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‘Light years ahead but a long way to go’: A first-year recap of Jackson’s new water management

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Neither Rome nor a fully functioning water system in Jackson can be built in a day, but there were plenty of developments from the past year in what has become a face of the country’s environmental justice agenda.

In a first-of-its-kind arrangement, the federal government last year – largely via U.S. District Judge Henry Wingate, a Jackson native – vested a historic amount of funding and power into a new, non-government, local water manager, Ted Henifin, and his company, JXN Water.

The arrangement came after decades of underfunding, mismanagement, and loss of revenue that left Jackson’s drinking water consistently unreliable for the over 150,000 people it serves.

Henifin was originally only given a year of authority in Wingate’s stipulated order last November, but after the judge added Jackson’s also-deteriorated sewer system to Henifin’s plate this summer, JXN Water is likely to be around for at least another four years.

JXN Water crews making repairs to the city’s water distribution system. Credit: JXN Water

Shortly after the order, Jackson was allotted over $800 million through different federal funding streams to make water fixes, including $600 million in congressional appropriations. The city received the first $115 million of that pot this summer.

While issues with the system remain – such as figuring out who’s going to take over after Henifin, establishing consistent revenue, and replacing the miles of vulnerable, small-diameter water lines – JXN Water has tackled a large swath of Jackson’s water issues the city didn’t have the capacity to address for years.

“In many ways, the water system is light years ahead of where it was a year ago,” Henifin said at a recent press conference. “But we do have a long way to go.”

Water pressure and safety

Shortly after assuming his new role, Henifin was immediately thrown into the fire. On Christmas morning 2022, freezing weather forced a citywide boil water notice, lasting nearly two weeks.

Jackson water manager Ted Henifin, discusses the current state of the city’s water issues and plans for the future, Monday, March 6, 2023. Credit: Vickie D. King/Mississippi Today

But water pressure has since remained stable for most of the city, JXN Water reported in its latest quarterly report from Sept. 30 – save for a couple locations in south Jackson: Shannon Dale Road, which was recently converted to a groundwater system, and Merit Health. Hospital; pressure issues at the Henley Young Juvenile Detention Center were recently resolved, Henifin said.

Henifin’s team has prioritized finding and fixing new leaks – over 500 repaired so far this year, he estimated – in the aging distribution system, and has so far spent about $12 million on that program, according to quarterly reports, one of the biggest spending areas for JXN Water so far. His staff – led by former Jackson employees Jordan Hillman and Terrence Byrd – also increased flow by finding over 200 valves the city had left shut and switched them on.

One of the goals, Henifin has said, is to build enough reliable pressure where the city can retire the older of its two treatment plants, J.H. Fewell, which was built in 1914.

Jackson’s water lines remain vulnerable, though. Henifin had planned to start replacing the over 100 miles of small diameter pipes this summer, but the project got pushed back to early 2024, he said. He estimated it could take anywhere from five to 10 years to finish.

Since April, JXN Water’s issued 74 boil water notices, though no citywide ones since the one issued last Christmas. Some of those recent notices, the company said, happened because of the extensive drought Mississippi saw, which caused soil to dry up and contract around the city’s water lines.

Henifin has consistently said the water leaving the plant is safe to drink, and he found himself several times defending the water’s safety to skeptical residents who have lost trust over the years.

Jackson’s O.B. Curtis Water Treatment Facility. Tuesday, July 19, 2023. Credit: Eric Shelton/Mississippi Today

Public reception

In June, Jackson officials held a press conference announcing free water filters for pregnant women and children. Both Henifin and Wingate questioned the need for those filters, as well as comments Mayor Chokwe Antar Lumumba made at the event. The confusion largely stemmed from a public notice the state Health Department requires the city to release because of a failed lead test in 2016.

The city’s water has passed those tests ever since, but state regulations require a corrosion control system to be in place before the city can stop sending the notices. JXN Water estimated that the fix will be fully in place by next March.

While water leaving the plant is safe, residents have long had issues trusting what comes out of their taps. As advocates who spoke to Wingate over the summer said, homes with older plumbing are susceptible to contaminants like lead, and often get colored or odorous water. JXN Water has a project to find and replace any existing lead service lines – the ones that connect home plumbing to the city’s lines – but estimates that it could take up to 10 years.

Those advocacy groups – including the Mississippi Poor People’s Campaign and the People’s Advocacy Institute – urged Wingate for more local inclusion in decision-making, as well as communication around issues like boil water notices. The judge denied their requests, instead praising JXN Water’s work so far. The groups then filed motions to intervene in the case in September, to which Wingate hasn’t responded.

Danyelle Holmes, of the Mississippi Poor People’s Campaign, far right, speaks during a Mississippi Rapid Response Coalition press conference about Jackson’s water issues at the Mississippi E-Center at Jackson State University in Jackson, Miss., Wednesday, March 22, 2023. Credit: Eric Shelton/Mississippi Today

Public feedback on JXN Water has largely been positive otherwise. During a public comment period about the company taking charge of the city’s sewer system, 95% of the over 600 responses supported the takeover – which became official in September – many of them expressing new confidence in their tap water.

Building trust with residents was an early goal for Henifin, but he said JXN Water could’ve done more early on with its public messaging.

“We were so focused on just getting water to folks, we didn’t spend adequate time (educating the public),” he said, adding that even some of his staff didn’t want to drink straight from the city’s taps when he first got there. “We’re all about trying to restore trust in the water… I believe it takes some time to show that you’re walking the walk before people can really start trusting you.”

The company has since contracted with a call center in Rankin County, ProTel Inc., which JXN Water says has dramatically reduced wait times for residents.

Lumumba – who long said that the city’s water system needed an immense cash infusion to get back on its feet – agreed that the system has come a long way in the last year.

“I think that there has been a great deal of progress,” he said at a recent press conference. “There have been a number of improvements at our water treatment facilities.”

The mayor also echoed that “there’s still a long way to go,” warning that the city’s small-diameter lines throughout the city remain vulnerable to the cold weather.

“Prayerfully, we have a relatively calm winter and we don’t experience any challenges,” Lumumba said.

JXN Water crews making repairs to the city’s water distribution system. Credit: JXN Water

New billing system

Shortly after coming into his role, Henifin called for changing the way Jacksonians pay for water, citing the city’s extremely low collection rate of just around 50% at the time, compared to at least 90% for most utilities in the country.

His first idea was to charge residents based on property values, but the state Legislature responded by outlawing water bills not based on consumption. Pivoting, Henifin instead announced a new tiered billing system, which raises costs for most but reduces them for low-income customers.

Henifin said he’s hoping to get approval from Jackson’s City Council. Legally though, he can implement the plan regardless, part of the broad authority Wingate’s order gave him (in addition to freeing JXN Water from public record and procurement laws because of its status as a non-government entity).

Lumumba said he saw the proposal, but declined to take a stance on it. But if it goes into effect, JXN Water would be the first utility in the U.S. to use separate water rates for people on the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP.

Henifin drew his first idea, using property values, from Jackson’s poor experience with water meters, a problem that started about a decade ago after Siemens put in a faulty system. The city recently began replacing the meters, and JXN Water said in its September report that the project is over 80% done.

Mayor Chokwe Antar Lumumba (left) and water system’s third-party administrator Ted Henifin, answer questions regarding the current state of the city’s water system during a town hall meeting held at Forest Hill High School, Wednesday, Dec. 7, 2022. Credit: Vickie D. King/Mississippi Today

In the aftermath of the meter issues, thousands of residents complained about inaccurate bills, and JXN Water said it inherited $56 million in disputed debts when it took over. To resolve those, the company used federal funding to remove over $19 million in debt from over 8,000 accounts. JXN Water wrote in its report that, while it could still pursue those debts in the future, doing so would likely cost more than what money it collects.

Henifin has also said recently that the company will start shutting off connections to homes who don’t pay their water bills, although that likely wouldn’t begin until after the holidays. 

Staffing and other projects

One of JXN Water’s biggest expenditures so far was contracting the engineering firm Jacobs Solutions to staff and manage the city’s two water treatment plants. The initial contract was for six months, but Henifin plans to extend the deal to 10 years. Jacobs has so far received roughly $19 million, by far JXN Water’s largest contract to date.

The treatment plants themselves are also in more stable condition. Past harsh winters, especially in 2021, proved too much for the plants, which in Jackson, like in many Southern cities, has much of its equipment exposed to the outdoors. JXN Water and Jacobs are nearly finished winterizing the plants, according to the September quarterly report, having added new insulation and heat tracing. The project is scheduled to be done by the end of this year, the report said.

Another priority for the company is retiring the gaseous chlorine system used at the primary treatment plant, O.B. Curtis, which it aims to do by the end of 2024. While chlorine gas is a common tool in water treatment, many places are phasing it out due to long-term health concerns.

As far as what’s to come next for JXN Water, Henifin said he’ll be in the capital city until at least 2027 because of his new sewer duties. But he said he hopes to be in a more remote role by then, and to have some sort of transition plan for the management of Jackson’s water in place by 2025.

This article first appeared on Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.

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Mississippi Today

On this day in 1968

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mississippitoday.org – Jerry Mitchell – 2024-11-24 07:00:00

Nov. 24, 1968

Credit: Wikipedia

Black Panther leader Eldridge Cleaver fled the U.S. to avoid imprisonment on a parole violation. He wrote in “Soul on Ice”: “If a man like Malcolm X could change and repudiate racism, if I myself and other former Muslims can change, if young whites can change, then there is hope for America.” 

The Arkansas native began to be incarcerated when he was still in junior high and soon read about Malcolm X. He began writing his own essays, drawing the praise of Norman Mailer and others. That work helped him win parole in 1966. His “Soul on Ice” memoir, written from Folsom state prison, described his journey from selling marijuana to following Malcolm X. The book he wrote became a seminal work in Black literature, and he became a national figure. 

Cleaver soon joined the Black Panther Party, serving as the minister of information. After a Panther shootout with police that left him injured, one Panther dead and two officers wounded, he jumped bail and fled the U.S. In 1977, after an unsuccessful suicide attempt, he returned to the U.S. pleaded guilty to a reduced charge of assault and served 1,200 hours of community service. 

From that point forward, “Mr. Cleaver metamorphosed into variously a born-again Christian, a follower of the Rev. Sun Myung Moon, a Mormon, a crack cocaine addict, a designer of men’s trousers featuring a codpiece and even, finally, a Republican,” The New York Times wrote in his 1998 obituary. His wife said he was suffering from mental illness and never recovered.

This article first appeared on Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.

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Mississippi Today

On this day in 1867

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mississippitoday.org – Jerry Mitchell – 2024-11-23 07:00:00

Nov. 23, 1867

Extract from the Reconstructed Constitution of the State of Louisiana, 1868. Credit: Library of Congress

The Louisiana Constitutional Convention, composed of 49 White delegates and 49 Black delegates, met in New Orleans. The new constitution became the first in the state’s history to include a bill of rights. 

The document gave property rights to married women, funded public education without segregated schools, provided full citizenship for Black Americans, and eliminated the Black Codes of 1865 and property qualifications for officeholders. 

The voters ratified the constitution months later. Despite the document, prejudice and corruption continued to reign in Louisiana, and when Reconstruction ended, the constitution was replaced with one that helped restore the rule of white supremacy.

This article first appeared on Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.

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Crystal Springs commercial painter says police damaged his eyesight

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mississippitoday.org – Mina Corpuz – 2024-11-22 12:21:00

CRYSTAL SPRINGS – Roger Horton has worked decades as a commercial painter, a skill he’s kept up with even with the challenge of having what his wife has called “one good eye.” 

It hasn’t stopped him from being able to complete detailed paint jobs and create straight lines without the help of tape. But last year following a head injury, he and others said people have been pointing out a change in his work. Horton says the sight in his right eye is clouded, like he is looking underwater.

Affected vision, short term memory and periods of irritability – potential symptoms of concussion – followed after he was arrested last September. During an encounter with several police officers, Horton alleges more than one slammed his head into a cruiser and placed handcuffs on so tight that he started to bleed. 

“(The officer) was kind of rough with me and all, and he takes my head and I said, ‘What’d I do?’” he recalled recently. 

Horton ended up being convicted of two misdemeanor charges and has paid off the fines, but a year later he still has questions about the arrest and treatment by the police. 

To date, he has not seen a doctor to evaluate his eye and check for vision or cognitive issues. Horton and his wife Rhonda don’t have a car, and transportation to doctor’s appointments in the Jackson area remains a challenge. 

The Hortons have lived in Crystal Springs all their lives, and they have lived in the home the past five years that belonged to Rhonda’s mother. 

More than a quarter of all people in Crystal Springs live below the poverty line, and that includes the couple. Rhonda Horton said it’s hard to make a living because there aren’t a lot of jobs, but they support themselves as painters. 

That’s how they met Yvonne Florczak-Seeman, who lived in Illinois and purchased her first historical property in Crystal Springs in 2019. She splits her time between the two states. 

“We painted that porch bar and the rest is history,” Rhonda Horton said, adding that they went on to complete detailed work on mantles, kitchen cabinets and a cigar room at Florczak-Seeman’s North Jackson Street residence. 

Over the years, the couple built a relationship with Florczak-Seeman, who is seeking to open a women’s empowerment center called the Butterfly Garden, in the building next to city hall. 

Yvonne Florczak-Seeman poses for a portrait at her business, The Butterfly Garden, in Crystal Springs, Miss., Tuesday, Oct. 1, 2024. Credit: Eric Shelton/Mississippi Today

Florczak-Seeman has supported the couple numerous times, including helping them pay a late water bill and offering them work. She called them talented painters and hired them again to paint the interior of the future center, located at East Railroad Avenue. 

In pieces, Rhonda Horton told Florczak-Seeman about her husband’s arrest and later the injuries she said he sustained from it. Florczak-Seeman had questions about the encounter and other potential injustices at play, so she offered to help. 

“I just want them to pay for what they’ve done not just to him, but everybody,” Rhonda Horton said. “That’s what I want, justice.” 

The Arrest

On Sept. 24, 2023, Horton was walking home from a friend’s house when officers approached him. One grabbed his arms to handcuff him, and he remembers them cutting his wrist and causing it to bleed.

Then, he said, a second officer slammed his head into the top of the police car, followed by another officer who slammed his head again. During the encounter, a bag of marijuana that Horton said he found fell out of his pocket onto the ground. 

An officer put Horton in the back of the cruiser and took him to the station where Horton asked to speak to the police chief and call his wife. He said the police took his phone and clothes.

Afterward, he was taken to the Copiah County Detention Center in Gallman. 

Police Chief Tony Hemphill disputed Horton’s allegation of mistreatment, saying he did not sustain any injuries that required hospitalization. He said Horton’s wrist was cut while he resisted arrest. 

“He was not brutalized and targeted,” Hemphill said. “If he had just complied, he wouldn’t have had to come up there (to jail) that night.”

Two police reports from the night of the September 2023 arrest detail how officers had responded to a possible assault and were given the description of a white man. While in the area, they encountered Horton — the only person who fit that description. 

Hemphill said a mother called police after her daughter told her she was assaulted. He said officers approached Horton on the street and tried to talk with him to rule him out as a suspect. 

That’s when Horton began “fighting, pulling away, and kicking against (the officer’s) patrol vehicle, trying to run,” according to a police report from the night and Hemphill. Horton denies doing any of that. 

The next day police took Horton from the county jail to the Crystal Springs police station. There, police informed him a teenage girl reported being assaulted. After learning about the assault allegation, Horton remembered feeling shocked and saying it couldn’t be true because he was not on the street where the alleged incident took place. 

Hemphill confirmed the police investigated the assault allegation and found it not credible, meaning Horton wouldn’t face any related charges. He said he communicated this to Horton and his wife early on and since then, which the couple disputes. 

As Horton was being arrested and detained, his wife grew worried because she had just spoken with him on the phone and expected him to arrive home shortly. Rhonda Horton and her adult son started calling Roger’s phone, each not getting an answer. 

Then during one of the calls by her son, someone who did not identify himself answered Roger’s phone and said, ‘Your daddy’s dead’ and then hung up, Rhonda Horton said. 

She was starting to assume the worst had happened. Rhonda Horton wouldn’t have confirmation her husband was alive until he called from the county jail in the early morning. 

The next morning as she talked with the police chief, Rhonda Horton asked the chief about who answered the phone and told her son that Roger was dead. The chief told her the person who answered must have been from the county. 

Hemphill later told Mississippi Today that he did not know about the call and that type of behavior by his staff “is not going to be tolerated.” Similarly, Copiah County Sheriff Byron Swilley said he had not heard about it and could not say whether a member of his department made the comment to Rhonda and Roger Horton’s son. 

A Sept. 25, 2023, citation signed by Hemphill, shared with Mississippi Today, summoned Roger Horton to municipal court for the misdemeanor charges of possession of marijuana and resisting arrest and directed him not to have contact with the alleged victim in the assault case. No contact orders are typically for cases such as domestic violence and sexual assault and they are set by a judge.

LaKiedra Kangar, who works in municipal court services, said the no contact order was put in place because of the assault allegation. She confirmed Horton was not charged with the offense following the police department’s investigation of the allegation. 

Weeks passed. Roger Horton went to court for the misdemeanor charges, to which he pleaded guilty.  Felony assault charges were not part of the hearing. Municipal Court Judge Matthew Kitchens ordered Roger to pay over $900 in fines for the misdemeanors. 

Horton was able to pay for some of the fine through at least 10 hours worth of court-ordered community service, which he said involved painting buildings for the city. 

Months later after learning about Horton’s arrest and how he said the police treated him, Florczak-Seeman said she wanted to know more. Horton didn’t have access to his arrest documents, so she accompanied him and his wife to the police department to ask for them. 

The first visit, Horton asked but did not receive the arrest report. Florczak-Seeman asked if he had a fine for any of the charges, which police said Horton did even after completing some community service hours. Florczak-Seeman paid for the remaining balance and had him work for her for two days to pay that off. 

This year, they went to the police department a second time so Horton could ask for his arrest paperwork. An officer told him he didn’t need it and that the rape allegation had been investigated and found not to be credible, Horton told Mississippi Today. 

Florczak-Seeman asked why Horton couldn’t receive the report. She said Hemphill asked if she was Horton’s attorney, and Florczak-Seeman clarified she was his representative. 

The chief left for a few minutes and returned with two pieces of paper and handed them to Horton. Hemphill told Mississippi Today he did not recall whether he was the one who handed the report to Horton. 

Florczak-Seeman took the document from Horton and began to read it as they stood in the lobby. She said she was horrified to see the name of the alleged, underage victim and her address in the report.

Hemphill said the victim’s personal information should have been restricted and not doing so was an oversight. 

After reading the report, Florczak-Seeman went down the street to the mayor’s office at city hall to explain what happened, and how she believed the mayor had grounds to fire the police chief because he provided that document to Roger with the alleged victim’s information. 

Crystal Springs Mayor Sally Garland Credit: Crystal Springs website

Mayor Sally Garland confirmed she had a conversation with Florczak-Seeman about the police chief’s employment. 

She said she reviews all complaints about city officials, and Garland said she goes to the department head to get a better understanding of the situation. If she determines there are potential grounds for termination, a hearing would be scheduled with the Board of Aldermen, and the group would vote on that decision.   

Garland did not find grounds for termination, and Hemphill remains police chief. 

A Strange Visit

The Hortons and Florczak-Seeman hadn’t given much thought about the 2023 arrest, until weeks ago when a teenaged girl suddenly showed up in Florczak-Seeman’s yard. 

At the end of September at the North Jackson Street home, Florczak-Seeman heard screaming and found the teenage girl who came onto her property. She asked what was wrong, and the teenager said she was chased by a dog, which Florczak-Seeman and Rhonda Horton did not see. 

The teenager asked for a soda, and Rhonda Horton went inside to get one. Florczak-Seeman asked where the teenager lived, and she gave an answer that Florczak-Seeman said conflicted with what two girls who were standing nearby on the public sidewalk said she told them. 

Then Florczak-Seeman asked the teenager’s name and recognized it as the name of the alleged victim on Horton’s arrest record. Immediately, Florczak-Seeman said she turned to Horton and told him to stay back, and she told the teenager to get off her property, which she did. 

At the moment, they were not able to verify whether the teenager was the alleged victim from the report. Neither the Hortons nor Florczak-Seeman had seen her before, and they only knew her name from the arrest report.

“That didn’t make sense at all,” Rhonda Horton told Mississippi Today. 

Florczak-Seeman called 911 to report the situation and ask for police to come, which they did not. Hemphill told Mississippi Today a dispatcher informed him about the call with Florczak-Seeman, including details with the teenage girl and how she wanted to report the girl for trespassing. 

Florczak-Seeman is one of the people who have noticed a difference in Horton’s vision. It’s clear when comparing the detailed and clean paint job Roger completed at her Jackson Street property in 2019 and the center where he painted last year.

During an interview at the center in October, Florczak-Seeman pointed to the ceiling and noted spots that Horton did not paint. She remembers telling him about them and realized that he couldn’t see them. 

“The spots on my ceiling are still not painted, and they’re not painted as a reminder of the injustices that happened in this situation and why I got involved,” Florczak-Seeman said. 

This article first appeared on Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.

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