BY ALLEN ROARK
DBJ Contributing Writer
Wheeler (Tim) Timbs, III is Delta through and through. He’s proud
of it, too.
From a small, family-operated business founded in 1979 to a major retail
and distribution outlet known throughout the country, Tim Timbs has guided
the Indianola Pecan House in becoming one of the Delta’s most recognized
businesses. The Indianola native wouldn’t have it any other way.
“I love the Delta and wouldn’t want to live or work any place
else,” Timbs says, and you can tell he means it. One can’t
have a discussion with the young entrepreneur without positive references
to his native region sprinkled throughout. He’s not only a shrewd,
smart businessman—as evidenced by the incredible success of Indianola
Pecan House—he’s also one of the best ambassadors the Delta
has.
Born in Indianola and raised in nearby Moorhead, Timbs came from a close
knit family who farmed rice and beans for a living. He attended Indianola
Academy and later went on to Mississippi State University, where he graduated
in 1984 with a BS degree in aquaculture management.
BY JACK CRISS
DBJ Executive Editor
A special ceremony held in Greenville, MS, Tuesday, October 15, marked
the transferal of land and property from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers
to the Mississippi Levee Board. Included in the transferal was ownership
of the Greenville Mat Casting Field and Loading Unit Lands. Dignitaries
and leaders on hand heralded the event as positive economic news, not
only for the Greenville/Washington County area, but the entire Delta.
These leaders included Mississippi Senator Thad Cochran and Second District
Congressman, Bennie Thompson.
The granting of the land deed will make up for jobs lost in the recent
closing of the Corps casting field in Greenville and the relocation
of its area grading unit to Memphis. As Mississippi Levee Board President,
Fred Ballard, told the assembled group, the Corps had expressed a desire
to replace those lost jobs.
BY JACK CRISS
DBJ Executive Editor
Catch him if you can.
Not the kind of lawyer who sets up his shingle and waits for the phone to
ring, Andy Taggart is a study in perpetual motion. Having recently started
his own law practice, the former Chief of Staff to Governor Kirk Fordice
is also working as Interim President and CEO of the Jackson-based Mississippi
Technology Alliance. Moreover, political rumors constantly swirl around
the man. The forty-something Taggart is non-chalant about the activity:
it’s just all in a day’s job.
“I love my new roles. I’m helping businesses through my work
and it’s very much like a calling,” Taggart says. Having left
the Butler, Snow, O’Mara, Stevens law firm during the summer, Taggart
opened up his own shop in Madison, a mere five minutes from home. His main
line of practice is business counseling, Taggart says.
“I miss my partners at Butler, Snow and I certainly will always treasure
my time there,” he says. “But I found myself wanting to make
my own strategic decisions. If candid, I think all attorneys would love
the chance to go out on their own,” Taggart laughs. “The timing
was right, so I set up an office near to my home in rural Madison County.
BY Andy Ellis
DBJ Editor
Hardly a year goes by that there is not a major disagreement on which team
is the national football champion. Either the two “best” teams
did not play each other in the final “national championship”
game due to disagreement amongst the polls, or no one understood how the
complex computer solution worked in matching the two “best”
teams. This confusion with rankings has spilled over into the ranking of
universities and business schools with the same disastrous results.
In the early 1980s Business Week started the trend toward ranking schools
of business with their annual report on the “best” schools in
the country. In the first couple of years, the Best 25 Business Schools
were selected and the race was on. In the following years almost every major
business related publication (e.g., Fortune, US News & World Report
and the like) came out with their best schools of business and guess what–the
lists were sometimes very different. But for the most part, very few people
asked why they would just “shop” the lists until they found
one that supported their school or their own opinion. The question is why
did the lists come up with different rankings?
BY MARK J. ARMSTRONG
DBJ Contributing Writer
News of a $2.8 million expansion at Milwaukee Electric Tool Co.’s Greenwood plant will hopefully help stabilize the somewhat shaky economic future of the city. In the past few months the city has seen several businesses announce cutbacks or closings that mean more than 800 jobs will be leaving. The expansion at Milwaukee Tool is expected to be completed in April 2003. The project will add a saw-blade manufacturing line and 60 jobs.
BY Jeff Pesilli
Special to the DBJ
The Board of Mississippi Levee Commissioners, based in Greenville,
joins the Vicksburg District Corps of Engineers in announcing a decision
to complete a Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement (SEIS) on
the Big Sunflower River Maintenance Project. The SEIS will broaden the
scope of the Corps' recently released Environmental Assessment.
"Meetings with the Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality
indicated that DEQ will need approximately one year to review the application
for the Water Quality Permit in accordance with the state's Supreme
Court decision," says Jim Wanamaker, Chief Engineer of the Mississippi
Levee Board. "We expect the schedule for the SEIS will run concurrently
with the review by the DEQ."
According to Wanamaker, two flood events in South Washington County
last November and December again reminded area residents and officials
of the need to expedite both the DEQ review and SEIS. The first studies
involving the maintenance of these channels were initiated following
flooding in the region in July of 1989.
The original construction on the Big Sunflower River & Tributaries
Project was initiated by the Corps of Engineers
BY MARK BIRD
DBJ Contributing Writer
Indianola, at the center of some of the area’s richest farmlands
(and fortunate now to be at the center of major transportation routes),
exhibits all the charm of a classic Delta town. Beyond that, however,
and perhaps more vital to its future growth, Indianola is filled with
a genuine community spirit, a common appreciation of the town’s
strengths, and a joint understanding of its potential and what is needed
to maximize that potential.
In talking with local business owners and civic leaders, it becomes
clear that they are working together to make their town one of the Delta’s
most attractive, in both the aesthetic and economic senses of the word.
The Indianola Chamber of Commerce has been at work on numerous projects,
says director Beth Lyon. These include the recent Fall Beautification
Week and annual Fall Festival, as well as the Community Fund Drive.
“We recently held our first Chamber breakfast,” Lyon adds,
“which featured a speaker discussing tourism opportunities. We
plan to follow this up with an ongoing series of seminars on topics
of interest to business owners, such as customer service.”
By: Mary Ellen Powell
DBJ Contributing Writertor
In a presentation in Indianola on Friday, October 4, 2002, Columbus
and Greenville Railway (C & G) announced the completion of a project
which has upgraded track and bridges on its main line from Greenwood
to Heathman, Mississippi, a distance of approximately 40 miles. Those
present included Vice Chairman Wayne Burkes, Surface Transportation
Board, Washington, D.C., a former Mississippi state senator and central
district commissioner of Mississippi Department of Transportation, as
well as current Mississippi Department of Transportation Commissioner
Dick Hall and officials from the Canadian National-Illinois Central
Railroad.
According to C & G President and CEO Roger Bell, this project offers
shippers many advantages and raises C & G’s track capacity
to the national standard of 286,000 pounds.
“We’re very pleased to complete this important project,”
commented Bell. “It allows C & G to handle larger payloads
more efficiently and at increased speeds of 25 miles per hour. Improving
infrastructure and having continuous welded rail means we can provide
a smoother ride for our customers’ products and will greatly enhance
the safety of our operations.”
The project upgrade is a key factor in positioning the Delta to be more
competitive, in the view of local authorities.
By: Mary Ellen Powell
DBJ Contributing Writer
Mainstream Travel, Greenville’s only full service travel agency,
has recently announced the signing of an agreement to merge with MTS
Travel of Ephrata (Lancaster County) Pennsylvania.
Mainstream Travel has served the Greenville area since 1965 with its
current office at 1365 E. Reed Road. MTS TRAVEL traces its roots back
to 1947, and has expanded over the years into an approximately $80 million
travel management firm with eight offices from California to Florida.
Bryan Tours of Jackson, MS is one of the affiliated agencies, with well-known
Mississippian Bill Bryan serving on the MTS Travel Executive Council.
BY Jack Criss
DBJ Executive Editor
At this time of year, if there's anything scarier than Halloween,
it's political elections.
I've often maintained that one of the biggest problems facing
the Delta, andMississippi as a whole, is a glut of unqualified
politicians. Of course, in a democracy, anyone has the freedom
and the right to run for office. That's the way it should be.
Today, however, we're seeing several new types of office-seeking
animals: the career politician, who has made politics and fundraising
a job; the third-party frivolous candidate, who knows they have
no chance but just wants to stir up controversy; the race-baiting
candidate who runs solely on a black vs. white or vice-versa
platform, and many, many other similartypes.
The days of a political statesman, a la Thomas Jefferson, are
pretty much gone. While there are certainly a few honorable,
very intelligent men and woman in, and running for, office today,
it's no secret that there are not as many as there once were.
BY Jack Criss
Executive Editor
It was four years ago this month that my father, the
man I’m named after, died. Ralph Jackson Criss,
Sr. was 80 years old and in very poor health. So, while
it was not totally unexpected, death is always a shock,
no matter how you think you’re prepared for it.
Especially the death of a parent.
I wish I could say that my father and I were extremely
close. The truth is that we really weren’t. I’m
sure he loved me—even though I don’t recall
him actually saying those words very often, if at all—but,
thinking about it now, maybe we just simply didn’t
know how to relate to each other.
Pop (as I called him from 10 years of age on) was a salesman.
He was on the road a lot as I was coming up, so we never
really bonded early on. Moreover, he had a pretty strong
fondness for the bottle which also precluded a great amount
of father-son camaraderie.