Indianola’s mayor and board of aldermen made a wise decision this week to halt contracting with its employees’ private enterprises, pending an opinion from the attorney general’s office.
Our bet is that the AG will likely frown on such practices.
The city would have been wise to have double checked on these apparent conflicts of interest prior to authorizing them.
It is our understanding that the city has done this multiple times, perhaps over a long period of time.
That still does not make it right.
Who knows, though? The AG has surprised us before.
A Good Battle
The city will have a chance next month to celebrate a Civil Rights and medical pioneer.
A Freedom Trail marker for Dr. Clinton Battle will be unveiled on Church Street on Sept. 11.
Dr. Battle not only practiced medicine in Indianola, but he also revived the local NAACP chapter in the late 1940s.
In the mid-1950s, Dr. Battle became well-known in medical journals as having delivered the first set of Siamese twins to be successfully separated by surgery. Dr. Battle did not perform that surgery, but the home delivery that he oversaw was truly remarkable.
The twins, Lillian and Linda Matthews, are still living and were featured on the Today Show two years ago.
This is something the entire community should get behind and celebrate.
The King at 100
Indianola and the Delta have another thing to celebrate in September.
It’s B.B. King’s 100th birthday.
The B.B. King Museum will be facilitating a number of events between Sept. 6-16 to celebrate this, including a festival event and the first B.B. King Hologram Experience at Club Ebony.
Budget Time
The Sunflower County board of supervisors have been hard at work on finalizing the fiscal year 2026 budget.
We hope that our municipalities are working just as hard to get their budgets straight for the upcoming year, which starts on Oct. 1.
In Indianola, the past two budget seasons have been hectic and rushed. We hope that this year’s budget will be accurate and fair to city departments and the taxpayers.
Last year, the board voted in favor of a 2-mil hike without any real explanation.
Perhaps the city will account for how that money was spent at its 2025 public budget hearing.
