Greater Starkville Development Partnership leaders lauded the organization’s growth in 2018 at its annual banquet on Tuesday evening.
Jerry Toney, chairman of the Partnership’s board of directors, said the Partnership now boasts 550 members — the most it’s ever had.
“In 2018, we had over 50 ribbon cuttings — the most ever in a single year,” Toney said. “And we hosted over 100 events that drew more than 30,000 people.”
Toney also said the Partnership has made strides to focus on education, entrepreneurship and quality of life, as guided by its strategic plan.
Paul Luckett, of the Partnership’s education task force, said the organization has shifted its stance from simply demanding accountability from schools to taking steps to ensure it’s accountable for supporting local schools.
“One of the things that the education committee and Partnership board has done an excellent job in doing is making themselves available,” Luckett said. “We were very involved in the superintendent search for the public schools, wanting to make sure we had a strong partner that understood that education is a cornerstone to quality of life in Starkville and Oktibbeha County.”
Luckett said the Partnership also hosted a pastoral breakfast, which was instrumental in helping to push word out about the Starkville-Oktibbeha Consolidated School District’s pre-kindergarten program.
“There were people that the Partnership brought together from all areas of our community — pastors and ministers saying ‘We want to help,'” he said. “They were a great help in the pre-k registration and preschool registration. That was an awesome and excellent success.”
Mike Richey, chair of the Convention and Visitors Bureau, said 2018 was an excellent tourism year for Starkville.
Richey referenced Starkville earning recognition as the best place to live in Mississippi, and being named one of the United States’ best college towns last year.
He added that local events are growing, which is pushing economic strength in the community. In June, 11,000 visitors came to Starkville for Mississippi State University’s orientation.
Richey said they all got meal vouchers to use at local restaurants, and 86 percent of them were used, which helped to push a 40 percent year-over-year boost in the city’s food and beverage tax for the month.
“That’s just one event,” he said. “The CVB and the Partnership hosted 63 events last year, in addition to the weekly farmers market.”
Briar Jones, chair of the Partnership’s entrepreneurship task force, said there have been advances in pushing entrepreneurship in Starkville, from a recent roundtable on the subject to the first Innovation Challenge, hosted in collaboration with MSU’s Center for Entrepreneurship and Outreach.
The Partnership also named the winners of its annual awards during Tuesday’s banquet. The winners were:
· Denise Adair, Mallory Carlisle and Carrie Perkins — Teachers of Distinction;
· Andy Gaston — T.E. Veitch Community Service Award;
· Michelle Jones — Steve Langston Downtown Revitalization Award;
· Orientation and Events through MSU’s Office of Admissions and Scholarships — Crystal Pineapple (tourism) Award; and
· Starkville Radiology — R. Clay Simmons Exemplary Enterprise Award.
Alex Holloway was formerly a reporter with The Dispatch.
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