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EDA to Help Three Rivers District Propel Economic Development Strategy

August 6, 2010

WASHINGTON, D.C. - U.S. Senator Thad Cochran (R-Miss.) today announced that the Economic Development Administration is providing a $189,000 grant to assist the

Three Rivers Planning and Development District (TRPDD www.trpdd.com) in developing and implementing a comprehensive economic development strategy.

The federal grant will support an overall $270,000 project to establish an economic development framework to support job creation and investment in Calhoun, Itawamba, Lafayette, Lee, Monroe, Pontotoc and Union counties, which are represented by the district.

"This region has suffered during the economic downturn, but the Three Rivers has been diligent about working to help create jobs.  This grant will allow the District to continue to coordinate support for a variety of economic development projects and build on the support it now offers to improve manufacturing, industrial parks, business incubators and other initiatives in the region," Cochran said.

The grant will be matched with $81,000 in non-federal funding.  The grant will cover a three-year span to facilitate a continuous planning process. The federal funding derives from funding approved by Congress for the EDA in the FY2010 Commerce, Justice and Science Appropriations Bill.

In its application to the EDA, the TRPDD indicated that the grant would be an investment that is "market-based and results driven in that it seeks to increase higher-skill, higher-wage jobs and private-sector investment in the region" by promoting a comprehensive economic development strategy that will "help TRPDD as it looks beyond the immediate economic horizon, anticipates economic changes, and helps diversify the local and regional economies."

The TRPDD also gained the grant by stressing its commitment to "promoting new ideas and principles aimed at enhancing economic growth opportunities, and the region has several such efforts underway (e.g., Itawamba Community College's WIN Manufacturing Solutions Center and Phase II of the Renasant Center for IDEAs project in Lee County).

The proposed EDA investment will enable Three Rivers Planning and Development District and its partners to continue to sustain and develop viable economic clusters that will enable northeast Mississippi to be successful within the global marketplace."