Lakeview Place and Strong River Villa were recognized at the Simpson County Development Foundation’s Annual Luncheon last week. The owner, Faith Kennedy, accepted the award on behalf of the business. The businesses were selected as “Business of the year”. The presentation was done by Amarilys Carter.
The business started in Simpson County and has morphed into two private care facilities serving our community.
“The Community Partner of the Year” went to again businesses located in both Magee and Mendenhall. Magee General and Simpson General Hospital were recognized not only for the services they provide to the community but as also major employers in the community. Healthcare-related assets in Simpson County represent one of the largest employers.
Accepting the award from the Magee General Hospital were board members Robbie Barnes and Dr. Dewayne Middleton. Matthew “Zip” Windham accepted the award on behalf of Simpson General Hospital.
The guest speaker for the event was Bill Cork, executive director of the Mississippi Development Authority. During Cork’s tenure MDA added 22,000 jobs in the State representing $32 billion invested in the state. This includes the Amazon Data Center, Aluminum Dynamics, Compass Data Systems as well as others. Cork has a staff of 191 professionals and a budget of over $400 million.
Cork’s presentation was a presentation on Economic Development 101 as he told the group about the proper way of recruiting business to the community. Cork spoke about the importance of governmental entities all working together within a community. He discussed how Social, Economic and Environment factors all shape our community and described this as a “sustainable development model.” These basic entities create different substandard categories which play a significant role in future development.
Dylan Sanford, lead the 46 Annual Meeting and announced new officers for the upcoming year that includes, Sanford serving as president next year, Riley Runnels as President Elect, Allison Shivers serving as Secretary-Treasurer, Eric Adkins will continue to serve as VP of Economic Development, Tim Gray as VP of Governmental Affairs, Zip Windham as VP of Community Development and Amarilys Carter as VP of Stakeholder Development. New Class members of the 2028 class include Josh Allen, Marc McMillian, Pam Wallace and Latoya Williams.
