The Wilmington morning star., 1940-07-28
MISSISSIPPI TOWN
MUST BUILD ANEW
Is Being Moved To Benefit
Another Section When
High Water Comes
BY B. r.. OUN

COLDWATER, Miss, Juyl 81
.R-"We don't have floods here,"
said Mayor Smith Cooper, but this
town of 800 inhabitants is being
moved lock, stock and barrel be-
cause yves just being made the
goats to benefit the country below
us where high water does come"
but we're trying to make the,
best Of it," the dapper, middle
sized, middle-aged chief executive
asserted Wistfully.
C~entury-old Coldwater, rising pic
turesquely among spreading oaks
and broad magnolias in a little
valley stretched between rolling
hills, must build anew. It's new
backdrop is a drab, treeless, SUM-
bitten cotton patch a mile away
from the towns present shaded
streets.
Eight miles from here, engin-
GERS are building huge Arkabula
dam spanning sluggish Coldwater
river to create a check-rein on
disastrous floods which for years
harassed inhabitants of YaZoo ba-
sin, south of Coldwater.
At the edge of this 40-mile res
notwithstanding is Coldwater
LIS houses, five churches, two
blocks of business structures and
its home-loving residents who lust
want to be left alone"
Admitting that in most cases
the government has offered fair
prices for the property, Mayor
Cooper added:
Money Can't Buy
But lots of people forget that
there are some things money just
can't buy.
eve have our churches where
our mothers and fathers were
married. We have our homes where
our children we're raised, and u
gardens, our trees and our shrub
hey. Well lose all that-and mon
ey doesn't rub out such memoir
les"
The government has agreed to
pay the town $110, 900 for its streets
waterworks and other municipal
holdings. For private property it
is dealing directly with wne of
whom IS percent already h
signed up. Two years is the dead
line, but moving will start this
fall.
AS one example, the government
has agreed to pay for the Baptist
church founded 66 years ago and
for the attractive little brick par
sonage next door.
Still Stunned
We're still stunned, sighed
pretty, gray-haired Mrs. Harry c.
Callicott, wife of Coldwater's post
master. Significantly, she pointed
to huge oaks and pecan trees
which frame the ample Callicot
home, one of the towns show
places.
Mrs. Callicott said she'd cam
paigned 20 years for BLACK top
town streets.
1--WE put it through three year
ago-but what good does it do now?
The government offered, as an
alternative, to build a levee around
Coldwater, cutting it off.
But we'd rather move than have
that DONE" said Mayor Cooper.
Folks here just don't like the idea
of living behind a levee.'
Mayor Cooper predicts a 40 per-
cent loss in population.
Moving a town. he declared,
rs something like flushing a covey
of birds. They all fly away, but
don't all light in the same place.
F. F. Veazey. who with his two
brothers operates a 75-year-old mer
camille store founded by their IA
Their. said:
Much of our trade territory will
be wiped out by the reservoir. Nc
body's in favor of the project here
except a few absentee owners who
will sell their property and pro-
baby won't rebuild on the new
site.
That's where We'll lose 3 lot Of
people. People who have been rent
ing absentee-owned houses and
stores won't have any place to %.