Board of Aldermen Decision Could Affect Starkville’s Econ. Development

STARKVILLE, Miss. (WCBI) – Last week’s 4-3 decision by Starkville’s Board of Aldermen to deny Starkville Pride’s proposal for a gay pride parade may face some ripple effects in the economic community.

The decision comes only a few months after Starkville leaders announced the site for their new industrial park.

With the bad press and conflict in the community, if this keeps on, Starkville may have a harder time attracting business to their corner of the Golden Triangle.

The Highway 82/25 corridor is the future of Starkville industry.

Being in the nation’s poorest state makes this site a hard sell to companies already, but the recent board of aldermen decision to deny Starkville Pride’s parade proposal could make the sell even harder.

“Companies that are not from here that are looking to locate in any place, USA read your newspapers, watch your news, kind of keep an eye on what’s going on, and anytime there’s negative press regarding anything companies generally take note,” said LINK CEO, Joe Max Higgins.

That decision received negative press across the country.

Leaders at The Partnership understand companies look at more than the location of a site.

“Within a community itself, things like education, healthcare, quality of life are all huge dynamics that corporations look for when they’re looking to a new location,” said CEO, Scott Maynard.

Maynard and his team hope to mend this wound in community relations.

“The Partnership represents everyone,” said Maynard. “We want to make sure that any organization knows we are here to support and the community as a whole is here to support everyone equally and provide opportunity for everyone within our community.”

Time could still be on Starkville’s side, as the park itself is not set to open until 2019, but Higgins says future decisions made by Starkville need to consider the big picture.

“I’ll say a lot of time projects are won because the community does something right, and sometimes projects are lost because the community does something wrong,” said Higgins. “Will this have worn off? You know, I don’t know. I thin that we all need to be just mindful and aware that when we make decisions they have consequences sometimes, and we need to make… you know we make decision make sure we think them out.”

Higgins also told us some companies have already expressed interest in the new industrial park.

As far as last week’s alderman decision, if the community is able to come to an agreement or a compromise of some sort, it might be easier for Starkville to achieve its vision for future industry.