The Miamisburg, Ohio Huffy Bicycle Company is making plans to open a plant in Southaven this fall that will employ 200 people. The plant will be located in a 106,000 square foot facility in the DeSoto Center Business Park according to company officials.

This facility will concentrate on production of bike frames, forks and handlebars, which will then be shipped to the company’s Farmington, MO plant. Huffy will be investing over $10 million in machinery and equipment at the Southaven location.

Cleaver-Brooks of Greenville begins discussions with union on plant closing

Cleaver-Brooks, a division of Aqua-Chem, Inc., has announced tentative plans to close its 35 year old boiler plant in Greenville. The tentative decision reached by the company is based on several factors - plant capacity, resource allocation, and business conditions within Aqua-Chem and the boiler industry as a whole.

Based on the tentative plan, Aqua-Chem’s chairman and CEO, Jeffrey Miller, said phase-down of the facility is expected to be concluded by mid 1999.

"The employees at our Greenville facility have built water tube boilers and boiler accessory equipment since the plant opened in 1963. Aqua-Chem wants to thank each and every employee for their contribution. But, the boiler market in 1998 is quite different than in 1963. Today, the industry is very mature, with some cyclical products. We must maintain a strong, competitive position," Miller said.

The final decision will occur after discussions with the AFL-CIO’s International Brotherhood of Boilermakers, Iron Ship Builders, Blacksmiths, Forgers and Helpers, which represents 141 employees in Greenville. Tentative plans are underway by the company to transfer product lines to other Aqua-Chem facilities. Miller said that it was Aqua-Chem’s intent to provide fair and equitable treatment to every Greenville employee and to ensure a smooth and orderly transition.

Aqua-Chem was founded in 1931 and employs 1,100 people. The company is located in Milwaukee, Wisconsin and has six manufacturing facilities in North America.

The 19th Annual Crop Dayfestival to be held in Greenwood on August 1

The 19th annual Crop Day festival will be held in downtown Greenwood on August 1. The festival was originally designed to celebrate a four square block of Greenwood, known as the Cotton Row District, being put on the National Register of Historic Places.

CROP Day, or Cotton Row on Parade, was modest enough in the beginning. The date, the first Saturday in August, was chosen because the first of August is the traditional cotton "lay-by" season. "The farmers have done everything they can do to produce a healthy cotton plant and all they have left to do is sit back and hope they will produce acres of White Gold," according to officials with the Greenwood-Leflore County Chamber of Commerce.

Since 1843, Greenwood has been an important cotton brokerage center. Farmers brought their cotton to the banks of the Yazoo River to be sold to the cotton mills. The bales were shipped down river on paddle wheelers to the Mississippi River at Vicksburg, then down to New Orleans and from there to the east coast and Europe.

Most of the buildings on Cotton row are brick and date back to the late 1890’s when they were constructed to replace wooden structures which had been damaged or destroyed by fire. Those designed and occupied by cotton brokers are identifiable by the giant sky lights sitting on their roofs. The skylights let in the sun which helped cotton classers determine the purity and length of staple of the cotton they were selling. The whiter the cotton, the longer the staple, the better the price.

The 1980 celebration included a ceremony dedicating the historic marker on the banks of the Yazoo River. There were tours of cotton brokers’ offices. An estimated crowd of 2,000 attended the first CROP Day. 12,000 people are expected this year.

A Sponsor Appreciation Party will be held on Friday, July 31, at 6:30 - 8:00 pm at the Viking Range Corporation on Front Street. A dance will be held at 8:30 and tickets for the dance will be $5 for adults and $3 for children 12 and under. The CROP Day Boat Parade will also be Friday night.

CROP Day was chosen as a Top 20 Event for the month of August by the Southeast Tourism Society.

Cellular South contributes $70,000.00 to Mississippi Valley State University

Cellular South, Mississippi’s largest cellular provider has recently made a $70,000.00 commitment to Mississippi Valley State University in order to provide scholarships for accounting and computer science majors. The Cellular South Scholarship Fund will provide tuition, books, room and board. Recipients of the scholarships must be Mississippi residents and have an ACT score of 20 or higher. They must also have a 3.0 grade point average and major in accounting or computer science.

AquaPro of Sunflower announces third-quarter earnings

The Sunflower based AquaPro Corporation has recently announced an increase of 299.78 percent in its third-quarter fish sales. The company sold 2.6 million pounds of fish compared to 672,000 pounds for the third quarter in fiscal 1997.

AquaPro also had a record third quarter in nets sales reaching $1.9 million which was a 288.7 percent increase over third quarter 1997. Cash flow for the company rose to $1 million from a loss of $353,000 in the third quarter of 1997.

Community Bancshares of Mississippi, Inc., announces earnings increase

Community Bancshares of Mississippi, Inc., the holding company for Community Bank, has announced profits for the first quarter of 1998 grew by more than 20 percent.

Community Bank has recently opened a new location in Brandon. The $2 million, 19,000 square foot building will serve as headquarters for the holding company.

Profits for the bank increased 26 percent from the same time last year, from $840,000 to $1.06 million. Assets increased from $500 million to $590 million in the first quarter of 1998 which is an 18 percent increase over the first quarter of 1997.

Governor Fordice wins National ABC Award

The Associated Builders and Contractors announced Governor Kirk Fordice as the winner of this year’s ABC Distinguished Public Service Award. This national award is given every year to a member or former member for outstanding public or community service. Governor Fordice is the first Mississippian to win the award.

"It is an honor for me to receive this award. Serving as the Governor of Mississippi has been the highest honor of my life and it is rewarding to receive recognition for the initiatives we have implemented. Setting the state on the path to increased prosperity and running the state like a business are two legacies I hope to leave," said Fordice.

Governor Fordice is a civil engineer and was CEO of Fordice Construction Company in Vicksburg for 30 years.

The Associated Builders and Contractors is a national, nonprofit construction trade association.

Senator Thad Cochran named "Rural Housing Legislator of the Year"

Senator Thad Cochran has been named the Rural Housing Legislator of the Year by the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) for his many contributions to rural housing, the association recently announced.

"The Rural Housing Legislator of the Year" award is presented annually by NAHB to the member of Congress who most strongly supports rural housing programs," said James R. "Bobby" Rayburn, chairman of NAHB’s Rural Housing Council Board of Trustees. "Sen. Cochran is deeply committed to improving and increasing housing opportunities for the nation’s rural population and has been a strong supporter of funding rural housing programs at the highest possible level."

Cochran was first elected to Congress in 1972 as the U.S. Representative for the Fourth District of Mississippi and was subsequently reelected in 1974 and 1976. When elected to the Senate in 1978, he became the first Republican in more than 100 years to win a statewide election in Mississippi. He is chairman of the Senate Subcommittee for Agriculture Appropriations and the Subcommittee on International Security, Proliferation and Federal Services.

""Sen. Cochran’s efforts on behalf of rural housing are outstanding," said Rayburn. "Adequate shelter must be a priority for rural area, just as it is for urban areas, and Sen. Cochran is doing his utmost to help meet the housing needs of the 20 percent of the nation’s households that live in non-metro areas." DBJ

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