Chamber Executive Mississippi Intelligence Report
April 24, 2020
Presented by
Presented by
Good morning #ChamberWorld! #Lookforthehelpers! Listen to the good news! Start the Recovery! Make a small win today and bigger wins tomorrow! Build the future now! It's going to be a GREAT day!
What Every Chamber Executive and Board Member Should Read First Today: The Path to Recovery: Bob Harris and Bill Pawlucy
|
Clinton Mayor To Address City At 3:30 P.M. Today On Facebook Live!
Mayor Phil Fisher will address the City via Facebook Live today at 3:30 P.M. Mayor Fisher will discuss the ongoing response to the COVID-19 pandemic and steps the City will take in regards to shelter-in-place guideline restriction changes anticipated today from Governor Tate Reeves.
|
Ridgeland Chamber Strong! Additional Funding to Paycheck Protection Program (PPP)
This week, Congress is expected to add funding to the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP), a forgivable loan program aimed at helping small businesses make payroll amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
The previous fund of $349 billion was exhausted in 14 days, with Mississippi small businesses receiving more than 14,200 loans equating to about $1.9 billion according to the SBA.
The new deal to add funding to the PPP is expected to be finalized tomorrow, April 24th. The funds will be available on a first-come, first-served basis. Some local banks are already accepting applications. If you are a small business in our city, call your local bank today!
Only those who make the effort to apply early will receive funds. If you need more information, please visit www.sba.gov.
Important Mississippi COVID 19 Resources
Business
State
Mississippi Small Business Development Centers
Hinds Community College MSBDC - Business Assistance Center (Rankin Campus)
Federal
Health
State
Hard of hearing? Dial 711 for assistance.
Local COVID-19 testing: Find COVID-19 testing near you »
Federal -
- Symptoms
- How to protect Yourself & Others
- What to Do if You are Sick
- People at Higher Risk for Severe Illness
- Healthcare Professionals
#FamousChamber of Commerce Quotations: (via a recent Chamber member post)
Remain Strong, Take care of your Family, Wash your hands, say your prayers, be kind, shop local, and we will be Winners.
#ChamberSong ---A song to make you smile: "Good Day Sunshine" by the Beatles
Daily Herald report
Updated3/24/2020 12:09 PM
We're going to try to inject a little positivity in the paper (and on dailyherald.com) with a daily "Song to Make You Smile." It's designed to help lift you out of your coronavirus funk.
U.S. Chamber Foundation Save Small Business Fund Grant applications will go live Monday, April 20 at 2 pm.
No business should have to close their doors as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. That’s why the U.S. Chamber Foundation is teaming up with a coalition of companies to establish the Save Small Business Fund and provide $5,000 grants to help employers get through the days and weeks ahead.
Grant applications will go live Monday, April 20 at 2 pm.
The Fund is providing $5,000 in short-term relief to employers across the United States. These one-time supplemental cash grants are for businesses that have between three and 20 employees and operate in an economically vulnerable community. Check your businesses zip code eligibility here.
COVID-19 not seen as serious setback for Vicksburg’s ‘transformational’ innovation center
The emergence of the COVID-19-19 pandemic has so far caused only slight delays for a years-long public-private effort to transform high-tech ideas born in Vicksburg for military and homeland security purposes into job-creating commercial uses.
The virus crisis could also create slowdowns or even funding losses of money pledged from state and local partners for the $22 million project, though the federal government’s desire to ease economic distress could open up more opportunities for obtaining economic development tax credits, project planners say.
The work delay comes as the first phase of renovating the project’s home, the historic Mississippi Hardware Building at 1622 Washington St., nears the three-quarter completion mark, say principals of the public-private initiative launched by the Warren/Vicksburg Economic Development Foundation.
“It has set back our releasing the scope of work for the second phase construction (site work and core infrastructure) by probably a month,” said developer Tim Cantwell in a mi-April email. Cantwell in the middle of the last decade converted the historic 10-floor former Trustmark Bank building into a mixed use now occupied by Trustmark, apartments and the Key City Brewery and rooftop Cottonwood Public House.
The Mississippi Hardware building envelope is “virtually” completed, added Cantwell, who noted some work has been slowed by the need to maintain physical distancing.
In an interview last month before the virus spread across the country, Cantwell predicted tenant move-ins could begin as early as the first quarter of next year. “We’re starting to line up tenants now,” he said at the time. The Vicksburg-Warren County Chamber of Commerce, and sister entities the Warren/Vicksburg Economic Development Foundation and the Warren County Port Commission have signed on for space in the approximately 60,000 square foot building. Each floor has about 15,000 square feet.
Hinds Community College is expected to be an early tenant as well.
The county and city business support organizations combined in 2017 under the umbrella of the Vicksburg-Warren Partnership.
How did a project the Vicksburg Post calls “generational” and proclaimed by local officials as “transformational” come to be?
The planned Thad Cochran Center for Technology & Innovation grew largely from Dr. Jeffrey Holland’s conclusion that the U.S. Army Engineer Research & Development Center he led until his retirement there years ago represented a gold mine of innovative ideas, as did the regional headquarters of the Army Corps of Engineers in Vicksburg. These ideas and innovations carried the potential to create a high-performance economic engine for Vicksburg and the rest of Mississippi through technology transfers, he decided.
Beyond such transfers, Holland’s strategy for the Cochran Center includes grooming small and mid-size Mississippi companies to gain contracts from ERDC and the Corps of Engineers.
Holland, now president of the Warren County Board of Supervisors, spent the past
several years lining up federal, state and local support for a public-private partnership requiring financial commitments of slightly more than $20 million. His partners in the Economic Development Foundation decided the four-floor circa 1936 Mississippi Hardware building, vacant since 2013, would be the best location.
That made Cantwell a key recruit to the project, since he owned the building. A self-described “bricks-and-sticks guy” with experience around the country restoring historic properties and converting them to commercial uses, Cantwell said he saw great appeal in Holland’s idea of leveraging the mindpower of the hundreds of PhDs and high-level scientists, researchers and innovators employed by the federal government in Vicksburg.
“It gives me chills to think of what might happen if we accomplish just a fraction of what we’re supposed to accomplish,” the California-based Cantwell said in an interview.
At this moment, said Holland, “I’m guessing conservatively a hundred people could develop start-ups from the technology I know is on the shelves at ERDC.”
For instance, ERDC’s bomb-crater filling technology is an obvious candidate for transfer to a Mississippi market sorely needing new and efficient ways to fill road craters and potholes, Holland noted.
“We’re working on the transfer to help people not used to working for the Department of Defense. We’ll take stuff that we’re allowed to bring to the public sector,” he said.
“All of those technologies you commercialize represent an opportunity for a small business to be formed and for a little startup to be started right here in this community.”
This is an opportunity, Holland said, to “turn that kind of technology loose in a state like ours where only 2 percent of workers are working in high-tech.”
Vicksburg Mayor George Flaggs said he saw the potential in Holland’s technology transfer ideas right away and helped to persuade the Board of Aldermen to make a $300,000 annual commitment to the innovation enter. “He is the visionary,” Flaggs said of Holland, in an interview. “I am just trying to make sure it comes to fruition.”
The Cochran Center, he said, “is going to be the technology gateway to this state.” Read more: Mississippi Business
Mississippi tornadoes ravage Soso, poultry producers, other businesses
Somehow, Royals Western Store is open for business in Soso.
The scenes in Soso represent a fraction of the damage and disruption to life in Mississippi.
When deadly tornadoes ripped through the state over a week ago, more than 75 businesses were impacted, according to the Mississippi Emergency Management Agency. The natural disaster hit at a time when many already were reeling from the economic impact of the novel coronavirus.
Poultry industry takes a big hit
At Greer's, frozen chicken and other food were condemned by the state Department of Agriculture. A lot of chickens never had a chance to make it to grocery stores in Mississippi because of tornadoes.
Birds died at poultry farms and chicken houses around the state.
The poultry industry was worth an estimated $2.7 billion to Mississippi in 2019, according to Mississippi State Extension Service.
The most significant damage to the state’s poultry industry was in Covington County near Collins, according to a report from the Extension Service. Early indications were that at least 90 poultry houses were damaged or destroyed, along with an additional six breeder houses.
"I'm sure these people are going to have to apply for assistance," Marie Shoemake with Covington County Chamber of Commerce said. "It was devastation."
Sanderson Farms said it lost 51 bird houses and 20 were damaged. In all, the company has 2,400 bird houses, according to Pic Billingsley, director of development and engineering for Sanderson Farms.
"We, as a company, were very blessed that we were not impacted more," he said. "We did not have anyone who was hurt or killed, just the damage." Read more: Hattiesburg American
Town Square Publications Chamber Membership Directories and Community Profiles: The best Chamber Partner in Mississippi!
Town Square Publications, a division of the Daily Herald Media Group, is a national chamber custom publishing group that specializes in developing partnerships by producing high-quality print and digitally integrated publications along with other added value programs dedicated to creating relevancy for local chambers of commerce and other membership focused organizations interested in raising non-dues revenues.
Town Square Publications parent company, Paddock Publications, has over 100 years’ experience of print product development and dedicated customer service in communities throughout the Midwest. Our experience allows Town Square Publications to offer you attractive royalty and non-dues revenue share streams, provide direct distribution of your custom designed printed publications, including digital and mobile integration, and all with the quickest turn-around times available in the industry. Town Square also offers multi-media maps in both print and online formats, both with our No-Cost guarantee. More information: Town Square Publications
Chambers of Commerce and member focused organizations serve as a valuable resource in the local marketplace. The networking opportunities and representation with a wide variety of diverse businesses in your community is the catalyst of a successful organization. For further information about Town Square's publishing partnership with chambers of commerce and our No-Cost guarantee and Earned Revenue Share Program, To request your chamber publication or map proposal, contact Town Square Chamber Proposal
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.