Today In Mississippi

Your electric co-op works hard
to bring more jobs to Mississippi

Your electric power association is a locally owned, locally controlled cooperative. That’s a compelling reason for it to invest time and resources in local economic development efforts.

That translates into more and better jobs for the cooperative’s members, and opportunities for growth in the cooperative’s service area. And, in the case of the Mississippi Gulf Coast, it means economic recovery from Hurricane Katrina.

Although a major economic development project can take years to manifest itself in actual construction, the behind-the-scenes groundwork goes on daily at your electric power association. These are only a few of the recent projects electric power associations have helped bring about:

Singing River Electric Power Association, based in Lucedale, is providing loan assistance to help Mississippi Gulf Coast Community College recover from losses suffered during Hurricane Katrina.

Coast Electric Power Association, headquartered in Bay St. Louis, is assisting in the placement of a 100-employee supermarket in Bay St. Louis and, in Hancock County, the construction of a 20,000-square-foot Technology Center at the Stennis International Airport.

Delta Electric Power Association, in Greenwood, and South Mississippi Electric Power Association, in Hattiesburg, were instrumental in obtaining loan assistance for the 80,000-square-foot Viking Corp. dishwasher manufacturing plant under construction in Greenwood. The plant is expected to create 200 new full-time jobs.

Hollandale-based Twin County Electric Power Association assisted in the development and establishment of Delta Peanut LLC, an FDA-inspected peanut buying point and storage facility that revived a vacant manufacturing building in Anguilla.

Southern Pine Electric Power Association, headquartered in Taylorsville, helped make possible a 110,000-square-foot expansion to Koch Foods’ existing freezer warehouse and distribution center in Morton. Upon completion, the 428,000-square-foot complex will be the largest industrial facility in Scott County.

Dixie Electric Power Association, in Laurel, provided loan assistance to help build the state-of-the-art Jones County Junior College Advanced Technology Training Center, located in the Howard Technology Park near Ellisville.

Columbus-based 4-County Electric Power Association helped bring the $800 million SeverCorr steel mini-mill, the only one of its kind in the South, to the Lowndes County-Golden Triangle Megasite.

East Mississippi Electric Power Association, in Meridian, is helping bring a new 35,000-square-foot industrial building to the John C. Stennis Industrial Park in DeKalb, expected to create 90 full-time jobs.

These projects are just the tip of the iceberg. We work diligently to further economic opportunity in Mississippi, and Mississippi will be better for it.

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Electric Power Associations of Mississippi
P.O. Box 3300 Ridgeland, Mississippi 39158-3300 phone 601.605.8600 fax 601.605.8601