By Kelly Atwood, JCJC Director of Presidential and Public Information
ELLISVILLE — Imagine downtown Ellisville with parks, walking trails, way-finding signs and a designated historic district. These were all suggestions made during a roll-out presentation held Thursday night on the Jones County Junior College campus.
The presentation, conducted by the Mississippi Main Street Association, was the final step in a series of intensive meetings held over a three-day period, also known as a charrette. The meetings included a stakeholder input meeting, individual interviews, pubic input session and merchant meeting.
The goals of the meetings, which were conducted by the JCJC WAEM WIRED team, the Mississippi State Community Action Team and the Mississippi Main Street Association, included strategic planning, community development, and business recruitment and retention.
Listening to stakeholders and community members was a team of experts, including an urban planner, the Mississippi State Community Action team, a market analyzer, a branding and marketing specialist, landscape architect and an historic preservation planner.
Using the information gathered over the three-day period, the team created a master report with in-depth marketing analysis including design, branding and marketing ideas.
The team’s suggestions in the final report included a tagline for Ellisville, emphasizing each letter L in the city name: Legends, Learning, Living the Good Life. The word “Legends” focuses on the stories that the people of Ellisville share, including stories of Newt Knight, the Blues, and Buddy Meyer. The word “Learning” focuses on the strong educational community, including Jones County Junior College, the Jones County School District and the Ellisville State School. “Living the Good Life” refers to the comments from community members that the city is a great place to live.
“Strategically, two things the team focused on was tying JCJC to the downtown area,” said Patrick Scoggin, JCJC grant director and community development facilitator. “The city’s population doubles while the college is in session. The team suggested that more college programs be held downtown, including art students displaying their work in store windows, the choir singing in a park, and the fashion merchandising class possibly having a part-time shop downtown.”
The team also suggested that Ellisville merchants focus on specialty shops, which is a common trend in downtown areas now. Also suggested were sidewalks connecting the college to downtown and walking trails connected by new family-friendly parks.
It was determined that the City of Ellisville could designate a historic district. Long-term suggestions were also presented, including burying utilities and creating a uniform look using building facades and landscaping.
The team drew on the college’s way-finding signs with its memorable swoosh design and suggested the City of Ellisville also use the swoosh on all of its signs. They also suggested that the top of Hotel Alice, which is the tallest building in downtown Ellisville, could be used as a recognizable branding tool for the city.
The suggestions were made to help Ellisville capitalize on its current growth.
“What many people don’t realize is that Ellisville is a thriving community,” said Hope Windham, a JCJC community development facilitator. “The population has been growing since the 1990s and revenues are growing.”
A comprehensive plan will be provided to the city by the end of January.
Ellisville Mayor Tim Waldrup, who attended the final presentation, said, “We appreciate this team planning for Ellisville’s future. This week was a great start and provided us many ideas, including a marketing strategy and branding statement that we are going to refine. I was very satisfied with the results.”
The JCJC WAEM WIRED team has worked with experts from the Mississippi Main Street Association and Mississippi State Community Action Team on several charrettes in the area, including Covington County, Heidelberg and Laurel. Ellisville was the final area charrette sponsored by the WAEM WIRED grant, which covers eight colleges in the West Alabama - East Mississippi region.
