The 50th anniversary of the Rev. Tom Lalor’s ordination was celebrated this week at St. Paul Catholic Church. About 200 people were in attendance, which included 23 of Lalor’s fellow priests, the Most Rev. Joseph Kopacz, bishop of Jackson, and the Most Rev. Joseph Latino, bishop emeritus.

Lalor was ordained a priest at St. Patrick’s College in his home diocese of Carlow, Ireland.

“I have been so blessed to be here,” Lalor said, before giving the final blessing to close Mass on Thursday.

Lalor’s entire career as a priest has been in Mississippi, a place he volunteered to go.

“I was planning on doing it,” he said. “I was originally a student for my home diocese in Carlow, and I asked the bishop of that diocese for permission to go to Mississippi, because I knew Bishop (Joseph) Brunini wanted to get more priests, and I signed up to come for that reason. I’ve been here ever since.”

More positive happenings in Vicksburg include:

·The newly renovated Ameristar Hotel and Casino’s Heritage Buffet reopened on Friday.

The buffet now features expanded stations, including a new international food station and an expanded salad and dessert bar. The international food station features Chinese, Mexican and Mediterranean foods, and the dessert area features the addition of hand scooped ice creams, including some custom ice cream flavors made just for the buffet.

“The brand new dessert station is phenomenal. It’s doubled in size and will be featuring everything from strawberry shortcake to German chocolate cake to red velvet cake,” Gerad Hardy, Ameristar’s vice president and general manager, said, adding he hoped everyone will come out to see the new buffet for themselves.

·On Saturday, the Warren County Board of Supervisors and the Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality hosted the hazardous waste collection day. The program, which is in its 18th year in Vicksburg, provides residents an opportunity to dispose of old paint and other household materials, including old motor oil, old metal frames and equipment, computers, television sets and old furniture.

Program coordinator, and county employee Larry Flowers said about five or six individual (companies) were on-site to collect materials, including Waste Management and River City Rescue Mission.