BY Elizabeth Reid
Contributing Writer, Delta Business Journal

  With a little over six million acres in the Delta, which begins in the lobby of the Peabody and winds up at catfish row in Vicksburg, Greenwood is the largest municipality located smack dab in the middle. In fact, it has been called the Cayman Islands of the Delta. And with good reason.
  Businesses seem to flock to Greenwood. Even when plants close, as several recently have, there's enough back-up support to keep people working. Family businesses thrive and innovative concepts work well in this market.
  Master Scales, a father and son operation that sells and services industrial scale equipment, has a dozen or so employees. Klean Kut Lawn and Garden, a father and son landscaping business, recently purchased a new lawn equipment dealership. Phil's Squire Shoppe, an upscale men's clothing store, has been run by several generations of Ellises.
  In 1941, with a truck and a shovel, 16-year old J.J. Ferguson and his brothers delivered dirt and gravel to nearby farmers to help them construct farm roads. Today, J.J. Ferguson Prestress-Cast has 289 employees and several divisions, including J.J. Ferguson Sand & Gravel, J.J. Ferguson Transporters and a partnership with Ferguson Brothers Construction Company.
"There's something about Leflore County that is very entrepreneurial," said Mark Manning, director of development for the Delta Council.
  Other unique businesses include Truck Care, Inc., a small locally owned company that makes and sells car wash equipment, and Smith & Company Outfitters, a three-year old retailer that caters to hunters and outdoorsmen. And Alan Hammons, president of Hammons & Associates, Inc., has "an amazing operation," said Cliff Brumfield, executive director of the Greenwood-Leflore Industrial Board and the Greenwood-Leflore-Carroll Economic Development Foundation.
  The foresight of community and business leaders has played a big role in the city's success. For instance, the Greenwood-Leflore-Carroll Economic Development Foundation's Strategic Planning Project, which is well underway, has already had a substantial impact.
  "To make certain we're ready to attract and build better jobs to replace any lost, we formulated the most comprehensive strategic planning effort the
  Greenwood-Leflore community has ever had," said the foundation's Clyde Manning. "Much improvement has already been done to prepare the area for growth, such as the recent addition of 600 acres to the Greenwood-Leflore Industrial Park, completion of 2.3 miles of new roads, water and sewer lines and new infrastructure in the Itta Bena Leflore Industrial Park."
Expansions are underway at Viking Range, John Richard Collection, Heartland Catfish, Valley Industries, Superior Cabinets and Thompson Machinery, a local Caterpillar equipment dealer. Viking recently purchased Amana's built-in refrigeration line, an acquisition that will create up to 100 jobs when it moves its operations to Greenwood.
  "Those are pretty big projects usually reserved for Jackson or Memphis," Brumfield said.
Much of the growth is attributable to a progressive workforce development and training program, said Durward Stanton, plant personnel manager for Viking. "Nobody fills that niche like community colleges," Stanton said.
  The newly merged cooperative, Pyco Industries, Inc., which serves more than 20,000 cotton growers in eight southern states and markets 30% of cottonseed in the U.S., will sell its products from its Greenwood office, formerly known as Yazoo Valley Oil Mill, Inc.
  "Expansions encountered in 1999, plus projects scheduled for this year, should more than absorb any economic losses," Brumfield said.
  There's much talk around water coolers about the area's new railroad project, Brumfield said.
  "We are working with the city and county to build a 2.5 mile bypass track through the Greenwood Leflore Industrial Park so the C&G Railroad can go to the CN's line, and ride on it until they can again intersect with the C&G line outside of town," he said. "This will eliminate the problem of traffic being blocked several times a day on U.S. Hwy. 82 and it will provide a new main rail line in the industrial park that can be served by both the C&G or the CN, which would give us a tremendous advantage."
  The two railroads are complemented by Yazoo River travel, navigable to Vicksburg, three highways with close proximity to I-55, and the Greenwood Leflore Airport, the busiest rural airport in north Mississippi with a 24-hour manned FAA control tower.
  More than 150 people are directly employed in aviation at the local airport through Thompson Avionics, Cotton Built Aviation, MidSouth Jet, Kimmel Aviation, Exxon and The Memphis Group, Federal Express' sole manager of spare parts inventory. Improvements are underway that will attract even more airport-related business to the area.
  Recent road improvements and new water and sewer lines at Itta Bena Industrial Park, located in the federal empowerment zone, has attracted new businesses, such as Valley Leflore Industries, owned by Lee Abraham. Heartland Catfish completed a $2 million expansion of its processing plant, increasing its number of employees from 40 to 200. The plant owns a fleet of eight tractor-trailers.
  Viking Range Corp. has a 40,000 square foot expansion underway, which will double its manufacturing space to make ventilation hood, BBQ grills and carts, and garbage disposals. Relocation of Baldwyn Piano from Arkansas to Greenwood represented a $4 million capital investment that resulted in 77 jobs.
  The John Richard Collection is putting finishing touches on a new 59,000 square foot addition to its plant in the Greenwood Leflore Industrial Park. More than 300 people are employed at the plant that produces high-end home furnishings and decorative home accessories.
  Greenwood-Leflore Industrial Park has 1,200 acres, with frontage on the Yazoo River, navigable to Vicksburg. Delta Distributing Company, distributor of Anheiser-Busch products for several counties, recently completed a $1.3 million, 45,000 square foot distribution center there.
  When Ferguson Machine, Rocky Manufacturing and Takata Restrain Systems closed within the last year, many employees who lost jobs were hired at Superior Cabinets.
  "We have a diverse mix of manufacturing which means a great deal to the economy," said Alan Hammons. "It makes us less dependent on any one particular industry, such as agriculture, which is subject to the whims of the environment and what Mother Nature deals us."
  One Alabama based company that merged with a Greenwood company this past August is ITC-DeltaCom. ITC-DeltaCom merged with the Greenwood based Scientific Telecom.
  "The merger has been a textbook case between two great companies," says Allen Wood, Jr., director-CPE-Mississippi "Business has been tremendous and our customers have benefited greatly from all of the expanded services and products that are now available."
  ITC-DeltaCom is a full-service telecommications company.
  Gene Stansel of Staplecotn, a cotton cooperative in Greenwood with 450 seasonal workers and almost 200 permanent workers, said the company posted one of its best years in 1998 and had one of the largest sign-ups in 1999. One of the oldest companies in Greenwood, Staplecotn has 119,900,000 square feet of local warehouse space and continues to expand.
In 1998, America's Catch, Inc. expanded its facilities to nearby Itta Bena to provide ten new jobs in the prepared fresh and frozen catfish manufacturing plant for a total of 280 employees.
  One of the largest crops on record has been in the production of pecans, an often overlooked agricultural product, said Nolan Branton, president of Delta Pecans in Greenwood, who buys and sells several million pounds of pecans every year.
Six banks are located in Greenwood, with Planters Bank as the most recent addition. Established in 1904, the Bank of Commerce is Greenwood's oldest home-owned bank. Valley Bank will soon begin construction on a new operations center that should employ over 60 within just a few years.
  The area's single largest employer, Greenwood Leflore Hospital, with a support network of 20 primary care clinics, the state's largest cancer treatment center, a new 12,000 square foot outpatient physical rehabilitation center and the hospital's busiest emergency room in north central Mississippi, has tremendous expansion plans on the drawing board, Brumfield said.
  "Our hospital continues moving toward being the premiere healthcare facility of North Mississippi, now with 260 beds and over 1,000 employees," he said.
  To accommodate Greenwood's recent growth, the city is planning a new post office and middle school, Brumfield said.
  "New post offices are under construction in Greenwood as well as Itta Bena," he said. "These are beautiful buildings and not typical of other such offices."
  Greenwood Utilities, a non-profit public power company that operates two steam power plants with a combined capacity of 64.9 megawatts, has provided low-cost electricity to residential and industrial customers since 1904.
  Mayor Harry Smith of Greenwood said local officials are pleased with the progress the city has made in economic development but added, "we're still doing and planning things that will make Greenwood even better."
  The recently completed Leflore County Agricenter, the largest of its type in northwest Mississippi with 83,400 square feet on 14 acres, serves as an exhibition arena for livestock, horse shows, rodeos, trade shows and concerts.
  The Greenwood Main Street Association has several projects in the works, including renovations to the Keesler Bridge, a Mississippi landmark and an important link to downtown Greenwood, and the restoration of more than a mile of brick streets in the downtown area.
  In Greenwood's housing market, you might expect to pay around $75,000, said Betty Dubard of Dubard Agency in Greenwood. "The economy has been a major player in keeping the market active and the availability of housing has helped drive up value of existing homes," she said.