MSU Extension Well Owner Network hosts workshops
Private well workshops in four counties this spring will help homeowners improve their drinking water sources.
The Mississippi Well Owner Network, a program of the Mississippi State University Extension Service, will hold workshops at Extension offices in Pearl River County May 12-13, Lawrence County May 20, Greene County May 27 and Prentiss County June 15. Well owners can receive onsite technical assistance on these dates from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. by calling their local MSU Extension agent and getting their names and addresses added to the list of residents requesting direct technical assistance.
A grant from the Environmental Protection Agency is funding the workshops and water screenings. The first 45 workshop registrants at each of the four locations will receive free bacterial sample screening for their wells. Screenings for others are $25.
Well owners in Pearl River County can pick up sample bottles and collection instructions April 29-May 12 at 417 Highway 11 North in Poplarville; Lawrence County, May 5-19, 214 Main Street, Suite C, Mon
sedan with four college kids pulls in for gas. They find the blood-splattered owner but fare no better. The hooded felon brandishes a hatchet and slaughters the stunned passengers. By the time the driver careens out of the gas station, he is driving a hearse. Soon, the white Ford van forces him off the road. The driver struggles futilely to crank his stalled Mercedes. Quietly, a hooded gunman approaches him. The whimpering driver begs for mercy but gets a bullet.
Director Tim Hunter's approach to the subject matter is subtle and sophisticated. He stages Jake's torture in the van and the murders with straightforward but chilling detachment. Basically, horror movies are action & adventure epics turned upside down, with macabre endings that reward evil. During the first hour of “Smiley Face Killers,” Hunter orchestrates everything so that an inconspicuous Ford appears in each scene without Jake paying any attention to it. Later, when he showers, these cloaked intruders enter Jake's house and plant an incriminating California map on his bed with smiley face emblems along the coast. The map baffles Jake. Police remind us always to be vigilant. Sadly, our protagonist is so preoccupied with his own paranoia about Keren and Rob that he doesn't realize he is being groomed for the grave. Clever as these cloaked miscreants are, they remain hopelessly enigmatic in their dark ominous robes. Indeed, we catch only glimpses of actor Crispin Glover in scar-tissue make-up. Hunter and Ellis deprive them of any motives. We never see them when they aren't stalking their prey. We're allowed to marvel at their stealth and secrecy, but we never learn what fuels their white-on-white crime. Instead, the filmmakers stun us with flashes of shocking violence, while we hope their victims will escape and expose them. Unfortunately, poor Jake has isolated himself so utterly from Keren and his soccer teammates that they cannot help him. Although he starts back on his meds, he doesn't do it soon enough to make a difference. Scenarist Bret Easton Ellis has shifted the murders from the Midwest to California. Instead of dumping bodies in rivers and lakes, these killers abandon them on the beaches. As the film closes, these wicked wrongdoers have spotted their next brawny jock. “Smiley Face Killers” leaves us with little to laugh about but something to dread.