PORT GIBSON – Momentum was the word for Gov. Haley Barbour Friday as he made two stops in Claiborne County.

In a tour of a reopened veneer plant, the governor touted a piece of legislation called Momentum Mississippi that he sees as an economy-boosting effort. Hours later, during his address to graduates of Chamberlin Hunt Academy, he said residents need to seize the opportunity of what he sees as a momentum in building the state’s image.

At Port Gibson Veneers, Barbour urged about 100 employees at their plant’s re-opening ceremony to support the economic-development bill he has asked legislators to consider in the special session that began Wednesday.

Part of Momentum Mississippi is designed “to fund programs the (Mississippi Development Authority) uses so they can come in and help” companies such as Port Gibson Veneers, Barbour said. The Senate passed the bill, 49-3, but the House has not been allowed to vote on it, Barbour added.

Port Gibson Veneers, at 1512 Bridewell Lane and formerly Bruce Hardwood, closed nearly two years ago and reopened about six months ago. It employs 65 people and hopes to increase employment in the coming months to about 90, manager Reginald Whitfield said.

The Momentum Mississippi bill would allow the issuance of up to about $41 million in new state bonds and would provide for other tax credits and financial incentives for companies. The plan was organized by business leaders across the state and is designed to help existing industries as well as new ones, Barbour has said.

“Existing businesses create the most jobs,” Barbour said. “To have a business that is closed re-open is to me a big deal.”

The other two items are the state budget and how proceeds from settlement of a state lawsuit against the former MCI WorldCom were to be distributed.

Armstrong World Industries, based in Lancaster, Pa., closed the Claiborne County plant in August 2003, eliminating about 140 jobs, citing economic reasons. Armstrong is publicly traded, and at least some of its Port Gibson employees were members of a labor union.

International competition in the industry has increased in recent years with growth in foreign trade and direct investment.

The plant closing happened at a time when the jobless rate in Claiborne County was about 12 percent, almost double the state average. Claiborne has about 12,000 residents.

The most recent Claiborne County unemployment figure released by the Mississippi Employment Security Commission was 11.5 percent, for March.

Most of Port Gibson Veneer’s workers are former employees of Bruce Hardwood who have been re-hired, said a partner in the new venture, Tony Parks.

Port Gibson Veneers is a partnership of Parks, Eugene “Buddy” Fuzzell and Delta Ventures LLC, a company release announcing Friday’s ceremony says.

“Its employees understand that the forest-products industry is competitive,” the release says. “They are dedicated, along with the owners, to make this a successful venture for themselves and the surrounding area.”

Port Gibson Veneers produces strips for hardwood flooring that are between about 1/12 inch and 1/6 inch thick, Whitfield said.

It uses trees including pecan, red oak, white oak, poplar, hackberry, sycamore and beech gum, Whitfield said. The company buys about 65 percent of the trees it uses from local sources, Parks said.

The new operation uses about half the capacity of the plant, but company officials said they hope to expand the business and add equipment to use more of it, Whitfield said.

Port Gibson Veneers currently sells to Armstrong and a family-owned company, Anderson Hardwood Floors of Clinton, S.C., Parks said. It is hoping to add more customers and expand employment, he added.

The release said Port Gibson Veneers’ partners have invested more than $5 million to reopen the plant, including the land, building, existing equipment and machinery and other supplies.

Following the ribbon-cutting at Port Gibson Veneers, Barbour made a short trip around the corner to Chamberlain-Hunt Academy, 124 McComb Ave., to address graduates.

Barbour said the image of the state in the eyes of its people and the nation changed from the 1960s to the 1990s. He said the change was reflected in the attitudes of people his children’s ages, who grew up in the 1990s.

He cited the success of high-profile natives such as himself as chairman of the Republican National Committee, Sen. Trent Lott, R-Miss., as majority leader, James Barksdale of Netscape, John Palmer of SkyTel, Fred Smith of FedEx, country-music stars Leann Rimes and Faith Hill, football pros Jerry Rice and Brett Favre and actors Morgan Freeman and Sela Ward.

“Everywhere they look, Mississippians were at the top of the heap,” he said. “You know what’s so good about that is that their ideas and image of Mississippi and never thinking about an inferiority complex corresponds to how the nation’s image has changed.

“That’s why Nissan came here and Lockheed-Martin and Northrop-Grumman, and Textron, Raytheon, FedEx, SteelCorr – because they realized this is a great state of great people where you can be very successful and have a wonderful quality of life at a lot lower cost of living.

“We have come into our own. Yes, we’re – Mississippi is still the most underestimated state in the country and Mississippians are the most underestimated people. But that doesn’t bother me except when it is we Mississippians who underestimate ourselves. That’s when it’s a problem.”

The governor closed by urging the assembled CHA student body, the rest of his audience and “everybody in earshot from Mississippi” to raise their expectations and seize the opportunity.

“Now is the time for us to put those old attitudes behind us,” Barbour said.