To the editor:

Mr. John Howell answered one of my question’s, in a letter, dated September 3, 2010, about the “Road to Nowhere,” being built out at the airport, but, I reread his reply, several times to make sure I didn’t overlook the answer to the other  question I asked, and that was, how much this road, to nowhere, is costing the hard working tax payers of Panola county?

Another question I would like to have answered is: where are the signed agreements from the folks who are going to put in their business, out here in the “boon docks, on the back side of nowhere?”

I’m pretty sure our folks at the Panola Partnership, the City of Batesville and Panola county had the contracts signed and agreed upon before they started to build the road and spend our money, right?

My dad, God rest his soul, always said, “Don’t do anything a__ backwards, cause it don’t work out too good,” and he was always right.

As one of those who is paying for this road, I would like to see the names of these people. As a good citizen of this town I would like to welcome them to our city. Why, I will even bake them a cake.

/s/Pat Mills

(Editor’s note: The development of the airport industrial site was the subject of extensive discussions among the City of Batesville, Panola County and the Panola Partnership during the past year [See “By all accounts, Panola poised to score big,” Jan. 1, 2010; “Let Partnership handle economic development, Feb. 9, 2010; “Panola misses out as Senatobia site chosen, April 6, 2010; “Aldermen agree to partial funding of Partnership, May 11, 2010; among others, at panolian.com.]

The agreement finally hammered out among the three entities included the city and county each increasing their Partnership support to cover the salary of its director. The Partnership in return agreed to cover the cost incurred by the county for the infrastructure improvements including the road.

There are no signed agreements in place “from the folks who are going to put in their business,” just as there were no signed agreements with anyone when land for what became the W. M. Harmon Industrial Complex was first bought and developed in the mid-1980s.

Today there are no large acreage tracts left in Harmon Park. The property across the interstate near the airport is considered by the Mississippi Development Authority and the Tennessee Valley Authority to be the best site south of Memphis. Local officials are scrambling to ready the property.

“Today, your infrastructure has to be in place, you can’t sell an undeveloped space in today’s competitive market,” Partnership CEO Sonny Simmons said.)