2016 Combined

Development. Corporation, which is a community develop ment tool. We did that early on and it really paid off after the torna do. It has been a power ful tool that we have been able to use. During my time here, we also have been able to finance several business startups and acquisi tions. The work of the Partnership went beyond the scope of just bringing jobs to the community, it also assisted in creating a better community for industry leaders to take look at and note.

"I have over 34 years into the retirement sys tem, so it has been cost ing me to work the past couple of years." Mills began. "However, I am proud of our accom plishments. I am proud of where we are right now. We are certainly busy and we are still looking for more jobs. Right now it is a good time. You want to go out when things are good, not when they are bad. And it is as good as it has been in a long time." With economic devel opment being more in the spotlight in this day in age for the county, Mills was grateful that he was present for the new light that economic development has helped shine on the communi ty. ''We were able to go to another level," Mills said. "Joel O'Bryant and the people that were here before laid a good foundation. Even before I got here, I was famil iar with the area and the community itself." During his time at the Partnership, Mills was part of a team of people that consistently sought ways to improve the economic aspects of the community. ''We have certainly seen the difference in how we interface with site location consultants and MDA's as far as electronic preparation of request for proposals and those things," Mills said. "Probably one of the biggest things we accomplished is getting East Central Community College to locate here. That was just a need that was evi dent from the begin ning. We formed a 501c(3l__Community

By Daniel Brunty The Wmst.on County Journal

As Winston County and its communities continue to recover fol lowing the April 28, 2014 storms, economic development has pro gressed in the face of it all. Assisting with this progress, as well as the progression of economic development in the county, is retiring Winston County :Economic Development District Partnership Executive Director Gerald Mills. Mills will retire from his position June 30, where he will pass the torch on to new Executive Director Glenn Haab. Mills is a veteran of 30 years of economic devel opment experience with the Mississippi Research and Development Center, the Mississippi Development Authority, as well as the Partnership. He is a graduate of the Economic Development Institute at the University of Oklahoma and is an instructor in the Institute for Organization Management, a profes sional development pro gram of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. He is a certified facilita tor for training in Steven Covey's The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People. As Mills envisions his next chapter in life, he reflects on his time at the Partnership, as well as some of the accom plishments and changes that he has seen in the county the past few decades.

''I think the work that we done with the school system with ''Get Your Head in the Game" and helping toward being a part of keeping our high school retention up," Mills said. "We have identified and put together a lot of quality sites. If you visit our website you will see that we have a lot to sell. We have acquired property on behalf of the county as well as the city. We have acquired property that is belongs to the Winston Partnership and we are able to mar ket that in such a way that we control the mar keting process. I think one of the biggest accomplishments is what we have been able to put together as far as~ T what we call our prod-' uct. We are able to ES package our product for

APPEJ

CARTI NEWT SPIRll MERICl OTHEF

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- -- -......- 1 - industries to view and!QURNAL V 1 make decisions upon." With all the hard work and dedication_______

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that Mills and the staff at the Partnership have put in over the years, the county hopes to soon