Poll workers for the upcoming general election are required to attend training. This year there will be two days of training for the workers. One will be conducted on October 19 at the Batesville Courthouse and one on October 20 at the Sardis Courthouse.

Election commissioner Mildred Moore said the training is very important for the upcoming election.

"This is the first year that it has been required for everyone that works the polls to have this specialized training," she said. "They are required to know what their job duties will be on November 2.

"We have already heard that people will be checking up on the elections this year," Moore added.

Moore said another way for the elections to run smoother than the previous county election is for everyone to know where they are supposed to vote.

"With the redistricting that just took place, there might be a lot of people that are really unsure about where they are supposed to go vote," she said. "Voters can simply call the Panola County Circuit Clerk’s office to find out what precinct they need to report to.

"This will be the best way to cut down on the confusion during the election process," she said.

Moore added that the reason for most of the confusion during the last county election was a lack of training for the poll workers.

"The election commissioners are only responsible for the general election," she said. "We don’t handle the primaries.

Cable customers in Batesville were angry with their provider following a recent prolonged outage.

According to Mark Haley of Cable One, the outage was caused by tractors working in the area of one of the main cable lines.

"At 2:07 p.m. on Thursday, October 14, tractors mowing grass on the Highway 6 Right of Way, just West of Marks, bush hogged down four posts with the fiber warning signs attached to them," he said. "Next to one of these posts sat a pedestal that housed the fiber optic line feeding all of CableOne’s cable customers in the Batesville and Marks areas.

"This pedestal was destroyed causing a catastrophic outage for CableOne," Haley added.

Service was restored in less than four hours due in part to special training and and what CableOne calls its "fiber-cut contingency plan."

"It’s difficult to locate an underground cut fiber within a 39 mile distance without the necessary equipment and training," Haley said.

"Though normally rare that accidents like this happen, we put together a plan after the first fiber cut in the event this should ever happen again," he said. "It paid off last night."

Services were restored just before 6 p.m. that night, but crews worked until nearly midnight tweaking the repairs and securing the damaged area.

My husband, Calvin Land, and I live on Good Hope Road. We have four daughters and five grandchildren. We are active leaders in the Terza United Methodist Church, where I presently serve as Church Treasurer/Secretary and children’s Sunday school teacher.

I am Worthy Matron of the Oxford Chapter number 188 , Order of the Eastern Star. Spending time with my grandchildren and traveling are my hobbies.

I have been employed by the Mississippi Department of Corrections for seven years, and am presently the Drug Treatment Program Coordinator for 12 counties in North Mississippi.

I have been employed with the State of Mississippi for 21 years. Prior to this, I was a Deputy Clerk in the Chancery Clerk’s Office of Yalobusha County; a legal assistant for an attorney; and business manager for Yalobusha General Hospital. I am very familiar with the court system and courthouse workings.

The duties of an election commissioner are to purge the rolls of deceased individuals, people who have moved to another area or state and to govern the general elections.

With the experience that I have in the legal field, I am qualified to hold this position. I will work diligently to correct and create unquestionable rolls and to govern the general elections as the statute of the State of Mississippi state they should be.