Vern Geddie, Charles Pickering and Harry Bush were among those leading a group of Jones County people interested in combining the approximately seven organizations into one economic development entity after Owen “Deacon” Neatherly retired as the executive director of the Laurel Chamber of Commerce — and they wanted it to be a countywide organization. They and others went on to form the Jones County Economic Development Authority, which is celebrating its 25th annversary this year.

“There were about seven different entities in the county trying to do economic development,” Geddie said. “We decided that if we were ever going to make a change, that would be a good time to do it with a change in the Chamber.”

The people who met had in mind modeling the organization after the Tupelo-Lee County Economic Development program. Several organizational meetings were held, including one at Jones county Junior College with about 40-50 people attending. At another organizational meeting, Pickering was elected chairman, Bush vice chairman and Geddie secretary/treasurer.

From there, the state legislature adopted special legislation to authorize the existence of the EDA and to allow Laurel, Soso, Sandersville and Ellisville, along with the Board of Supervisors, to contribute to the well being of the organization.

“Charles Pickering (a former state senator) was very instrumental in getting that passed,” Geddie said.

“We made one, possibly two, trips to Tupelo to learn about that organization,” Geddie added. “They were very gracious to us, and gave us good ideas about how to form and run our organization. We formed a search committee to look for a president, and it took us a pretty while to get one.”

Later, Pickering served two years, Bush served two years and Geddie served two years.

“In fact, I stayed over a third year,” he said. “We formed another search committee, and brought Mitch Stennett on as president in 1990. All the time, we were working toward trying to enlist industry to move here.”

Geddie said all the previous entities had not done a “very good job” because they were too fragmented.

“There was no more Chamber of Commerce, and what we were doing was all inclusive of Jones county. There had been a lot of dissension between Jones County and Laurel during those early years, and we felt like we needed to put that to rest if we could. I think we did a pretty good job in that respect. It was a big task getting everybody to work together, but I think everybody wanted to. Maybe they were a little fearful to step out because they didn’t know if the community would accept it.”

Seminars were conducted by the state organization.

“That showed us how much more we could get done as an aggressive organization by working together,” Geddie said. “Then it started growing and coming together. I compliment all the elected officials through all the years; they have been very supportive.”

The first property acquired by the EDA was the property now known as Tech Park South in Ellisville off Highway 11 South.

“(Former Mayor) Dick Anderson asked me to talk to them about the property, and we got 500 acres,” Geddie said. “Some of the land also came from Cooke Lewis. That’s when the Southeast Mississippi Industrial park was formed. That organization turned the park over the EDA. That was our start.”

All seven entities eventually turned their property over to the EDA.