[12/17/03]Vicksburg and Warren County residents who attended Gov.-elect Haley Barbour’s job summit Tuesday said they are encouraged about Mississippi’s economic future.

Those attending from Vicksburg were Sen. Mike Chaney, R-Vicksburg; Rep. George Flaggs, D-Vicksburg; Jimmy Heidel, executive vice president of the Vicksburg-Warren County Chamber of Commerce and head of the Mississippi Department of Economic and Community Development under Gov. Kirk Fordice; and his wife, Joanna Heidel; and Donald G. Brown, local Chamber president and Warren County director of Warren-Yazoo Mental Health Service.

Chaney said he was particularly impressed by Fred Smith, a native of Mississippi and founder and CEO of FedEx, and Andrew Card, chief of staff to President Bush.

He said Smith gave some concrete suggestions about what the state can do to improve its economic climate.

The summit participants came from “a cross section of Mississippi,” Chaney said, noting that those attending were white and black, Democrats and Republicans.

“This was open to all Mississippians,” he said.

Noting some specifics that the state needs to accomplish, Chaney said the state must have an improved legal climate to encourage business to open or move here, and the state must develop more small businesses. He also predicted that additional civil justice reform will result from the discussions and things learned at the summit.

“This is an excellent way to get started” on a new administration, Flaggs said. “I was glad to be invited.”

He also said he was pleased to learn more of what people in Mississippi want, and that includes more jobs, particularly more manufacturing jobs.

“I just hope we don’t get bogged down in party politics,” Flaggs said, adding he is ready to give Barbour the benefit of the doubt as he did any of the three governors with whom he has served.

Joanna Heidel said she came away with some concrete ideas about what the state needs to do on tort reform from Victor Schwartz a Washington partner in a Kansas City, Mo., law firm.

She said she believes punitive damages should be combined with pain and suffering damages and capped.

Jimmy Heidel, who was moderator for one of the sessions, said he was impressed with the technology and technology-alliance concepts brought out by Andy Taggart, chief of staff under Fordice.

There has never been a large tie to take the technology from the universities and bring it to private business. But, that appears to be changing, and Heidel pointed to a research program at Mississippi State University on using what is left of trees from timbering operations that originally came from Australia. He cited a process that will be researched at State that compresses chips into sheets, beams and planks that are stronger than regular wood products such as plywood. The processed wood will cost about one-third the price of plywood, he said.

“There was no question that everybody in that room felt that work force training and education was really a key to developing the State of Mississippi’s economic development,” Jimmy Heidel said.

“I thought it was very upbeat,” said Brown, who was also an honorary vice chairman for the summit, adding he, too, was impressed with Card and Smith.

“These guys confirmed the fact that Haley Barbour can bring good things to the state of Mississippi,” he said, adding that Card made a point to bring up Barbour’s influence and ability to command the attention of national and international figures. “That is going to be to the benefit of our state.”

Brown said the fact that Barbour held a job summit before inauguration shows his commitment to job creation.

“He has talked the talk and now it seems he is beginning to walk the walk,” Brown said.