By Staff
special to The Star
Dec. 18, 2002
The Commission on the Future of East Mississippi and West Alabama recently held its quarterly meeting on the Scooba campus of East Mississippi Community College.
The commission's function is to bring together leaders from the Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians and 12 counties in East Mississippi and West Alabama to assess conditions across the region, identify key issues, recommend regional strategies to address the issues, and communicate the findings to the region.
The 12 counties include Clarke, Jasper, Kemper, Lauderdale, Leake, Neshoba, Newton, Noxubee, Scott and Winston counties in Mississippi, and Choctaw and Sumter counties in Alabama.
EMCC President Tommy Davis welcomed the commission and guests to his campus. Guest speaker was Darrin Webb, senior economist with the University Research Center, who gave an economic perspective of the region.
New commission members were introduced. They were Scott Elliott, president of Meridian Community College, and Ron Whitehead, president of Jones County Junior College.
The commission's annual meeting will be Jan. 17 at Mississippi State University-Meridian Campus. The meeting will be in conjunction with the Phil Hardin Foundation as a symposium on education.