Special Focus Section : OXFORD
Oxford expands its focus
College town seeks economic diversity
BY C. RICHARD COTTON
DBJ Contributing Writer
All roads in Oxford lead to the University of Mississippi. Or to the town square. Or to both. Well, it seems they used to, anyway.
Today’s road construction in the North Mississippi city focuses on skirting the sprawling campus and Town Square so traffic is not forced onto narrow streets where pedestrians sometimes outnumber automobiles.
True, the university has defined the city since the school was established back in the 1800s. And it forms an integral part of the Oxford/Lafayette County community, driving the economy and providing jobs.
“Not everyone’s business revolves around the university but all of them are indirectly affected by it,” said Will Lewis, managing partner of Neilson’s apparel store. Established in 1839 and located on Oxford’s famed Town Square, Neilson’s has long claimed to be the “South’s oldest store.” Lewis said the claim has never been debunked since Neilson’s earned the designation by a trade publication in the 1920s. And, according to Lewis, Neilson’s is a good example of a business metamorphosing to fit the times.
“When I came here,” Lewis recalled, “we sold overalls, kind of a commissary type of store.” That was 40 years ago, when the rural nature of Oxford was predominant. It was a country town that was home to a college.
Going even farther back to its origins, Lewis describes Neilson’s as a “frontier trading post.”
Lewis said he’s “fine-tuned” Neilson’s to an upscale apparel store.
Not far from Neilson’s, a few doors away on Town Square, is Square Books, long a destination for readers and writers alike. Indeed, with a literary luminary like the omnipresent – albeit deceased – William Faulkner, Oxford’s reputation as a center of writing was set.
Today, it’s not unusual to run into contemporary writers like
Barry Hannah, Larry Brown and a host of others at Square Books. Former Oxford resident John Grisham even makes an occasional visit to the store.
Square Books owner Richard Howorth is also Oxford Mayor Richard Howorth. He is nearing the end of his first term as head of the city of 12,000.
“Things are going well,” Howorth said while wearing his mayor hat. A listener is inclined to believe, indeed, things are going well because Howorth doesn’t seem the type to sugarcoat bad situations.
In fact, Howorth’s assessment of Oxford’s present is punctuated with cautionary words about its future. On the positive side is a large project known as the Pathway Plan; it comprises a series of linked paths within the city where walkers, joggers and bikers will be able to access different points in Oxford – the university, city schools, town square, utility offices, parks, etc. – without driving a motor vehicle.
“It’s not just for recreation,” explained Howorth, “but for transportation.” The project, which in some cases will follow old railroad grades similar to the national Rails-to-Trails initiative, is expected to land an $800,000 federal grant for the undertaking; another $300,000 in city funds has already been earmarked for the approximately six miles of pathways to be built in a half-dozen phases.
A public transit program is going to be examined “further down the road,” said Howorth.
For several years, now, Howorth said Oxford has been experiencing an 8 percent annual growth rate (based on electric, gas, water and sewer sign-ups) that will double the city’s population in a decade. That, he points out, has led to problems common in growing municipalities.
“It has placed tremendous pressure on infrastructure, especially sewer,” said Howorth. The city will have to initiate an extreme makeover of its sewer treatment facility, to the tune of $12-$15 million, in several years. Short-term fixes being examined are installing additional lift stations and larger diameter pipes.
“In three years, if we have no treatment plant,” Howorth warned, “we may have to look at a moratorium on construction.”
That would put a halt to one of the city’s other pressing problems: Affordable housing. Howorth said rapidly escalating real estate prices within the city limits, and especially for desirable properties near downtown and around the university, are making living near one’s place of employment impossible for many.
“Working people – policemen, teachers and plant employees – are being pushed outside of town, and increasingly commuting,” said Howorth.
And traffic in once-sleepy Oxford is becoming an issue – an issue that doesn’t arise solely on weekends of home football games when streets get downright crowded. Two major projects are directed at easing some of the congestion that has become more prevalent in Oxford.
“People who come to this fall’s football games will see some real physical changes in Oxford,” said Christy Knapp, assistant executive director of the Oxford-Lafayette County Economic Development Foundation. “The widening of Jackson Avenue is representative of what’s happening in Oxford.”
Jackson Avenue has traditionally been the east-west artery within the city; a two-lane street, it became inadequate to carry all the traffic to and from one of the city’s primary commercial districts on its western end. Now four-laned, Knapp said it has already spawned more commercial growth on the west side of town.
And, as exciting as Jackson Avenue is for Knapp, she’s equally charged about the coming north-south corridor project, now in the planning and engineering stage.
Whereas all roads led to the university or to the town square or to both, that schematic is changing.
“It will connect Old Taylor Road (in the south) to the north part of town without going through the (university) campus or through the town square,” Knapp explained. “People are going to say Oxford is really growing.”
Economic development, as viewed by Knapp and her colleagues, “is a lot of different things” in Oxford. She counts in the list retiree-recruitment, tourism, research and technology and industry.
Knapp said the global economy “has had some effect on Oxford,” for example, in the loss of 500 jobs when the Emerson plant closed some years ago. But those losses, she remarked, have been made up in other quarters.
“We have some very promising potential new industries on the horizon, and one possible large expansion,” said Knapp. Characteristic to economic development agencies, she refused to name them.
Howorth said the Whirlpool Corporation, which currently employs 800-900 in its stove-assembly operation, is planning an expansion that could total as many as 150 additional jobs.
Max Hipp, executive director of the Oxford-Lafayette County Chamber of Commerce said a 37,000-square-foot business incubator is nearing completion; it is designed to accommodate up to 20 budding companies.
Already, four tenants are slated to occupy the new structure. Hipp expects it to be half-full by Christmas and to 90 percent capacity by next summer.
Two firms leasing space in the incubator include a research/engineering endeavor that will develop technology for military applications and a software company data center.
“Some came because we had the space,” Hipp said. “Collected in a small space, we hope it becomes a hotbed of creativity.”
The chamber currently boasts 520 members, which Hipp says is an increase of about 100 members in the past five years.
“A lot of our programs have grown significantly in the last few years,” explained the chamber’s assistant executive director, Pam Swain. She reports “phenomenal growth” in membership, with 25 new members signing onto the organization since May.
Swain said the annual small business development seminars and the monthly Chamber After Hours networking events are seeing tremendous growth in popularity: “The August After-Hours event had 100 people, five times more than usual, and our host list is booked into next year.”
“We are chugging along,” said Jennifer Downs, tourism manager of the Oxford Tourism Council. She said her group is working closely with the University of Mississippi to increase cultural and heritage tourism based on the area’s literature, food and music.
Those efforts include establishing a database of sites and tours that might be attractive to visitors: “They will be able to customize them to their needs.”
Downs points to the new Oxford Conference Center, finished in June, as becoming a draw for events needing space for up to 2,000 people. There was nothing in Oxford available for events comprising more than 300 guests. The conference center is available for weddings, reunions, parties and, of course, conferences.
The Powerhouse, Oxford’s new community center for performing arts, should be completed in 2005. Named for the former electric company generating station, Downs said remodeling, which will include gallery exhibition space, will begin in October.
Downs reported Oxford’s hotels and “less than a dozen bed-and-breakfasts” offer a total of 650 rooms.
Since the opening of the Gertrude Castellow Ford Center for the Performing Arts on the university campus, those hotels rooms have likely seen an increase in demand. Performances by B.B. King, Art Garfunkel and a couple of national-touring company Broadway musicals have raised the bar for entertainment in the region, said the Ford Center’s director, Norman Easterbrook.
“It enhances the university’s contribution to the community and to the region,” Easterbrook said of the 1,200-seat facility. “We intend to bring shows of very high caliber to the area and be the premier entertainment venue for North and Central Mississippi.”
Easterbrook said the acoustics of the center rival even bigger name venues in much larger cities: “We can hold our own when put up against the Carnegie Halls of the world.” With the addition of the Ford Center to what Easterbrook classifies as a great selection of fine restaurants in Oxford, “you can put together a really nice show-and-dinner night.”
For 13,000 University of Mississippi students, most nights are filled with study. The school’s admissions director, Beckett Howorth (Mayor Howorth’s brother), said enrollment has increased annually for the past six years.
“That’s due to a number of things,” said Howorth. “There’s been a recognition of outstanding, existing programs and the leadership of Chancellor Robert Khayat.” He said the increased enrollment has come primarily from in-state students.
The University of Mississippi, according to the school’s university relations director, Barbara Lago, is the largest employer in Oxford and Lafayette County, with almost 2,500 workers.
The second largest employer is Baptist Memorial Hospital-North Mississippi, where marketing and physician services director Sarah Hollis says 950 full- and part-time employees work.
Hollis said there are no construction projects currently underway, following the completion last year of a new emergency room and surgery suites. She said the hospital’s emphasis is on expanding the care available at the facility.
“Nine new physicians have come on board since January,” said Hollis. The 217-bed hospital offers 31 specialties within its 84-physician medical staff.
One of the most exciting new programs, Hollis said, is Baptist’s new commitment to provide preventative and acute care for the university’s student athletes: “We conducted all the pre-participation physicals before football (practices) began,” she said.
Which leads to yet another city planning endeavor being spearheaded by Mayor Howorth: “We have plans for the football team to go 13-0 this year.” DBJ
