Taylor vows help for Clarke County jobless

By By William F. West / community editor
Jan. 19, 2003
QUITMAN U.S. Rep. Gene Taylor said he will do everything possible to help economically stricken Clarke County but added the road to recovery won't be easy.
Taylor, a member of the powerful House Armed Services Committee, said he wants to use his influence to help Clarke County. The best possibility, he said, is for him and the community to recruit companies that do business with the military.
That, he said, could ease the sting felt when Burlington Industries closed its Stonewall textile plant last year a move that Taylor blamed on the North American Free Trade Agreement.
Every time he sees such a factory that has closed in the aftermath of NAFTA or most favored nation status for China, Taylor said, he gets angry at Congressional colleagues who voted for the bills.
Taylor's experience
Taylor, 49, a Democrat from Bay St. Louis, has been in Congress since 1989 representing South Mississippi and its heavily populated Gulf Coast cities.
Taylor inherited Clarke County, parts of Jasper County and most of Jones County last year when his district was expanded to the northeast during congressional redistricting.
Last week, Taylor was in some of the new parts of his district to meet with his constituents. He held town meetings in Quitman and Heidelberg and opened a new office in downtown Laurel.
And while in Clarke County, he and his staff made it a point to drive by the Burlington plant whose closure left more than 800 people without work and sent unemployment sky-high in much of 2002.
Tony Fleming, president of the Clarke County Board of Supervisors, agreed with Taylor that NAFTA damaged the county and that the county must gear up for a recovery effort.
Ralph Boykin, the Board of Supervisors vice president, said some positive leads are in the works in Clarke County. But he said he can't make any disclosures.
Not only is Taylor having to learn the ropes in Clarke County and in the other newer parts of his congressional district, he's also having to do it with a staff of 18 the limit set by federal law.
But Taylor said he'll be dispatching staffers to city halls, town halls, county courthouses and vacant factories throughout the district.
And he said he'll conduct at least two public meetings a month to get feedback from constituents.