I Believe in Greenville, MS

Nestled along Lake Ferguson, which flows into Mississippi River, is Greenville, MS. I was there last week to talk at their annual Chamber banquet helping them to kick off a campaign of “I Believe in Greenville”. They found that like a lot of towns, people who move in from outside often fall in love with this community, but the residents have more negative feelings. And, from what I saw, if they can rebuild a belief in their hometown, Greenville has some real potential.

They have a lovely downtown area that needs more businesses and activity, but that has tremendous natural beauty and could be a quaint draw, creating more of a “sense of place” for the community. Greenville has a good industrial base. All of Uncle Ben’s rice is produced in the town. A new Textron plant and a supplier to Nissan are helping to create new jobs and opportunities. The hospital is building a new hospital on a 180 acre tract of land on the outskirts of town. Their airport can handle any plane in the world, including 747s. And, they have a regional draw of 40 to 80 miles for retail trade.

I was pleased to see the new Greenville Higher Education Center, a cooperative effort of Delta State University, Mississippi Delta Community College, and Mississippi Valley State University built to provide higher education in Greenville. All of their campuses were over 30 minutes away and by pooling their resources 4,000 students are today taking classes at home in Greenville.

Although the National Audubon Society has found more species of birds in the county than in any other inland location, Greenville doesn’t appear to be taking full advantage of its bird watching potential, one of the fastest growing leisure activities in the country.

As I left town I put a “I believe in Greenville” sticker on the back of my rental car. I hope that more residents follow my lead and bring an increased “Can Do” spirit to this struggling community. They should be doing better than they are, but need to turn around their own attitudes about their hometown.