NORTHEAST MISSISSIPPI DAILY JOURNAL
Editorial
Wednesday, September 26, 2007
ANOTHER WIN
Another major milestone in what Community Development Foundation Chairman Jack Reed Jr. calls the “championship season” of economic development in Northeast Mississippi came Tuesday when Toyota Auto Body officially became part of the Lee County community.
The Japanese company – a majority share of which is owned by Toyota itself – will supply the automaker’s new plant at Blue Springs from a $200 million facility in the Harry A. Martin North Lee Industrial Complex in Baldwyn, where it will employ 400 workers. This is the second Tier 1 Toyota supplier to land in the region; Toyota Boshoku earlier this month announced it will build an $80 million, 500-employee plant near Dorsey in Itawamba County.
Toyota and these two suppliers bring the total of new, high-paying jobs in Northeast Mississippi’s new automotive industry to nearly 3,000 – and there is more to come. ...
There was the early vision of local leaders who, working with Three Rivers Planning and Development District, formed the PUL Alliance in Pontotoc, Union and Lee counties, an unprecedented regional cooperative which developed and marketed the Wellspring site. There were regional legislators from both parties who caught the vision and became advocates. There was the indisputably critical work of Gov. Haley Barbour as recruiter-in-chief and the support of the Mississippi Development Authority.
And there was the top-flight professional leadership of Community Development Foundation President David Rumbarger and the CDF staff.
But all of their efforts would not have achieved the level of success reached so far were it not for the communities of Northeast Mississippi – our people, our schools, our work ethic, our hospitality and the undergirding spirit of cooperation for mutual benefit.
Now is not the time to rest. Taking full advantage of this unique moment in the economic history of our region requires continued vigilance.
More good news won’t automatically come. But if the teamwork and tenacity demonstrated so far continue, there will be a lot of wins still to come in this championship season.
For the full story, visit the Daily Journal website: http://www.djournal.com/pages/story.asp?ID=252609&pub=1&div=Opinion