JEDCO President says “This will not happen anymore without a fight”
Jasper Economic Development Corp (JEDCO) met Thursday evening for their monthly meeting greeted by a full house of area leaders and business representatives showing support.
JEDCO President Danny Walker opened up the meeting by informing the public as to why JEDCO was started in the first place. Walker stated that JEDCO was initially created to provide a separation between Jasper’s economic development and the city’s politics. Walker went on to address JEDCO critics saying, “I’ve watched some really good people, who have the best intentions for Jasper, work very hard as volunteers being attacked by people that really didn’t know anything about what they were talking about. These disruptive people do succeed…they succeed by getting good people to decide that they do not want the abuse and so they don’t get involved… I’ve watched this happen… and I’m making the point that this will not happen again without a fight.” Increasing JEDCO from 5 to 17 members on the board has helped with better decision making and maintains JEDCO’s separation from city politics according to Walker.
Walker said, “The current attacks that are mainly aimed at the City of Jasper, for some reason, are now aimed at Eddie Hopkins and JEDCO, and I don’t even understand why… In my opinion, there’s no other person who could have handled this job the way Eddie has.” Eddie Hopkins has been Executive Director since 2017.
Jasper businessman and JEDCO board member Chris Lanier addressed those in attendance saying, “While We (JEDCO) have always been kind of the fuel behind the scenes to try to pull these organizations and initiatives together… We’ve also been a little under the radar and we’ve learned recently from what the city has done…by being a little bit more forward with what their departments do and who’s associated with those organizations. We see that as wonderful information for the community to see who is behind the scenes trying to make things happen and we at JEDCO are committed to doing a better job of that moving forward.” Lanier went on to cite a number of JEDCO projects and initiatives that have come to pass under Eddie Hopkins leadership.
In his reference to JEDCO, Lanier emphasized like many other worthy organizations in the community, these human resources are largely volunteers with most not just serving one cause.
Representatives from Provalus, Terra Bio Chem, DETCCA, Spectre Aeronautics, Jasper Hospital District and Jasper ISD as well as Doctor Richard Pham all expressed their testimonies and appreciation for Eddie Hopkins and the JEDCO board members.
Jamal Jackson, Delivery Leader for Provalus said the company is currently looking to expand by increasing 100 more jobs, adding to their current 240 employees. Jackson told the group since 2019 Provalus has facilitated 8 Million dollars back into the local economy. Jackson made it clear that, “If it were not for Eddie Hopkins and JEDCO, we would not be here I would not have a job.”
Doctor Pham is currently relocating his practice back to Jasper with a second location at Sam Rayburn as a result of JEDCO’s involvement.
DETCCA Representative Nicole Colvin said a recently received $300,000 grant that required a 10% cash match from a local entity and JEDCO agreed to give DETCCA the $30,000 cash match, $10,000 each year. Colvin said, “With this money we were able to fund the Fire Academy, part of the EMT Program and a Nursing Program. These are all programs that our high school kids can complete by the time they graduate high school… and it’s expanded to include adults.
Eddie Hopkins addressed the crowd after hearing the testimonies saying, “It’s not about me, it’s about the impact we are having as a team in our region, not just Jasper…we are affecting the region…it’s about team… there have been some fiery darts slung our way and I apologize for that because honestly my motives are pure. I know this board’s motives are pure, this is about Jasper… and Jasper’s Economic Development.”
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