NOXUBEE COUNTY – Residents could see a face lift coming for their parks and downtown areas in the near future after the county was selected for an Environmental Protection Agency program that aims to boost economic growth and outdoor recreation.
Katherine Mickens, a member of the Noxubee Economic and Community Development Alliance, said she is excited for what the county’s future may look like under the program.
“What I’m looking forward to is for all parties involved to collaborate on things we need in Noxubee County,” Mickens told The Dispatch on Wednesday. “This is for the county, for Shuqualak, Macon, Brooksville, and we would like to see a revitalization for all of these little towns.”
Noxubee County was one of just 25 rural communities selected nationwide to participate in EPA’s Recreation Economy for Rural Communities program. The program provides guidance through EPA consultants to help communities develop a comprehensive action plan to boost recreation and tourism.
Amanda McBride is leading the local efforts. McBride is a community facilitator with Communities Unlimited, a nonprofit that supports economic development in rural areas. She applied for the program on the county’s behalf in October 2024.
McBride is assembling a local planning committee for the project, which will include residents, representatives from organizations including the Noxubee County Historical Society, Noxubee General Hospital, Mississippi State University Extension, as well as local officials from the municipalities.
The program will move forward with a series of meetings later this fall, where the local committee will outline specific recreational and revitalization needs throughout the county.
In the spring, federal consultants will visit the county for in-person planning and a workshop to help develop a comprehensive plan for improvements and changes.
Already, McBride said she’s looking to upgrade city and county parks, establish new walking trails and revitalize downtown areas in each city.
Sam D. Hamilton Noxubee Wildlife Refuge is a key site McBride hopes to leverage to boost tourism throughout the area.
“There’s a lot of visitors that come through the refuge and Highway 45 going through Noxubee County, so we want to look at tourism and ways we can get all of those visitors into each one of our towns and drive all that traffic into (the rest of) Noxubee County,” McBride said.
Mickens said her efforts to boost tourism throughout the county are crucial to Noxubee’s success.
“Our population has started to drop because … the young people, when they graduate from high school, they usually go to college, and they don’t come back,” Mickens said. “We want to make our county once again attractive for not only the young people, but the elderly people. … We need some go-getters in this county, and we can’t get go-getters if they’re all going somewhere else.”
McBride estimates it will take at least a year to complete the action plan, after which EPA will assist in finding funding sources, though the program itself does not provide direct financial support.
Mickens said she’s eager to see the changes begin.
“I’m excited to see a change in our community and our county, to see our county grow, the revitalization, just a facelift in our county,” Mickens said. “… A lot of times we need help, and this is going to help us,” Mickens said. “We’re going to work as closely with this plan as possible with the funds the county has.”
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