West Point Mayor Robbie Robinson opened his address to the Columbus Rotary Club on Tuesday with a question: “What can little bitty West Point tell Columbus, Mississippi, what we’re doing?”
Between seeing new businesses flourish, hosting a major senior women’s golf tournament, preparing for the opening of a tire manufacturing plant and renovating a city landmark into a center for the arts, the city with a population of 11,217 has plenty it could talk about.
The recently opened Captain D’s on Highway 45 Alternate, which goes through a large portion of West Point, set a franchise record for its first week of business. A new retail center is in the works.
“It’s units like that on the highway that have helped us with our sales tax,” Robinson said, noting that the city ended its latest fiscal year with a sales tax collection that was up $112,844 over the previous one. “The more sales tax you collect, the less ad valorem tax you have to assess to support your budget, so we’re really grateful for that.”
Outside of the city, Old Waverly Golf Club will host the ISPS Handa Cup Saturday and Sunday, a competition on the Ladies Professional Golf Association’s Legends Tour circuit. The course will also be the home of Mississippi State University’s men’s and women’s golf programs. Part of that will include $2.2 million in construction on a club house and driving range.
The city recently marked the grand opening of the Louise Campbell Center for the Arts. The city pitched in more than $500,000 through bonds and tourism tax collections to renovate the McClure building in the city’s historic downtown area and transform it into a cultural hub in Clay County’s arts community.
Yokohama Tire Company is moving along on construction of its manufacturing plant just north of town. When it opens next year, 500 people will be working there. If the company commits to three future phases, that number will grow to around 2,000 in less than 10 years.
Landing the commitment from the Japan-based company took a commitment from Clay County and West Point to think regionally instead of locally by pooling its resources with the Golden Triangle Development LINK and working with neighbors to reach a larger goal. He said Yokohama will be great not only for Clay County and West Point but also for Columbus and Lowndes County because several people from there will have jobs thanks to Yokohama.
“It all comes from working together,” Robinson said.
Perhaps the best news, Robinson said, is that there is more room for growth. The wastewater treatment plant that served the Bryan Foods plant that shut down in 2007 was renovated for a fraction of the cost of a new wastewater facility. It produces 3.5 million gallons a day and only half of that will be used when Yokohama begins production. Only 500 of the 1,200 acres available for industrial development will be occupied by Yokohama, he added.
Progress is symbolized by the bowl that was recently raised to the top of the Yokohama water tower, Robinson said.
“They filled that million gallon water tank last week, and it’s quite a sight,” he said. “We were standing under it with the engineers and my friend…looked up and he said, ‘You know, that’s over 8 million pounds of water above our head.’ I said, ‘I hope it holds.'”
Nathan Gregory covers city and county government for The Dispatch.
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