Category Archives: Golden Triangle

Girl Scouts Honor GTR’s Finest at Women of Distinction Ceremony

Girl Scouts Honor GTR’s Finest at Women of Distinction Ceremony

GTR LINK’s Brenda Lathan and her fellow honorees (courtesy Columbus Lowndes CoC)

Girl Scouts Heart of the South held its Women of Distinction in the Golden Triangle Region this past Friday. The keynote speaker was Dr. Kate Borsig.

Among the honorees was The Golden Triangle’s own Brenda H. Lathan, Senior Vice President of Economic Development at the GTR LINK!

We here at Good for Business would like to congratulate Ms. Lathan and all of the honorees. Thank you for your selfless contribution to our communities!

For more photos and info, please click here.

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SDI Paint Facility in Columbus Now Open for Business

SDI Paint Facility in Columbus Now Open for Business

“The opening of this new paint facility is a significant milestone for Steel Dynamics and the people of the Golden Triangle region, as it represents the company’s commitment to doing business in Lowndes County and creating jobs for the area’s workforce,” Governor Bryant said.

“The Paint Line project will improve the Columbus Flat Roll Division’s competitiveness and sustainability in our steel markets,” said Madhu Ranade, vice president and general manager of Steel Dynamics, Flat Roll Group, Columbus Division. “We’re grateful to the state of Mississippi, MDA, Lowndes County, TVA and ARC for their continued partnership as we expand in Columbus.”

The Mississippi Development Authority helped with infrastructure improvements, rail construction and workforce training. The Tennessee Valley Authority, Appalachian Regional Commission and the Lowndes County Board of Supervisors also provided assistance for the project.

“Sustainable growth in economic development is achievable in our state when all levels of government work together to create a business environment in which companies can achieve their goals,” said MDA Executive Director Glenn McCullough, Jr. “MDA congratulates SDI and our partners at the Golden Triangle Development LINK, Lowndes County, TVA, ARC and the Lowndes County Industrial Development Authority on this momentous occasion.”

The facility’s new paint line has an annual coating capacity of 250,000 tons.

Please click here for the full article.

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Owner of Waverly Mansion Has Passed On

courtesy photo

CLAY COUNTY, Miss. (WCBI) –

Robert Snow, the owner of the historic Waverley Mansion in Clay County passed away Sunday evening.

He and his family have spent decades restoring the the Antebellum home since purchasing it in 1962.

The home and the Snow Family have been awarded a number of honors for historic restoration and preservation.

Waverley is open for tours and is often a venue for weddings and other events.

Services for Snow are being handled by Calvert Funeral Home in West Point.

Please click here for the full article.

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West Point’s Old Waverly Golf Club to Host Major 2019 Women’s USGA Event

West Point’s Old Waverly Golf Club to Host Major 2019 Women’s USGA Event

WEST POINT (WCBI) –

Old Waverly Golf Club in West Point, Miss., will be the host site for the 2019 U.S. Women’s Amateur Championship. Scheduled for Aug. 5-11, this will be the third USGA championship contested at Old Waverly, which previously hosted the 1999 U.S. Women’s Open and the 2006 U.S. Women’s Mid-Amateur.

“The USGA is proud to bring one of our three oldest championships to Old Waverly in 2019,” said Stuart Francis, USGA Championship Committee chairman. “The U.S. Women’s Amateur attracts the world’s best female amateur players, and we are confident Old Waverly will provide a fair and comprehensive test that identifies a champion worthy of hoisting the historic Robert Cox Trophy.”

“It is an honor to host the 119th U.S. Women’s Amateur Championship at Old Waverly,” said George Bryan, club founder. “We have a strong history of supporting competitive amateur golf, and we look forward to welcoming the best female amateurs in the game to our course and to the state of Mississippi in 2019.”

The 2017 Women’s Amateur will be conducted Aug. 7-13 at San Diego Country Club, in Chula Vista, Calif., and the 2018 championship will be held Aug. 6-12 at the Golf Club of Tennessee, in Kingston Springs, Tenn.

Please click here to see the full article

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Bargain Hunt, Vapezy Open; LA Shrimp Shack Shutters its Doors

THE DISPATCH

In mid-February The Dispatch brought us the news that Bargain Hunt would be opening in Columbus in the former Southern Family Market location next to K-Mart. The store is now preparing for a grand opening to be held on March 17. Their new Columbus location is in addition to their existing one in Starkville, and more than sixty others nationwide.

The store’s hours will be 10 a.m.-8 p.m. Monday-Thursday, 10 a.m.-9 p.m. Friday-Saturday and 11 a.m.-7 p.m. Sundays. It will bring 25 new jobs to the area.

Highway 45 gained another new attraction in the form of Vapezy, a premium e-liquid and supply store located at 1909-B Hwy. 45 N.  Billy and Andrea Ezell opened Vapezy in September of last year.  The couple are originally from Webster County, where they became friends through the medium of vaping, that is, the enjoyment of vapor-producing electronic cigarettes.

“We want to present a greater sense of community than other shops,” Ezell said regarding the store’s future. “That’s what the vape scene is really about.”

While currently operating out of the store’s front section, there are plans to add a lounge into the 1,800 square-foot building. The store carries eight different lines of e-liquid and plans to expand to carry numerous vaping devices, from starter to advanced level, alongside additional e-liquids.  Vapezy is open 10 a.m.-8 p.m. Monday-Saturday.

Finally, the Louisiana Shrimp Shack quietly closed its doors on Feb. 21.  The Shrimp Shack originally opened Sept. 8, 2016, with Kenny Whitey, a fisherman from New Orleans, as owner. It was located at 1909-A Hwy. 45 N. and enjoyed much praise from locals for its fresh from the gulf seafood and “straight-outta-the-bayou” home-cooking.  Whitey said the travel to and from the shack was too much for the family to maintain.

http://cdispatch.com/news/article.asp?aid=56789

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SOCSD Announced Opening of New Partnership School

SOCSD Announced Opening of New Partnership School

THE DISPATCH

SOCSD Lewis Holliday (courtesy photo)

The Starkville-Oktibbeha Consolidated School District-Mississippi State University partnership school is now projected to open in the late fall of 2018, three to four months later than previously expected, SOCSD Superintendent Lewis Holloway confirmed Wednesday.  The project, which will house and educate all sixth- and seventh-grade students in Oktibbeha County, is still moving forward, he said, but the administrative process developing the school has slowed down its progress and tentatively pushed back the opening date.

“Normally, a school district just designs and builds a new campus. It’s a much speedier process (without university and state-level involvement),” he said. “We had to go through the (university’s) design review committee, and that took several months that we weren’t anticipating.”

MSU Chief Communications Officer Sid Salter said the new timeline estimate is a conservative one and the university is confident it and SOCSD “can successfully navigate any issues that arise.”
“In any project of this nature, such delays are often unavoidable,” he said.

Once completed, the roughly $30 million project will serve as a model education platform in the state and help solve issues with classroom overcrowding created after the Oktibbeha County School District and Starkville School District merged.

Funding for the partnership school comes from three levels: state lawmakers appropriated $10 million, MSU pledged approximately $10 million in land and money and a local $16 million bond issuance will fund construction costs, furnishings and other districtwide infrastructure needs.

Please click here to read the full article

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CPD Looking to Community for Involvement, Recruitment

K. B. Turner (courtesy photo)

CPD Looking to Community for Involvement, Recruitment
THE DISPATCH

At a series of public meetings held in each ward throughout the month of February, police consultant K.B. Turner and other city administrators heard from citizens about concerns and suggestions for improving public safety in the city: “I’m still very encouraged by what I have heard from the meetings during last month. Citizens have come out to express themselves and they honored my request … not to just talk about their frustrations but also to provide some recommendations and some suggestions as well,” Turner said.

“I think the meetings went well,” CPD Chief Oscar Lewis agreed. “There were different things that came out of the meetings. … It was far-reaching as far as community concerns.”

In order to best assess the local community’s concerns and ideas, Turner had attendees fill out surveys about crime and safety in the city, getting input on concerns ranging from concerns about drugs and gangs to the last time the person filling out the survey talked to a police officer to whether street lighting is adequate.  Turner got approximately 180 surveys back from the six meetings.

He spoke of his initial findings to date, pending a more in-depth analysis to come: “How was it different between Ward 1 and Ward 6, for example? How about people who are retired versus those who are working? What about those who are below the age of 30 versus those who are over age 30?” Turner said.

Turner says that he plans to keep getting civilians involved with CPD.  He was able to get roughly thirty volunteers signed up between the six meetings, though several others have also expressed interest in helping out. These civilians might be called upon to assist with traffic stops, clerical work, and other such things, so that they may help without placing themselves in danger.

“They would be in a non law enforcement capacity,” Turner said. “They will not have access to weapons or any other items that identify them as a law enforcement officer. A lot of (what they do) will be clerical in nature.”

In addition, he remarked that “We’re going to continue to engage in what I call this ‘aggressive’ form of recruiting for new officers.” About 50 people attended a CPD Career Day on February 25, Turner said. According to CPD’s Twitter, the department handed out 45 applications in about four hours. Before the day was up, 15 had been filled out and returned, City Public Information Officer Joe Dillon said, while more have come in since.  Turner plans to hold another career day on March 25 — and it won’t be the last, he added. Dillon said the department will coordinate with universities to determine a good time closer to graduation when potential applicants could attend a career day.

Turner also wants to recruit from universities and military bases and institutions. He wants everyone who might be interested to know CPD is hiring officers.

“In terms of the future, we are going to continue to look ahead,” he added. “…What can we do for 2017 to enhance conditions to make sure we improve upon our staffing numbers and make this place a greater place to live? In terms of the department, we’re going to make Columbus the department destination for folks who want to work as an officer.”

Please click here to read the full article.

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State Unemployment Rate at 13-Year Low

State Unemployment Rate at 13-Year Low

The Dispatch

The MS Dept. of Employment Security reports that the Mississippi’s seasonally-adjusted unemployment rate has hit a 13-year low over the past two months. According to their data, the seasonally-adjusted rate has come in at 5.5% (down from 6.1% in January); the last time it was that low was in December 2003.

The nation’s seasonally-adjusted unemployment rate for January was 4.8 percent.

Lowndes County’s unemployment rate increased from 5.9 percent in December to 6.5 percent in January. Oktibbeha County’s jobless rate went up from 5.6 percent in December to 5.9 percent in January and the unemployment rate went from 7.7 percent to 8.1 percent in Clay County.

Statewide, 500 new jobs were created in January, MDES data shows.

Please click here to view the full article.

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LC Supervisors Have Approved Funding for Job Development at Steel Dynamics’ Industrial Park

LC Supervisors Have Approved Funding for Job Development at Steel Dynamics’ Industrial Park

LOWNDES COUNTY – Courtesy of The Dispatch

GTR LINK CEO Joe Max Higgins reports that Lowndes County supervisors unanimously approved more than $1.7 million in grants and loans for a company to build a $7.5 million new facility on the Steel Dynamics, Inc. campus at the industrial park west of Columbus. Some further funding will be required, but this gets the ball rolling in a major way, and opens the door to new facilities (including a railroad spur) which should provide at least fifty local jobs.

Joe Max Higgins, left, and Harry Sanders

“They need to ship out product by rail,” Higgins said. “And there needs to be an improved road to where they can do truck deliveries out as well . . .  The steel’s made on campus, so it’s just taken up there and processed,” he added. “But then it will go out by train to those customers who want train delivery or by truck for those of them who want trucking.”

“[The new company will] basically take steel that SDI makes and further process it into what I understand is a consumer product,” Higgins said. “It’s about a $7.5 million investment that’ll create 50 jobs, and I think that’s (the job count) a conservative number — I think it could go higher . . . It’s not a Steel Dynamics project, but it’s a result of Steel Dynamics being here,” Higgins went on to say. “Quite frankly, it’s a result of the new paint line that they’re fixing to put online. This is probably the first new business that you can directly attribute to the new paint line.”

Please click here to see the full article

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Academy Sports Coming to Starkville, Bringing Plenty of Jobs

Academy Sports Coming to Starkville, Bringing Plenty of Jobs

STARKVILLE – Courtesy of Starkville Daily News

Academy Sports+Outdoors on Highway 12 is nearing completion; the store is set to open in late spring, bringing around 100 new jobs to Starkville. The Starkville location will be Academy’s eighth location in Mississippi. The Starkville location will carry apparel for local sports teams. Academy Sports also sells products for outdoor sports and recreational activities.

Academy Sports+Outdoors on Highway 12 will open in late spring (photo by Sarah Raines, SDN)

“We’re always looking to expand, and we’re excited to offer the Starkville community a convenient new shopping destination,” Academy Sports Communication Specialist Karly Makovy said. “Because our store caters to active-minded customers, the Starkville area was a great fit … We are excited to be in Starkville and serve those Bulldog customers . . . The store is going to bring approximately 100 jobs to the area,” Makovy went on to say. “Information on job positions will be posted online. There is information on salary and part-time positions for those people.”

Applications are being accepted on the Academy career website.

“We’re really excited to enter the community,” Makovy said. “We could serve a lot of things in Starkville — a lot of outdoor activities that the community can be involved with. We’ve been eyeing the community for a while.”

Please click here for the full article

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