LOCAL * From staff reports

The Vicksburg Board of Mayor and Aldermen approved cleanup at five neglected properties. They are:

501 Dabney St., owned by Prisock Properties, was approved for grass and weed cutting, trash removal and the removal of a dilapidated building.

2611 Royal St., owned by Ethel Rainey Estate in care of William Rainey, was approved for grass and weed cutting, as well as removal of a dilapidated building.

Three unspecified lots on Roosevelt Avenue, owned by the state of Mississippi, was approved for grass and weed cutting. The board will meet next at 10 a.m. Monday.

Hitchins joins Post as news reporter

Pamela Hitchins has joined The Vicksburg Post as a reporter.

Hitchins is a new resident of Vicksburg, moving here in June from Massachusetts, where she was a fifth-grade teacher and free-lance reporter for the Barnstable Patriot.

She also worked for Sandwich Broadsider and other publications of Community Newspaper Company.

A California native, Hitchins has three grown children.

She is a parishioner of St. George Antiochian Orthodox Church on Washington Street.