Change is afoot at the West Point/Clay County Growth Alliance, with President Jeff Rowell filing his resignation last Wednesday and Martha Allen, director of community development and Main Street, submitting her two-week notice Wednesday.
Rowell plans to remain at the Growth Alliance until the end of the year. He has held the position since December 2008, working previously as director of the Natchez-Adams County Economic Development Authority. He said he has a few job opportunities he is pursuing, and he plans to move from West Point.
“I think it’s time for me to move on,” Rowell said Thursday morning. “I think West Point’s a great community. There’s great people here, and it has great potential. I definitely wish the community and organization all the success relative to reaching its potential.”
Growth Alliance board members met Tuesday and will continue to meet every Tuesday for the next few weeks, trying to determine how they will conduct the search for the organization’s next president and the type of person they are seeking, Board President Jackie Edwards said Wednesday.
Allen said with the changes at the Growth Alliance, and Rowell’s resignation, she feels “going in another direction” is best for her at this point. She was offered the opportunity to stay until the end of the year and re-interview for her position under the new president, but she was “just not interested in that.”
Her voice shook, and she sounded on the brink of tears Thursday morning as she discussed via telephone the two years she has served the community.
“I believe, and I hope the communities of West Point and Clay County believe, I have given of myself unconditionally for 788 days with very few days off or even weekends off,” Allen said. “I have already accepted a new job, a better job, and I’m honored and thrilled to be starting this position in January. For the first time in two years, I can take a little time for myself and prepare for my Nov. 19 wedding.”
Allen said she plans to remain in West Point and will continue supporting the community as a volunteer. She has accepted a job with Community Counseling.
She will be missed, said Jan Miller, regional director of the Mississippi Main Street Association.
Miller praised Allen’s managerial skills and said she knows she will do “great things” in the future. As for Rowell, she said she wished him the best, calling him “a smart individual” with “big aspirations.”
“West Point is moving in the right direction, and I look forward to working with whomever they put in that position,” Miller said Thursday morning. “Mississippi Main Street is very committed to West Point … and we look forward to working with whomever comes into that position. … I don’t want to lose that momentum we already have.”
Carmen K. Sisson is the former news editor at The Dispatch.
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