in Bruce, Calhoun City and Vardaman to gauge support and then began the work of collecting the nearly 2,000 signatures needed to put legalizing beer and 1,500 signatures for legalizing liquor on the ballot.
Pope said at last count they had just over 1,500 total signatures for both and were looking to collect the remaining signatures needed for beer.
He also stressed they wanted to get many more than the actual number needed to make certain they had enough to see it through. Only registered voters of Calhoun County can sign the petitions.
5) Hospital opens new state-of-the-art facility
There was nothing but glowing comments from the many who toured Baptist Calhoun’s new facility recently during the community open house, much to the delight of hospital administrator Collin Cheek.
“It’s been a long time coming,” Cheek said of the facility’s opening. “This is an important night for us in terms of growing our services and letting the county know what we can do to take care of them in a time of need.”
The new facility that sits on the northeast corner of the hospital campus in Calhoun City, includes a state-of-the-art rehab department in the north half of the building with outpatient physical therapy, occupational therapy, and aqua therapy in an adjacent pool.
The building also features a new ambulance service which is located in the northeast corner with four separate bunk rooms, a large ambulance bay that can hold four trucks, a lounge area, office area and more.
The facility also houses new administrative offices and conference rooms for the hospital.
“This facility will better position us to take care of the people in Calhoun County and make a difference in the community,” Cheek said. “Nobody’s at the hospital because they want to be at the hospital, but it’s up to us to make their visit as enjoyable as possible.”
6) Vardaman Elementary earns an A; district is C
Students were treated to cupcakes and celebrations last October at Vardaman Elementary as the school was the highlight for the county in the latest accreditation report from the state.
DeDee Lee
VES earned an “A” rating, improving from a “C” last year. Principal DeDee Lee passed out 400 cupcakes to students in all grades during recess to help mark the achievement.
“Why are we getting cupcakes?” Lee asked the students. “We’re an ‘A’ school” the students shouted back with excitement.
“Vardaman has a great elementary school,” County Testing Coordinator Raven Hawkins said. “They are home grown folks with a lot of investment in that school.”
Lee was named Administrator of the Year for the school district.
Away from VES, the reaction around the county to the accreditation grades was far from celebratory. The district overall earned a “C” for the second consecutive year.
Bruce and Calhoun City elementaries both received a D. All the other schools earned a C.
“I was disappointed with our two elementary schools, but part of that is the way it’s calculated and it’s not fair to either school,” Sup. Mike Moore said.
Bruce Elementary had the highest reading proficiency among the three elementary schools, but the lowest overall growth in reading. In both reading and math the school’s growth among it’s bottom 25% of students was significantly lower than the other schools.
Calhoun City Elementary had much higher growth across the board, but much lower percentages scoring proficient.
At the high school level, the district’s graduation rate was 88.1%.
“Our graduation rate was in the top 10% of the state and our dropout rate was in the middle,” Moore said. “There are many areas across the board we can improve on. We just have to get more students to move up a level.”
7) Stan Evans dies; Tony Sockwell hired as new chief
Bruce Police Chief Stan Evans, left, died in November of 2017 after a lengthy battle with cancer. Evans, a U.S. Marine veteran, had led the Bruce Police Department for the past decade and spent his career in law enforcement in Calhoun County.
Law enforcement officers from throughout the state attended his funeral service in Bruce and led a long procession to the cemetery with blue lights flashing.
Officer Tony Sockwell was chosen by the Bruce board in December as Evans’ successor. He and officer Corey Alexander were the two that applied for the chief job. The town board said Sockwell was chosen based on experience.
8) Two sentenced in murder cases
Two Calhoun County men were sentenced in 2017 to lengthy sentences in prison for a pair of murder cases from 2015 and 2016.
Frankie Jones will serve the rest of his life in prison after a Calhoun County jury found him guilty of the July 2015 murder of Billy Ray Covington in Pittsboro.
Jones was found guilty on both charges he was facing in a four-day trial last January.
He was sentenced to life on the murder charge, ineligible for parole or early release. He received 10 years as a habitual offender for possession of a firearm as a convicted felon.
JaShon Coleman, 22, of Derma, was sentenced to 40 years in prison after pleading guilty to second degree murder. He entered his plea in circuit court last August at the courthouse in Pittsboro. He was charged with the February 2016 murder of James Pratt, 31, of Weir, who worked at the Haworth plant in Bruce.
9) Skull and bone found in Calhoun City
An investigation is still ongoing attempting to identity a skull and bone found in Calhoun City on separate occasions in 2017.
The skull was found on May 4 after a dog brought it to a front yard. The five inch bone was found in August across the street from the home on Hardin Street where the skull was found.
Law enforcement agencies conducted numerous searches over several weeks, but no additional human remains were found.
Sheriff Greg Pollan said there are no reports of missing persons from Calhoun County, and no reports of missing persons from neighboring counties in the past five years.
Pollan said the initial report from the crime lab on the skull showed a 54% probability it belonged to a black male.
10) Amye Hill elected Calhoun City mayor
Amye Hill became Calhoun City’s newest mayor in July. She defeated incumbent J.R. Denton in the June 6 election 209-194.
“I was very humbled and excited,” Hill said in describing her emotions when she realized she had won the election.
Beautification efforts were at the heart of the reason Hill entered the race in the first place.
“Aesthetics of our town are very important to me,” she said. “We want to make improvements. Property values are a concern. I want to help improve the quality of life in Calhoun City that other towns our size have been achieving.”
Hill’s victory did mark some history for Calhoun City, as she is the town’s first female mayor.
“I never even considered that,” Hill said. “I wasn’t thinking about that when I entered the race. I just want to help make Calhoun City a better place.”
Other top stories of 2017 in no particular order included AutoZone and Sonic opening in Calhoun City; Vardaman moving into new Town Hall; Supervisors expanding the college tuition program to Northeast, ICC; County committing to providing $800,000 over three years to match $4 million to overhaul CR 306 (Big Creek Road); Five bridges closed around county due to new federal guildelines, inspections; County raises jail fee for towns; Katelin Stone gold event in Calhoun City; Bruce board raises their pay 40%; Charles Bobo elected D1 Supervisor; and the passing of Leo “Bud” Welch.
Editor’s Note: This list was compiled by the staff of The Journal considering the overall news value of each story, the number of people impacted and historical significance.