Last week’s formal awarding of a $70,000 Economic DevelopmentAdministration grant is good news for this community.

With the grant, and $10,000 each in matching money from thecity, county and the chamber of commerce’s Vision Partnershipcampaign, local officials can take an important step forward inpreparing for future economic development opportunities.

The grant and local money will be used to fund a study todetermine which of six sites is best for a new industrial park. Adecision on an engineer to do the study is expected at Monday’ssupervisors meeting.

While the study grant is an important step, it is only one stepin a long process.

Once a site is selected, the land must be acquired and developedwith road, water and sewer and other infrastructure improvements.The teamwork approach seen so far will be critical later as localofficials look for ways to fund those needs.

We applaud the cooperative spirit between city, county andchamber officials that has allowed us to reach this point. We hopeit continues as they strive to prepare this community for thefuture.

A cooperative spirit will also be needed in the coming weeks asthe city begins work on the $950,000 Whitworth Fire Loop projectdowntown. The project involves a major reworking of water lines toservice the Mississippi School of the Arts on the Whitworth Collegecampus and the rest of the downtown area. Work is scheduled tobegin July 1 and conclude Nov. 27.

There is no doubt that a project of this size is going to causesome inconveniences to businesses, shoppers and those who live andwork downtown. In the long run, the work will bring majorimprovements in water service and fire protection to the area.