County supervisors from across Mississippi visited the Queen City this week for the annual Mississippi Association of Supervisors Minority Caucus convention. Throughout the three-day conference, the leaders learned about data centers and economic development, leadership and conflict resolution and recognized those who have made a difference in the community.
At a breakfast panel Wednesday, East Mississippi Business Development Corporation President and CEO Bill Hannah talked about the process in landing a $10 billion data campus investment from Compass Data Centers. Driving the deal, which ties for the largest economic development project in state history, was having a shovel-ready site and cooperation from Mississippi Power, which will supply electricity to the facility.
“They’re going to build these buildings over a span of about four years, and the reason they’re doing that is they’re building buildings as they get power from Mississippi Power,” he said. “Their goal is to have two buildings complete and operational by December of ’26.”
Joining Hannah in discussing data centers were Garrett Wright, executive director of Rankin First Economic Development Authority in Rankin County, and Pablo Diaz, president and CEO of the Vicksburg Warren Partnership in Warren County. Both are involved in data center investments in their communities as well.
With the boom of data centers has come concerns about the electricity and water consumption, Diaz said, but the examples cited are poor comparisons to what is being brought to Mississippi’s communities today. An Amazon data center planned for Warren County will be air cooled 91% of the time, he said.
“Even though everybody is very scared of stories that they might have read about cases in Virginia, cases in New York, it’s not the same,” he said. “A data center in 2026, especially coming from a company like Amazon, is a very different animal than the data centers of 10 years ago or 15 years ago.”
The data centers being built in Lauderdale County will also be air cooled, Hannah said, and the Mississippi Public Service Commission oversees electricity rates to make sure costs don’t get too high.
Wright said the data center project in Rankin County will be water cooled, but the project’s needs won’t require any additional capacity from the water system. Planned upgrades to the system, which predate the data center, are more than enough to supply water needed to keep equipment cool.
All three economic development officials emphasized the importance of site preparation, having shovel-ready locations with utilities ready for companies to come in and build what they need.
“I would certainly encourage you to focus on site development, to focus on making sure you’re working on those industrial parks, on those sites, that you have your data available so you can actually react to these opportunities when they come along,” Diaz said.
Supervisors also heard from Lauderdale County Judge Veldore Young Graham, who serves as a county court and youth court judge. She encouraged visiting officials to put the interests of their communities ahead of personal gain, advocate for the people and institutions in the community and be agents of change bringing opportunities to their constituents.
“You are a problem solver. You’re the overseer. You cannot give up,” she said. “You can get tired, but you can’t give up, and you’ve got to show up.”
Graham also spoke about youth court and its role in handling delinquency cases, issues of child abuse or abandonment and dependency cases, where a child no longer has a legal guardian. In Mississippi, she said, state law gives cities the option of having a youth court, but it is mandatory for counties.
Being the elected officials responsible for funding youth courts throughout the state, Graham encouraged supervisors to visit their youth courts and learn more about their role in the community, their needs and how county resources allocated to youth courts are put to use.
“Go spend some time in your youth court. As a supervisor, go sit in for a morning or an afternoon and hear and see what is going on in your community,” she said. “That’s the only way you’re going to know what’s going on and what you can do to help.”
During Wednesday’s lunch the Minority Caucus also recognized four longtime Meridianites for their contributions to the community. The Community Legends Luncheon recognized Boys and Girls Club of East Mississippi Executive Director Ricky Hood, longtime teacher and community advocate Melba Clark-Payne, Dr. Ronnye Purvis, who delivered almost 18,000 babies throughout his medical career, and the honorable Rev. Bishop W.C. Brown, who has served as pastor at Fifth Street Baptist Church for more than 40 years.