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Officials seek funds for Mississippi River Corporation
Published Wednesday, June 17, 2009
NATCHEZ — Mississippi River Corporation’s Vice President George Matthews and Adams County officials are in Washington, D.C., this week seeking financial assistance for MRC.
Matthews, Adams County Supervisor Darryl Grennell and Adams County Chancery Clerk Tommy O’Beirne met with several congressmen Tuesday and plan to continue meeting today in an effort to secure financial assistance for the company.
Over the past several weeks county and city officials have met multiple times in executive session to discuss MRC’s need for assistance.
Matthews said while no deals or commitments have been finalized, he’s willing to meet with any party able to offer assistance to the company.
“It’s all very preliminary at this point,” Matthews said.
Matthews said he’s pursuing state assistance, from the Mississippi Development Authority, and federal assistance to keep the company growing.
“This economy has been devastating to the paper industry,” Matthews said of his business, which makes recycled paper pulp, which is then made into paper products. “It’s a difficult time.”
MRC currently employees 65 workers, and Matthews is focused on keeping each one of them and hopes to grow the company.
“We need to survive this,” Matthews said of the economic downturn.
And while MRC needs cash, with approximately $13 million in debt, Matthews will take any help he can get.
“We’re (in Washington) looking for any assistance,” he said.
But that assistance may not be in the form of financial aid.
Matthews said he’s even open to ideas on how to run the company more efficiently.
Tuesday evening Grennell said he believed the day’s meetings had been productive and would hopefully yield some benefit for MRC.
“If there are resources here that can help this endeavor, that we may not know about, then we need to be here working to see what’s available,” Grennell said.
And after a day of meeting with congressmen, several congressional staff members have now been directed to explore the funding availability for MRC, Grennell said.
Grennell said the meetings also offer those in Washington an opportunity to see what’s happening inside Adams County they would not ordinarily have.
Grennell said after meeting with Representative Gregg Harper, Harper actually thanked the group for the insight into what’s happening in Adams County and directed his staffers to find ways to assist MRC.
“(Harper) said ‘We cannot afford to lose any more industry in Southwest Mississippi,’” Grennell said. “I think we’ll see some good from this trip.”
Comments
Posted by stateofnatchez (anonymous) on June 17, 2009 at 12:56 a.m. (Suggest removal)
$13 million in debt???
"Matthews said he’s even open to ideas on how to run the company more efficiently."
For christ's sake, this guy is VP and he is ASKING for help to run this company more efficiently.
Posted by Mucasplug (anonymous) on June 17, 2009 at 5:52 a.m. (Suggest removal)
This is a weird story. Matthews statement is puzzling. My biggest question is why they had to fly to Washington? Harper would have come to them, this is his district. Furthermore, Dr. Bell invented the telephone at the turn of the century, could not a conference call taken care of the peoples business? The city picked up the tab more than likely.
Posted by LOVESNATCHEZ (anonymous) on June 17, 2009 at 6:36 a.m. (Suggest removal)
I really just don't get it. I understand this company employs 65 people. But, is anyone going to help my business if I can't make it on my own? If I have to sell and move to make a living, then so be it. We CANNOT continue to support non profitable businesses. I hope this doesn't sound too harsh, but hell, we're ALL having a hard time making it.
Posted by beammeupscotty (anonymous) on June 17, 2009 at 6:37 a.m. (Suggest removal)
I have a financial suggestion, watch who you hire. Did they ever get thier money back from the 4 or 5 that stole from the company?
Posted by ProNatchez (anonymous) on June 17, 2009 at 6:59 a.m. (Suggest removal)
I just don't understand all of this bailout crap. If a business is failing, then let it fail. Why should the taxpayers have to keep all these businesses running?
Posted by Hambone (anonymous) on June 17, 2009 at 7:24 a.m. (Suggest removal)
Who paid for this trip?
Posted by abc747 (anonymous) on June 17, 2009 at 7:31 a.m. (Suggest removal)
"Matthews said he’s even open to ideas on how to run the company more efficiently."
Say what?? Talk about looking for diamonds in a wheat field. "Efficiency" and "Washington" - sorry, does not compute.
Posted by southernwoman (anonymous) on June 17, 2009 at 11:43 a.m. (Suggest removal)
Yes, ND, please find out how much this trip cost the City of Natchez.
Posted by freedom42 (anonymous) on June 17, 2009 at 8:19 p.m. (Suggest removal)
I'm pretty sure no one is going to bail out my little company, employing 3 people, because we have hit the slow season as well as the poor economy. We will all just have to tighten up and deal with it. So does the MRC.
Posted by magnolia8 (anonymous) on June 17, 2009 at 8:39 p.m. (Suggest removal)
I would wager the business paid for their trip and the county paid for the counties representatives (who likely have frequent business there).
Why is a trip to DC necessary? In order to meet with Senators who are "in session", you have to travel to them.
With the enormous sums of money being spent nationwide to supplement businesses outside of MS, I'm surprised with the comments thus far. Given our particularly weak state economic forecast (ex1 http://www.entrepreneur.com/tradejournal...), I'm glad to see the potential of it benefiting us on the local level.
Posted by EnKiKur (Marty Ellerbe) on June 18, 2009 at 1:21 a.m. (Suggest removal)
Taking money from individual taxpayers to give to companies who can't make a profit just because they employ a few people is an extremely stupid idea. It's simply a net loss, at the expense of people who have no control over the situation. MRC is saying "Everyone should pay us not to make money because we deserve it".
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