Mississippi County Economic Development

10/03/2026

We don’t just forge steel. We preserve history and build what comes next. 🇺🇸🌎

Rex Nelson’s latest column shines a spotlight on Mississippi County’s growing global reach through the National Cold War Center.

This November, former Polish President and Nobel Peace Prize laureate L**h Wałęsa will join John Grisham at Blytheville’s Ritz Theater a remarkable meeting of world history and hometown possibility.

From an Air Force base closure to a new chapter of international significance, this is what vision, partnerships, and persistence can do.

The LandofSteel has more than one story worth telling. And the world is taking notice.



Mississippi County, Arkansas Government
The National Cold War Center

Nov. 6 will be a big day in Mis­sis­sippi County. Once the state’s cot­ton cap­ital, Mis­sis­sippi County has been in the news a lot in recent years. It’s now the lead­ing steel-pro­du­cing county in the coun­try and will soon have one of the world’s...

10/02/2026

The Land of Steel showed up! 🔥💪

We were proud to represent Mississippi County at the Arkansas Manufacturing Showcase alongside our industry partners and workforce training team!

We love our partners and are so proud they are investing in MissCo. Their commitment means jobs, career opportunities, and a stronger future for the families who call this county home.

Having our manufacturers and workforce partners together gave us a chance to showcase both what we make and the people who make it possible. From training for that first job to growing a lifelong career, these partnerships help turn investment into opportunity.

Thank you to everyone who showed up with us and helped tell our story. There’s a lot to be proud of in the Land of Steel! ❤️

Stay tuned for more of what came from the showcase!

Thanks to the Arkansas State Chamber of Commerce/Associated Industries of Arkansas for hosting and providing this opportunity for us!

09/25/2026

ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT 101 | DAY 5

What if economic development starts with YOU?

For five days, we’ve talked about building stronger economies, stronger schools, stronger communities and believing in what we are capable of creating together.

But today I want to bring it all the way down to one person.

You.

Mark C. Perna talks about helping every person develop a personal competitive advantage.

And I love that way of thinking about workforce and economic development.

Because our goal shouldn’t simply be to prepare someone for the job that’s available today.

We should be helping people build the skills, confidence and ability to create opportunity throughout their lives.

Perna describes a personal competitive advantage as a combination of:

Academic knowledge.
Technical competencies.
Professional and life skills.

Think about that.

You may learn welding, nursing, coding, aviation maintenance, accounting or advanced manufacturing.

Those are valuable technical skills.

But your ability to communicate, solve problems, work with others, adapt, listen, lead, manage yourself and build relationships travels with you wherever you go.

That’s your competitive advantage.

And this changes how we should think about economic development.

We’re not simply trying to fill jobs.

We’re trying to develop people who can compete, adapt, create, lead and build.

Because industries will change.

Technology will change.

Jobs will change.

Our communities will change.

But people who know how to learn, adapt, connect and solve problems will continue creating opportunity.

And imagine what happens when we develop that mindset across an entire community.

A child begins to understand that their future isn’t predetermined by their ZIP code.

A student discovers there are multiple pathways to a successful career.

An employee realizes learning doesn’t stop when school ends.

An entrepreneur believes an idea is worth pursuing.

A neighbor realizes leadership doesn’t require a title.

Individual competitive advantage becomes community competitive advantage.

That’s where these five days have been leading.

Economic development isn’t only about the company we recruit.

It’s about the people we develop.

The places we build.

The connections we make.

The opportunities we create.

And ultimately, whether people believe they are capable of creating something better.

Mark Perna calls for Education with Purpose and Employment with Passion.

Maybe our challenge is to take that one step further:

People with purpose.
Communities with confidence.
Economies built to last.

We are capable.

Now let’s build our competitive advantage.

Today’s question: What is YOUR competitive advantage and what are you doing to strengthen it?

Source: Mark C. Perna, Competitive Advantage Track™ and Education with Purpose & Employment with Passion®

Economic development is ultimately about people!

LandofSteel
Mississippi County, Arkansas Government

09/25/2026

A strong community needs access to care, and that takes people who choose to build their careers here.

Congratulations to Mississippi County Hospital System on receiving $4.4 million to support the development of a Family Medicine residency program at Great River Medical in Blytheville. Through its partnership with NYIT College of Osteopathic Medicine, future physicians will have the opportunity to train while serving communities in the Delta.

From an economic development perspective, this matters to our families, our employers and our future.

Training physicians here is an important step toward building the healthcare workforce our region needs. We’re excited to see this investment in Mississippi County!

Thanks for all you are doing to improve the quality of life for residents of our community and surrounding areas.

09/24/2026

ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT 101 | DAY 4

What if we started believing WE are capable of building the community we want?

For the first few days of this series, we’ve talked about jobs, education, workforce and community.

Today, let’s talk about something we don’t measure nearly enough:

Belief.

Communities can spend so much time talking about what they don’t have that they stop recognizing what they do have.

We can list every problem.

We need more housing.
Our schools have challenges.
We want more restaurants and retail.
Some neighborhoods need investment.
Families are struggling.
We need more people involved.

Those challenges are real.

But they are not the whole story of who we are.

Economic and community development increasingly recognize the importance of asset-based development—starting not only with what’s missing, but with the people, businesses, institutions, skills, relationships and places a community already has and building from there.

And we have assets.

We have people who know how to build things.
People who know how to grow things.
People who know how to teach.
People who know how to care for others.
People who own businesses.
People who coach children.
People who serve in churches and nonprofits.
People who understand our neighborhoods.
People with ideas that haven’t been heard yet.

Economic development isn’t somebody arriving with a solution for us.

The state can’t build community for us.

A company can’t build community for us.

An economic development organization can’t build community for us.

Those partners can bring resources, investment and opportunity.

But WE build the community.

It happens when someone opens a business.

When a teacher believes in a child.

When a neighbor cleans up a block.

When somebody attends the meeting instead of only talking about it afterward.

When people with different backgrounds decide there is something important enough to work on together.

When we spend less energy proving what’s wrong and more energy asking:

What can we build with what we already have?

That’s economic development, too.

Because before other people believe enough in a community to invest in it, the people who live there have to believe it is worth investing in.

Maybe the most important resource we have isn’t something we’re waiting to receive.

Maybe it’s us.

Today’s question: What is one asset, person, place, organization or strength in our community that you think we should build around?

Sources: Aspen Institute Community Strategies Group; Asset-Based Community Development Institute

09/23/2026

ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT 101 | DAY 3

Can you build a strong economy without building a strong community?

Yesterday we talked about education and workforce.

But what happens when we create jobs and people still struggle?

What happens when we train workers but families don’t see a future here?

That’s where economic development and community development begin to meet.

A strong local economy needs more than employers.

It needs strong schools, healthy neighborhoods, local businesses, housing, places to gather, opportunities to participate and people who believe they have a role in their community’s future.

Across rural America, communities are confronting some significant changes.

Our population is aging. The working-age population in many rural areas is shrinking. Commerce is changing. Schools are adapting to changing enrollment and workforce needs. The institutions that once naturally brought people together are changing, too.

That means building community may be more important than ever.

A thriving downtown gives people somewhere to gather.

A local business creates more than a transaction—it can create jobs, identity and relationships.

Schools connect children and families.

Churches, civic organizations, nonprofits, youth sports and neighborhood groups give people opportunities to serve alongside one another.

Parks, sidewalks, trails and public spaces create opportunities for people to simply see one another again.

These things can be easy to dismiss as “quality of life.”

But quality of life affects whether people choose to live somewhere, whether businesses have customers, whether employers can retain workers and whether the next generation sees a future at home.

Economic development can help create opportunity.

Community is what we build around it.

And that part belongs to all of us.

So today’s question isn’t what’s wrong with our community.

It’s this: What is one thing you could do this week to make your community a little more connected?

Sources: USDA Economic Research Service; Main Street America; Pew Research Center

LandofSteel
Mississippi County, Arkansas Government

09/22/2026

ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT 101 | DAY 2

Why is education part of economic development?

When we say “workforce development,” we aren’t just talking about finding people to fill today’s open jobs.

We’re talking about building the pipeline for tomorrow.

That means economic developers work alongside K–12 schools, colleges, technical programs, workforce agencies and employers to better understand what skills are needed and how we can help people prepare for those opportunities.

Think about healthcare.

If a community needs more nurses, respiratory therapists or other healthcare professionals, recruiting another employer doesn’t solve that workforce shortage.

Someone has to connect the dots:

What occupations are needed?
What skills do they require?
Where can people receive that training?
What keeps students from completing it?
And are employers and educators talking to each other about what comes next?

That’s workforce development and it’s economic development.

The same principle applies to manufacturing, aviation, construction, technology and other industries.

According to IEDC’s 2025 State of the Field report, 76.3% of economic development practitioners identify employment and workforce as an active economic development priority.

Here in Arkansas, AEDC also works to connect business and industry with education and training resources to address existing and future workforce needs.

Because attracting a job is only part of the equation.

We also have to make sure our people have pathways to the opportunities being created.

What does an economic developer actually DO when a business has a problem?

Source: International Economic Development Council (IEDC), 2025 State of the Field Report; Arkansas Economic Development Commission

09/21/2026

So… what exactly IS economic development?

If you’ve never worked around economic development, you may think our job is simply recruiting new companies.

That’s certainly part of it but there’s a lot more happening behind the scenes.

At its simplest, local economic development is about helping create the conditions for people and businesses to succeed here.

That can mean helping an existing company expand, preparing property for future development, solving a workforce challenge, working through an infrastructure need, responding to a company considering our community, or connecting businesses with resources.

Over the next seven days, we’re going to pull back the curtain on what economic development actually looks like in practice.

No jargon. No assumptions that you already know how it works. Just a better understanding of how our local economy grows, and the role all of us play in it.

What have you always wanted to know about economic development?

Source: www.iedconline.org

09/18/2026

09/18/2026

Episode 2 of the Land of Steel Podcast is live!

How Growth Really Happens - Economic Development, Site Selection & Issue 3

Ever wonder why economic-development projects use code names or what happens before a company announces a new location?

🏗️ Mallory and Tammy break down how economic development actually works, what goes into attracting new investment, and why things like land, infrastructure, workforce, and quality of life all matter.

🗳️ In the second half, they also take a closer look at Issue 3 - what it is, why it’s being discussed, and how it could impact the economic development tools available to Arkansas communities.

🎧Listen here - https://landofsteel.transistor.fm/s1/2
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Forged here, built for what’s next, and designed to keep America strong!