In this week in yesterday’s papers Oxford was promoted for its focus on giving and local nonprofits, its willingness to build the local sales tax and “Shop Oxford,” which in turn enabled the county to boast the best employment rate in the state. Oxford also had the best artist in a competition and was striving to be the best in fixing school policies and procedures. Here are excerpts from 2014, 2002, 2001, 1999 and 1987.

Nov. 27, 2014

LOFT awards $17,000 in grants

The Lafayette Oxford Foundation for Tomorrow (LOFT) announced its choices for local nonprofits to receive monetary allocations.

LOFT is a “local community foundation whose mission is to improve quality of life within Oxford and Lafayette County communities”

The grants awarded focused on education, health, culture, human services and civic needs.

Nov. 27, 2002

Residents encouraged to ‘Shop Oxford’ this holiday season

After a successful first year for the Chamber encouraging folks to shop locally, its leaders have launched its second annual campaign.

As the holiday shopping season nears, the Oxford-Lafayette Chamber of Commerce will be sending a message to shop in Oxfod.

Local media advertisements and a banner at the Christmas parade are two methods to boost participation. But the next step is to encourage folks to shop in Oxford every day, and not just at the holidays.

Nov. 27, 2001

Oxford School Board to streamline district policies

Oxford’s school board will have to wade through details while revising sections of the district’s policy manual.

Changes, particularly with the student and personnel sections, deal with reorganizing and rewording the entire manual and not just altering policies.

The effort is underway due to the fact the Oxford High School code of conduct for students has evolved over the years for high school needs and practices. However, the district policies were never revised to reflect the changes, and now the documents clash.

Nov. 24, 1999

Bouldin wins competition

Oxford artist Jason Bouldin has won again.

The internationally known portrait artist entered the Artist’s Magazine competition with a full portrait of a carpenter who works for his father, Marahsll Bouldin, another famous portrait artist.

The oil painting was one of 13,000 entries in five categories, and he was chosen first in his category by an internationally renowned New York portrait artist.

Nov. 25, 1987

Local unemployment lowest in state again

Lafayette County kept its statewide lead in high employment in October when it posted a 3.8 percent jobless rate.

According to figures released by the Mississippi Employment Service, 13,550 people had jobs during October and only 540 were listed as out of work.

The changes resulted in the county leading the state in employment successes for the second consecutive month. September saw a 4.3 percent unemployment rate, and it also was the lowest in the state at the time.