In the past seven months, the Miss-Lou Steering Committee has been working to try and put into place a plan of action to market the southwestern part of Mississippi and the east-central part of Louisiana.

This committee consists of both the public and private sector of Concordia Parish and Adams County. Our communities have so many things to offer a potential industrial prospect: natural resources, recreation, history and quality of life, just to name a few, to make the Miss-Lou very marketable.

Working together we can increase our opportunities to land industrial prospects; what one community may not have, one of the others will.

Regionalism is growing all across America and being able to offer this concept is important to our area. Every community is out there looking for the chance to land job opportunities for their residents. We need to have our area “ready to go” and be able to say “we have what you need in the Miss-Lou!”

The Miss-Lou Steering Committee will be hosting the last of three forums for you, the public, to hear our presentation and also voice your opinion. I hope you will be able to join us for this session at 5:30 p.m. Thursday at the Natchez Convention Center during the Business After Hours.

I look forward to seeing you at the forum.

Jake Middleton is the mayor of the City of Natchez.