Tunica County administrator Michael Thompson was arrested last Wednesday, February 12, by local sheriff’s deputies and held in the Tunica County Jail for several hours on an outstanding warrant from another county.

Thompson, 36, was booked into the jail at 7:39 p.m. for driving with a suspended or revoked driver’s license and on a warrant from Montgomery County for Failure to Appear.

According to a Feb. 13 release from the Tunica County Sheriff’s Department, Tunica County Justice Court Judge Louise Linzy confirmed the warrant with a judge in Montgomery County, but “an arrest warrant was not sent and Michael Thompson was able to post bond on the charge of driving while license suspended.”

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“This community deserves options in education and charter schools provide that,” Dr. Willie W. Herenton told a crowd of citizens, educators and elected officials at a community meeting on Feb. 19 at the Tunica Museum.

Herenton, a former mayor and superintendent of Memphis City schools, spoke on behalf of the W.E.B. Du Bois Consortium of Charter Schools, Inc. The organization has submitted a letter of intent to locate in Tunica County. He predicted it is the first of many to come.

Herenton said he was born in South Memphis in a household headed by his mother and grandmother. He and his sister were charged with getting the stove ready for his mother to cook each day.

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Tunica County skirted on the edge of defaulting on a loan, before supervisors voted last week to bring the note current.

County administrator Michael Thompson and comptroller Alex Wiley said Feb. 13 that monthly payments of $12,000 on the November and December 2013 claims docket had not been made and that the creditor was demanding both the past due amounts and February’s payment now “to make the loan whole and avoid default,” Wiley said.

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It was a political opportunity that brought the Butler family to Tunica, where they fell in love with country living and friendly faces.  Craig Butler and Ashley Boyd recall moving to Tunica after their father, Larry Butler, took up a post as county administrator in 1973.  Though both Larry and his wife Nancy are now deceased, Boyd remains in Tunica with her husband and children, while Craig and his family visit frequently from their home in Murfreesboro, TN.

After serving as Assistant County Administrator for Shelby County, Larry and his family packed up and moved a little further south  He was a civil engineer by trade and later utilized those skills as Tunica County engineer.  He even made his mark in history through implementing the unit system of county government, Craig said.

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