The Quitman Development Corp.(QDC) voted Monday to approve a resolution which will initiate a Business Development and Retention Services Agreement with the Quitman Chamber of Commerce.

The resolution, if also passed by the Quitman City Council, will allow an annual amount of no more than $10,000 to be given to the chamber in order to support its many efforts to retain and promote businesses in the area. Of that, $1,000 must be used to sponsor the chamber’s quarterly business breakfasts, which QDC members noted was “a nice breakfast” and very good for the community.

The board also ratified an expenditure to sponsor the Quarterly Business Breakfast for March, two weeks after it happened. QDC President Martha Scroggins said that the board didn’t have a meeting in time to ratify the expenditure before the event, but that since it was a line item in the budget, it was not a problem.

James Attaway, QDC director and city administrator, also announced that he had been placed on the Old Settlers Reunion Board. “With joy in my heart,” Attaway said, he notified the QDC that the OSR board is attempting to move the reunion to October rather than August. If everyone on the OSR board votes to approve the change, he says, the hometown event will be in the more temperate fall months in 2025.

Attaway also told the board that he and Lance Pomykal, the Texas Dept. of Transportation area engineer, are starting to get the ball rolling on building a traffic loop around Quitman. Although he said that they need state approval to do so, the team members on the project have received a Rural Communities Program grant toward the project, which will help complete the first steps.

“It’s a long process, but it’s time to get it started,” said Attaway.