Robinsonville, MS—
FAST FACTS:
- Pipe plant to break ground in March
- Set to employ 180 to start
- Eventually could employ as many as 500
dennis.turner@wreg.com
(Robinsonville, MS 2/10/2010) Tunica County will soon have new jobs available.
The area's newest manufacturing plant is set to break ground soon on a facility that could employ hundreds.
The plant will manufacture steel pipe for the natural gas industry, and is the first step in taking Tunica out of an economy based solely on farming and service jobs.
Cliff Meredith staked his dreams on his new deli at Tunica's Factory Shops. About the same time, business dropped off some, "It has here lately it has. At one time it was picking up and now we need some extra industry."
Now Tunica's getting it. The State of Mississippi is helping finance the construction of a new steel pipe plant on a site a short distance from Meredith's shop in Robinsonville.
The first phase should bring nearly 200 jobs, and as many as 500 when fully built.
Tunica hasn't had any real manufacturing jobs in years, since the Pillowtex plant closed in the 1990's. The pipe plant would be the first to bring new factory jobs since that time.
And this pipe plant is coming together quickly. "Very quickly. We're gonna start construction about the middle of March and the company plans to be in production by the end of December," Said Chamber of Commerce Director Lyn Arnold.
The State is loaning money to the County, which will build the new plant, which the company will then lease back.
Arnold says it will help diversify Tunica's economy away from its dependence on the casino and farm jobs it's depended on for years.
And business owners look for the benefits to rub off on them too. "I believe it'll be great for business. I'm hopin' it will really help us," said Meredith.
Lyn Arnold says since the announcement of the pipe plant, she's heard from several other businesses have expressed interest in Tunica County as well, so she says this could be just the beginning of a manufacturing boom.
