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GSDP looks back at 2009, gazes forward to this year |
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Friday, 29 January 2010 |
 Top, Prudential Starkville Properties co-owners Judy Webb, left, and Melanie Mitchell, accept the R. Clay Simmons Exemplary Enterprise Award during Thursday night’s Greater Starkville Development Partnership annual banquet. Above, Starkville Community Market founders Jeremiah Dumas and Tammy Tyndall Carlisle were honored with the T.E. Veitch Community Service Award at the banquet. By PAUL SIMS
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As the Greater Starkville Development Partnership heads into 2010, regional cooperation is a reality as the GSDP leaves a number of accomplishments behind in a transitional 2009, the organization’s president said.
At GSDP’s annual banquet Thursday on the Mississippi State University campus, Jon Maynard, the GSDP’s president and CEO, reflected on 2009, which he described as a transition year. “We wanted to make sure everything we’ve got is solid, so we listened,” he said.
He listed among the organization’s accomplishments the following:
• Touching or completing the 17 items on the Targeted and Prepared Community report, designed to help the community build jobs and investment.
• Adopting with the Mississippi Development Authority the Priority One program, developed to make contact with and help existing industries in the state.
• The Shop Starkville campaign, which encourages people in the community to do business locally.
• An initial meeting between the executive committees of the Columbus-Lowndes Development Link, the GSDP and the West Point/Clay County Community Growth Alliance, which has now led to the three entities getting together to develop a common program of work. The effort is a “a great step in cooperation leading to working together,” Maynard said.
• The establishment of the GTR Global Industrial Aerospace Park, which – while in Lowndes County – is a cooperative effort involving Lamar and Pickens counties in Alabama; Noxubee, Monroe, Oktibbeha and Lowndes counties in Mississippi and the communities of West Point, Starkville and Columbus.
• The first Downtown Pumpkinpalooza, an event about eight days prior to Halloween in October which drew crowds to the city’s Main Street area. “It started with just a rough idea in the office,” Maynard said.
In looking ahead to this year, Maynard said there is a “very, very tough situation with the economy.” Officials will market Starkville by making visits, he said. “Shoe leather is the only way it’s going to happen for us.”
Former Lt. Gov. Amy Tuck, the GSDP’s current board chair, recognized Terry Kemp, her immediate predecessor. Tuck, currently special assistant to MSU President Dr. Mark Keenum, told Kemp she is “honored to follow you in this role.”
Kemp reflected on some of the organization’s accomplishments, including Maynard’s hiring. “It’s just a good fit for us all,” Kemp said. Maynard took over in his role at the GSDP on Oct. 1, 2008.
GSDP Board Member Harold Clark and Lynne Richardson, the dean of Mississippi State University’s College of Business, made a formal announcement about Project SAVE (Starkville Area Volunteers for Education).
Richardson outlined the program.
The effort is designed to provide two sets of partners for every classroom in the third through eighth grades in the Oktibbeha County and Starkville public school districts – one being a church or civic organization and the other a business, Richardson said.
“The Education Committee believes very deeply in Project SAVE,” Clark said.
A pilot program is expected to start this spring.
The audience also heard from Jan Eastman, the director of development of the CREATE Foundation, who outlined the tuition guarantee program for East Mississippi Community College. In December, officials with Starkville Oktibbeha Achieving Results – a CREATE community affiliate – announced their plans to grant the tuition program $10,000 annually.
Eastman described these funds as “seed money.” Community officials have asked other organizations to join in backing the effort financially.
To meet a program requirements, a student must:
• Apply for all federal and state aid and any other available tuition help. “This program guarantees only the amount lacking after all this has been applied,” Herring said.
• Attend EMCC full-time, which is 12 semester credit hours, for four consecutive semesters.
• Keep a 2.0 grade point – or “C” – average.
If enrollment drops below 12 semester credit hours at any time or the students does not meet grade point requirement, the student will lose tuition guarantee funding and be ineligible for the tuition guarantee program from that point forward.
“Economic status of the family is not considered in this program,” Eastman said.
The program is open to students who graduate from public, private and home schools in Starkville and Oktibbeha County.
She also noted that the program does not compete with MSU.
Regular annual awards for the evening included the following recognitions and their recipients:
• R. Clay Simmons Exemplary Enterprise Award – Prudential Starkville Properties.
• T. E. Veitch Community Service Award – Jeremiah Dumas and Tammy Tyndall Carlisle.
• Crystal Pineapple Tourism Award – Mississippi State Athletics. Regina Byrne, the wife of MSU Athletic Director Greg Byrne, accepted the award on her husband’s behalf. Last year, Greg Byrne received the Ambassador of the Year award for his wife.
• Industry of the Year Award – Weavexx. Doug Horanburg, the plant’s manager, received the award.
• Military Service Award – Gulf States Manufacturing. Company president Danny Coggins accepted the award.
• Ambassador of the Year Award – Carolyn Jackson.
Plus, the GSDP honored three new inductees into the community’s Education Hall of Fame – Dr. JoAnn Vicks, Dr. Cathy Grace, and the late Edythe Moore McArthur.
“My service has been a labor of love,” Vicks said. Dr. Gail Lindsey, the interim co-director of the Early Childhood Institute at MSU, accepted the honor on behalf of Grace.
John “Jay” McArthur, McArthur’s son, received the recognition for his mother. In accepting the honor, McArthur encouraged the audience to contact elected officials and tell them “Education is a do-not-touch.” Lawmakers are currently in the process of trying determine how to work with depleted revenues in crafting the state’s budget.
The evening included a surprise recognition of Jack Wallace for his work with the Employer Support of the Guard and Reserve. He was honored with proclamations from both Mayor Parker Wiseman and Gov. Haley Barbour.
GSDP officials also provided copies of a promotional magazine featuring various aspects of the community. The magazine bears “Where Progress Meets Tradition,” the recently-selected slogan for the community.
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Last Updated ( Tuesday, 02 February 2010 )
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