The Wood County Economic Development Commission welcomed a new executive director and heard a presentation by the Government Affairs Committee last Wednesday.

Former executive director of the Quitman Chamber of Commerce Christine Thomas was introduced to the board as their new executive director. Thomas has been with Quitman Chamber since November 2021. She is replacing Christophe Trahan who recently took a position as economic development director for the city of Palestine.

Dr. Dorothy Langley of Jarvis Christian University (JCU) and Quitman business and property owner Jolene Wallace gave the presentation as part of the Government Affairs Committee.

“Our goal is to work with the businesses and work with organizations to begin coming up with something stronger for our communities,” Wallace said. “The Rural-Set-Go program was held at Instant Offices here in Quitman. It involved the community and businesses of Wood County. We have seen it grow with more and more employers coming. This is for Wood County and surrounding areas. This is an established partnership between East Texas Workforce Solutions and Jarvis Christian University.”

The JCU programs are available through the JCU Training Academy. Jarvis has begun National Educational Certification programs which are 8-week programs with classes starting every month. Certifications available include medical administrative assistant, billing and coding specialist, Microsoft office specialist – Word and Excel, cybersecurity forensics specialist, cybersecurity networking and cybersecurity CyperOps, as well as certificates for medical terminology.

The program will be housed on campus in a former dormitory building being renovated to serve as the JCU Training Center.

“This center will include any type of training needed for stakeholders in this area. We want to know what you are looking for and what skills are needed and how can we help you,” Dr. Langley said. 

Board member Craig Lindholm updated the progress of the Health and Memory Care Center which is to be located on 29 acres behind UT Health Quitman.

“We had a very positive meeting in Austin with Rep. Cole Hefner and Sen. Bryan Hughes discussing state funding and got support from them,” Lindholm noted. “The preliminary design of this and the site plan which you will see next month of the location on the 29 acres adjacent to the hospital here in Quitman will blow you away. It is absolutely amazing.  We are going to make this happen, we really feel that way. We are very excited!”

Board Chairman Tom Keenan gave an update on strategic planning and the need for a consultant to facilitate community involvement and engagement in developing a 10-year county economic development plan. 

Keenan said, “We need an analysis of current economic trends and factors to provide a profile of the changing demographics, industry trends,” Keenan explained. 

Steve Eggleston of the marketing committee gave an update on the new travel guide.

”Myself and Kent (Huffman) have been involved with delivering the travel brochures around the county. We feel like we are going to go through these. We are getting a bid on a second printing of the guide,” Eggleston said. “Winnsboro has already requested 600 copies a month. The first round we printed 7,500 and for the second round we are getting bids on 5,000, 7,500 and 10,000. We may add additional pages to the guide for the second print.”

The next meeting of the WCEDC is March 22.