BY SANDI P. BEASON


Daily Journal


OKOLONA - Divisions between Chickasaw County's two cities run deep, said Okolona native Fred Watson.


"Everybody talks about On the other side of the creek...,'" he said, "from high school football to politics and everything."


Chuquatonchee Creek, which runs through Chickasaw County between Houston and Okolona, has symbolized the long-standing division between the two cities. On Feb. 10, a group of people from around the county met in Okolona to discuss ways to combine the two municipalities' development efforts. 


"Hopefully, we're going past that (division)," Watson said. "There are things that need to be done on both sides. ... There's power in numbers."


Chickasaw County Chancery Clerk David Thomas, who was the chairman of the Chickasaw Development Foundation at the time of the meeting, said the goal was to push Houston and Okolona to combine efforts for industrial development. Currently, he said, the county's two major development agencies are the CDF and the Okolona Chamber of Commerce.


"We had a real productive meeting," he said. "There were probably 25 people present there."


Several progressive ideas were proposed to bring the two agencies together, he said, but there is one main stumbling block.


"Our problem is funding," he said. "Both organizations do the same thing. They seek new industries and promote local industrial expansion. ... What we want to do is bring the whole county together for industrial purposes.


"Industrial recruitment is the purpose, including the Houlka and Woodland areas."


CDF Chairman Stacey Parker said the agency is hoping to hire a county-wide director to replace retired director Lamar Beaty. A date for the next county-wide meeting has not yet been set, he said.





Countywide efforts


In North Chickasaw County, residents in the Houlka community are seeing improvement plans come to fruition. Chickasaw School Superintendent Kathy Davis said plans are under way to renovate the district's century-old school building into a community center for education and technology.


The district has already received a $335,000 grant from the Mississippi Department of Archives and History, with the stipulation that the district find 20 percent of that total in matching funds.


"We're a poor school district," she said. "There's a low tax base here. ... Anything extra with the school district, we have to look for grant dollars."


Davis is currently working with the USDA on ways for the district to apply for grant funding through that agency. Currently, she said, the district has around $400,000 for the project, and will need about $280,000 to complete all three phases of construction.


The district opened bids for the project on April 11.


"We only had two bids," Davis said. "They were taken under advisement."


Also in Houlka, a project to pave County Road 308, which runs through the heart of the community, is under way thanks to nearly $800,000 in state aid funds. District 3 Supervisor Russell Brooks, who was instrumental in the project's planning, said the road work brings Houlka one step closer to having easy access to Okolona.


"Every four years, each county across the state receives funding from state aid, a division of (the Mississippi Department of Transportation)," he said. "A section of County Road 308 joins the Houlka community to the Okolona community as a thoroughfare. Two parts of the thoroughfare have been completed with state aid grants."


A recreational community park, named in honor of the Rev. W.R. Neals, will also be constructed. The one-acre park will feature a walking track, basketball court, playground equipment, picnic tables and barbecue grills, Brooks said.





Next-door neighbor


In Houston, industrial recruiters are in talks with two companies that may be considering a move to the area, said former CDF Director Lamar Beaty. 


"One is a firm in Tennessee that is looking to expand and has expressed an interest in the area," he said. "We're working with another company that's looking to expand. When they looked at a map, Houston was right in the middle of the (targeted) territory."


Houston has also explored the possibility of becoming a Main Street Association town, he said, and a number of community groups, including CDF Charities and Houston Proud, work for city-wide beautification and improvements.





On the road again


Thomas said county-wide road work is also slated. 


"We've got another bid opening in May on County Road 101," he said. "That's also a state-aid project."


The one-mile gravel road ties Highway 8 to old Highway 8, he said, and provides access to the new Traceview Estates subdivision, a neighborhood of nearly 25 homes. That project will cost around $200,000, he said.


"We do have three new bridges fixing to start under construction as soon as it gets dry enough," he added. "They're in the southwestern part of the county. We won't have any money in those since the Corps (of Engineers) is building those projects."