WEBB — Buoyed by a special legislative appropriation of $250,000, the town of Webb is pressing forward with a plan to rebuild the Webb Community House, which was destroyed by fire in January 2020.
Webb Mayor Michael Plez said state Sen. Sarita Simmons and state Rep. Tracey Rosebud helped to bring to fruition the quarter-million dollar set-aside during the 2023 legislative session.
“I want to thank them for helping us get these funds to build the community house back,” noted Plez. “The town of Webb has been looking for this. It took a lot of work from the board, myself, and working with the senator and representative. Those two spearheaded it, but we all had to work to make sure it happened.”
The planned new community center, which the mayor said will still be called the Webb Community House, is in the earliest planning stages.
Situated at the intersection of North Laura Street and Chippewa Avenue, the Community Center “was a good building for all different types of events,” the mayor recalled, specifically mentioning that it provided permanent housing for the Webb Reading Corner, an educational outreach. Since the fire, the Corner has operated from the former National Guard armory here.
Plez said he hopes progress on a new facility will be swift.
“We will give an update on when we will do the groundbreaking and what the building will look like,” he noted.
The Webb Community House had been a local fixture for more than 80 years.
The roughly 1,400-square-foot structure was built in 1938 or 1939 through President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s National Youth Administration, part of the New Deal initiative to provide jobs and relief to Americans affected by the Great Depression.
The Webb Lions Club sponsored the project and held meetings and other functions in the building. The Webb Civic Club, a former women’s organization, also met and held events there, as did the Tallahatchie County 4-H Club and the Sumner Rotary Club, among others.
The Community House was utilized for wedding and funeral receptions, baby showers, birthday parties, banquets, educational activities, volunteer firefighter training classes, pet vaccination drives, family and school reunions, spaghetti suppers, cake walks, political rallies, a voting precinct for town and county elections and more.
