After meeting Monday, April 22, with city, county and area leaders, U.S. Sen. Roger Wicker said he is “really bullish” on several proposed projects designed to improve local public utilities, add more housing and develop new opportunities for economic growth and job development in the Charleston community.
The 12:30 p.m. gathering was held in the courtroom at Charleston City Hall.
Mayor Sedrick Smith and aldermen asked for assistance in modernizing the water and sewer infrastructure in Charleston, which would include drilling a new well that could tap into a greatly improved quality of water from a much deeper aquifer than the one currently supplying the city's water system. The project would carry an estimated price tag of $10 million. To access $8 million in available state funds, the city would be required to provide $2 million in matching monies that it simply does not have, Wicker was told.
Tallahatchie County Board of Supervisors President Johnny Goodwin said the county would benefit from development of a solid waste transfer station on county-owned land near Charleston. There, trash collected by the county’s garbage trucks could be dumped, compacted and stored on a temporary basis before being hauled to its final destination: a landfill at Sidon in Leflore County. Currently, the trucks must make the roughly 140-mile round trip to the landfill when they get full. A transfer station would greatly reduce trip frequency, curbing vehicle wear and tear, cutting fuel costs and increasing the overall efficiency of the system, Goodwin said. The cost of constructing a transfer station would be about $1.9 million, he noted.
Also discussed were plans to designate a former sawmill grounds in North Charleston as a historic preservation district, which would open opportunities for funding and development of single-family, medium-income housing in that area of the city.
Dr. Ed Meek said a developer is on board and plans are in the works, adding that affordable housing to attract new residents is expected to be under construction in Charleston within 18 months.
Meek said, “These and other projects are necessary to the shared version of a community that provides jobs for its citizens, particularly young people, and can attract new residents offering affordable housing and jobs in the rapidly expanding industrial complex in Grenada.”
Among those attending Monday’s meeting were Matthew Harrison, executive director of the Grenada County Economic Development District — which has entered into a partnership with Tallahatchie County and the city of Charleston — and Kevin Gibson, plant manager of Milwaukee Tool, which recently began operations on I-55 at Grenada.
Smith, Meek and some staff of the Ed and Becky Meek Foundation, which organized Monday’s gathering, met more than a year ago with the Grenada group and a senior corporate executive with Milwaukee Tool. It was suggested in that meeting that Charleston could become a major supplier of employees to support the ongoing industrial growth in Grenada and the region.
Harrison said within the past three years alone, more than 5,000 new jobs have been announced by a handful of industries within 40 miles of Charleston.
"You've got the opportunity. The two key things that everyone is talking about that we have discovered is, we can recruit and bring people. There are people in the area that want to work, and a lot of them are driving in — well over 50% of them are driving in from different locations — but we've got to have housing and we've got to have training."
Meek said the notion is to build Charleston's image as a bedroom community, where people could find affordable housing in which to live while driving to job opportunities in the area.
Tommy Reynolds, attorney for the city of Charleston and Tallahatchie County, said, “Charleston has to have the infrastructure in water, sewer services and garbage collection to support this growth. In addition to enriched public utilities, consideration is being given to both manufacturing and job training programs to be located in the county.”
Wicker said he sees great merit in the local planning and believes his counterparts in Washington will, too.
“The vision of a community that will aggressively engage with opportunities throughout the region is good and I see no reason why Charleston cannot become an ideal place to live and work,” he noted.
“I’m optimistic,” the senator added, pledging the support of his office. “This is jobs. This is quality of life. This is building the school system up to a higher level. ... I’m impressed. ... I'm all in. Now, we've just got to [convince] 60 other people in the Senate and some folks in the House."
When Wicker asked whether there had been any contact with the legislative department of his Washington office about specifics, facts and figures, of the projects discussed at Monday's meeting, he was told by attending representatives of North Delta Planning and Development District, Granville Sherman and James Curcio, that they have been in touch with his staff and have paperwork in process.
After the City Hall meeting, Wicker toured the former National Guard armory, now owned by the city, and learned of the nearly 20,000-square-foot building's economic development potential to house manufacturing assets and/or a job skills training program. Northwest Mississippi Community College has expressed interest in the latter.
“I am excited by the vision I see for this community,” he said.
During casual remarks, Wicker talked about having served as a page in the U.S. House of Representatives for the late Jamie L. Whitten of Charleston, whom many years later he succeeded in Congress. He also shared a few other memories of visits to the city, including once sharing a photo opportunity with local actor Morgan Freeman during a hastily arranged meeting on the grounds of the Tallahatchie County Courthouse in Charleston.
"I have great memories here," Wicker said. "If you can get a job inside the county — that's wonderful — but the idea of a bedroom community, I think, has a lot of attraction. And like my predecessor, Mr. Whitten, and like [former Mississippi senators] Mr. [Trent] Lott and Mr. [Thad] Cochran, I do believe in congressionally directed spending. ... This sounds like the kind of community support that they like to see in Washington, D.C., on projects like this. And you're talking about matches of various kinds. So I'm really bullish on this, not the least reason of which is that so much of this is Budgie Meek's ideas, and he's never had a bad one."
Budgie is the locally familiar nickname of Ed Meek of Oxford, who is a native of Charleston and along with his wife, Becky, a native of the Paynes community, an active supporter of initiatives to enhance the city of Charleston and Tallahatchie County.
The Ed and Becky Meek Foundation has provided grants to the Tallahatchie County Board of Supervisors and the Grenada County Economic Development District to catalog county assets and build a portfolio to attract industry to the county.
