The closure of the Eaker Air Force Base in Blytheville in 1992 was just one of numerous hits the Mississippi County economy took during the 1990s.
In addition to the roughly 9,000 jobs at the base, the county lost a Fruit of the Loom factory that employed about 3,000 people, along with employers such as BorgWarner and Milwaukee Tool, not to mention numerous car dealerships and farm equipment stores, said Clif Chitwood, president of Mississippi County Economic Development.
“It not only changed the workforce,” he said. “It changed the civics of the county because if your family owned the Ford dealership in Blytheville, then your family was intrinsically interested in the future of Blytheville.”
Officials in Osceola and Blytheville hit back hard in 2001, uniting to form the Great River Foundation with Chitwood at its helm. That year, Chitwood succeeded in recruiting Denso Manufacturing Co., in part because the mayor of Osceola put about $3 million into buying and developing the land.
“That made the lesson seem pretty clear,” Chitwood said. “In 2002, we went to the people and asked them to vote on a 1/2-cent sales tax countywide, the proceeds of which would be used for economic development, and they passed it by 65 votes.”
The foundation then tried — and failed — to recruit a steel mill run by John Correnti and David Stickler. However, it succeeded in recruiting Zekelman Industries, which has since expanded twice in Mississippi County.
When Correnti and Stickler returned to the area years later, the local economic development community was ready. The foundation offered up about $14.5 million to buy the land for the mill, and the state government chipped in tax rebates and recycling tax credits to boot.
“We won the project,” Chitwood said. “It was a tremendous lift to the county.”
Big River Steel broke ground in Osceola in 2014, joining the existing Nucor-Yamato and Nucor Hickman mills in Blytheville. Big River opened a second mill at the site soon after, and yet another mill, Hybar, celebrated its grand opening in Osceola last year.
If the county strikes the right balance between a well-educated, motivated workforce and good companies with high-paying jobs, its economy will continue to grow, Chitwood said.
Arkansas Northeastern College in Blytheville partners with the steel industry for its steel tech academy, providing an ample supply of trained workers, and Mississippi County has also implemented a “work here, live here” program to draw more residents to the area.
Chitwood said recruiting companies to Mississippi County is a lot easier these days.
“I used to go to steel shows all over the world, trying to sell this first site, where Big River 1 landed, and people would look at me and say, ‘Why? Why would anybody go there?’” he said. “Now they’re calling us, wanting to know, ‘Do you have any sites left with river frontage?’”
Stickler, now CEO of Hybar, told Arkansas Money & Politics last year Mississippi County offers benefits that include a robust workforce, supportive local officials and convenient infrastructure.
“We liked the work ethic in northeast Arkansas. There’s a lot of people who aren’t afraid to work hard, work with their hands, tend to be mechanically inclined,” he said. “We’ve got supportive government officials from the county and local government organizations. We’ve got the mighty Mississippi. We’ve got a great company for the power-providing perspective in Entergy. You have the [Burlington Northern Santa Fe] Railroad.”
He added that Arkansas is a great place to do business, but it is a “really, really great place” to do steel business.
“Arkansas is being discovered by a lot of the rest of the country and the rest of the world,” he said. “We’ve got a lot of good things going for us. We just need to be prepared to take full advantage of them, and we need to help more of our young people realize that if you’re looking for economic opportunity, it’s staring you in the face if you’re in Arkansas.”
(Photo provided by Hybar)
