For this area, one of the silver linings from last year’sdevastating Hurricane Katrina is the opportunity for increasedeconomic development in the form of new industries looking for moreinland locations safe from future storms.

Timing, they say, is everything. For Brookhaven and LincolnCounty, the establishment of the LinBrook Business Park is perfecttiming as coastal industries make decisions on their futurefacilities.

Just this past week, a longtime manufacturer from the coastannounced its decision to relocate its 100-job facility to nearJackson.

While such moves are detrimental to the Gulf Coast, the fact ismore manufacturing facilities are seriously considering such movesas hedges against ever again being faced with a Katrina. It is justgood business, and this community has placed itself in the positionto possibly benefit from such decisions.

The only problem is that every other community along a linesouth of Interstate 20 across not only Mississippi, but Louisianaand Alabama also, has the same opportunity and they are marketingthemselves to those coastal industries. This is where Brookhavenand Lincoln County are at a disadvantage – a shortage of marketingdollars.

The key to success of any venture is proper marketing. While astrong product or service is vital to success, a strong marketingcampaign of a lesser product can many times overcome weaknesses inthe minds of consumers.

While this community has a strong economic development product,a report released by the chamber of commerce showed a disturbingfact that Brookhaven and Lincoln County seriously lag in thefinancial ability to mount a strong marketing campaign to promoteour product.

Out of eight counties in Southwest Mississippi, the study showedLincoln being the second largest in population, but our marketing(chamber budget) lagged behind at number five. McComb and PikeCounty rank at number one with an annual budget of $500,000; thatis more than double what we are spending here.

Eight years ago, $1.5 million in private money was pledged fromlocal businesses and individuals in an effort to build ourindustrial base. Those funds were the seed money invested back intoour community, with the largest amount going to LinBrook BusinessPark. The Vision Partnership was an investment in our community by182 businesses and individuals who dug deep into their pockets tomake this community stronger.

As the money from the Partnership is exhausted, a search for newfunding needs to be found. The chamber has asked both the city andcounty to increase their funding for next year, but even therequested increase does not solve the problem.

One solution that was tried but failed a few years ago was atourism tax.

The idea was to put a 1 to 2 percent tax on lodging and food,with generated revenue going to marketing of our community. Theeffort, though, did not generate sufficient support and failed tobecome a reality. Maybe it is time to revisit the idea?