Joe Max to Tate County…
- Thread starter Maroon Eagle
- Start date
Might be noteworthy.....Memphis is moving to Desoto Co. Next move is Desoto to Tate Co.
Last I read in the Starkville Dispatch paper he was starting his own economic consulting business. But, then I heard on the radio and read that one of the female workers had recorded 17,000 of his texts and messages and they weren't Bible verses and daily devotionals and that she only started saving them because they were not appropriate. Innocent until proven guilty......
Tate County added his business to their economic development foundation group when they made him their head.
Dude hasn’t forgotten how to compete for economic development projects. He will get them competitive quickly, but it will be a while before he has another opportunity to land a whale. Takes a while and a lot of $. And a LOT of cooperation from political decision-makers.
It's going to take a while for those reasons, plus I'm not sure what Tate County has to offer. It's on I-55 and not too far from Memphis. I guess cheap land. I guess it's part of TVA, so maybe some money from them for economic development but that doesn't really distinguish them. Reasonably close to Univerity of Memphis and University of Mississippi, but again, lots of places are reasonably close to some non-descript state school or antoher. No navigable water. Small workforce (under 30k in the county). If he lands a major project there, then Golden Triangle should have opened their pocket books to pay off whoever had a problem with Joe Max and then paid somebody to take care of his needs going forward if that type of issue was really what caused the split.
Don’t forget Northwest Mississippi CC….
Having a nearby community college campus to help out with workforce training is a positive…
Good point. Although again, while it's a real asset, I'm not sure how much of a differentiator that is. I guess it's not as common outside of Mississippi.
Dang, didn't even know he was in the portal. Hate to lose good talent, especially to a lower tier opponent like Tate Co.
@Maroon Eagle None of that has helped us in Copiah County much: on I-55, CN railroad, improved airport, close to Metro Jackson, community college with workforce development program, etc. Sure, we have our limitations; however, southwest Mississippi has been completely ignored by Tate and previous administrations.
Yep. Buy land around Independence High school. Your grandkids will build houses there and send their kids to "Mississippis newest best school." Coldwater will have a Walmart before you know it.
My guess is that he’ll be retired before anything substantial happens out that way. He was nearly to that point anyway before the scandal even broke.
Copiah & Tate counties definitely have similarities.
I was also wondering about his being potentially close to retirement.
If the Tate County folks are smart enough, they’d bring up succession planning with him… but does he have experience as a mentor? Any protégés doing good work someplace?
Coldwater has a long way to go before getting a Walmart being that there’s one about 5 miles down the road.
The issue with SW MS is the actual proximity to a metro area. Yes, Copiah County is close to Jxn, but the little bit of investment around the Jxn area is naturally going to go to Madison, Rankin, or a distant 3rd, Hinds. Madison County seems to be getting close to "capacity", and I'd imagine that future investments to the Jxn-influenced area will start to shift heavily to Rankin soon. Vicksburg is in a decent position with being nearly the same distance from Jxn as Copiah but with the added bonus of the river.
SW MS is just missing a metro area along the 55 corridor. Natchez is too detached from the interstate system. SW MS would be comparable to GTR as far as economic development opportunities, however, a major university is missing, which is what allowed GTR to flourish with investment.
I hate it for SW MS too as my family roots are in the area, but while they have some of the elements needed for investment, they are missing critical ones. I don't think this administration or any administration is skipping over them, I just don't think the elements are there compared to other areas in the state. It's already been a struggle to get what we've gotten thus far in Mississippi.
I think in the article I read when he was dismissed that he said 5 years and he was done no matter what
This is correct. If MDA or whoever has a good relationship with a site selector, they might be able to convince them to listen to a pitch about and visit an area that doesn't check all their boxes, but we unfortunately have a lot of places that just aren't going to be competitive for much.