McComb Enterprise-Journal
Opinion: Thinking big at Lake Okhissa
by Jack Ryan
After digging into the plans for a conference center and lodge at Lake Okhissa in Franklin County, two things are clear:
The people who came up with the idea deserve praise for thinking big. Really, really big.
Whatever does happen to develop the lake, it's obvious that this is going to take a lot of planning - and a lot of money. The public may not see anything for several years.
If all goes as planned, little ole Franklin County will use Lake Okhissa for everything from tourism to work force training to high-speed internet service and even an expansion of its successful school chess program across the state.
This could be a very big deal for a rural county of 8,000 people, and to some extent it's hard to envision all this at a lake that is pretty much 30 miles away from everywhere else.
Nevertheless, the ball is rolling. The first step was when U.S. Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith got language into the 2018 farm bill that authorized the U.S. Forest Service to sell 150 acres along the lake, which is in the Homochitto National Forest, to the Scenic Rivers Development Alliance.
Scenic Rivers, in turn, would contract with a management organization that would run the facility.
There must be various studies, like an environmental assessment, before the sale occurs. But that could be one of the easiest steps in the project.
Chip Pickering, the former congressman who is the son-in-law of C Spire co-founder (and Franklin County booster) - Wade Creekmore, said that during the 180-day period given to Scenic Rivers to buy the property, other studies will be going on as well.
"The feasibility studies will affirm or give strategic direction, such as a vision of what we think the size of the lodge should be and the number of rooms," Pickering said. "What we're also looking at is an appropriate strategy for the conference center to have a work force training facility led by Copiah-Lincoln Community College, and it would be based on computer coding.
"It could also be work force training for forest management and natural resource management."
Pickering said the feasibility studies will make key predictions about how often Lake Okhissa's facilities would be used.
For example, how much work force training is needed for computer coding or forestry? How many recreational events - fishing or archery, to name two - would be held there each year? How much can the county school district's chess program use the facility?
The answer to that last question was surprising. "The chess program said they can have between 12 and 24 tournaments a year - one to two a month," Pickering said. "Each time they have a tournament, that is between 80 and 500 people."
He said that developing multiple uses for the property will be essential, especially in lining up money for construction and operations.
Work force training programs are getting lots of federal grants as the country marches toward a technology-based economy instead of a manufacturing one. Also, Pickering said the U.S. Department of Agriculture probably will be a key lender, since it offers long-term, low-interest financing.
Pickering didn't want to estimate how much it might cost to build at Lake Okhissa. But it's obvious we're talking about millions of dollars. He did say that it could take between two and five years to complete the project, and noted that both the conference center and the lodge can be built smaller than designs unveiled last month, with expectations of adding on in the future as the need arises.
It will be fun to see what happens. Even if only half of these grand plans develop, it would still be a huge win for Franklin County and Southwest Mississippi.
I know that Wade Creekmore and his family like to keep a low profile, but they truly have not forgotten their business roots. Theirs is one of those "only in America" stories, when somebody can turn the Franklin County Telephone Co. into Telapex and then C Spire.
I do have some questions about the plans. For example, why shouldn't Co-Lin put its computer coding work force training at its campus in Wesson? But I would not bet against Lake Okhissa's advocates. They have a track record of getting it right.