Jackson Free Press

Hinds County is planning an aviation and aerospace development for the industrial park surrounding John Bell Williams Airport in Bolton. The Hinds County Economic Development District will present the county Board of Supervisors with a master plan for the industrial park at its next work session, Executive Director Blake Wallace said today.

The county owns roughly 300 acres surrounding the airport, which it acquired from the federal government after the closure of a flight training school. The airport itself, along with some adjacent property, belongs to Hinds Community College. With a 5,000-foot long, 100-foot wide runway, the airport is too small for passenger planes and small commercial planes primarily use the space.

Wallace said that the county's target businesses include aircraft-repair facilities, flight trainers and airplane-part manufacturers.

"Nothing is out, if it's aviation, aerospace related," Wallace said. "But there's only a certain amount of space that we have, so the size of the projects will depend on whether they're one of our targets."

With the master plan complete, the county can now move on to planning individual sites, Wallace said.

"You really have to get your sites to a point where companies will come in and build on them," Wallace said. "We'll determine how much dirt we have to move around, where it needs to go and if we have to haul it out. We'll also design the water, sewer systems, telecommunications, all those kind of things as well. Right now we're just getting estimates to do that work."

At a meeting this morning, supervisors voted to reimburse the Economic Development District $150,000 for the master plan, by IMS Engineers.

Also at today's meeting, supervisors approved a letter to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency asking for an update on the status of requested funding for wastewater improvements along the Byram-Clinton corridor. By a 4-1 vote, supervisors granted a request by Hinds County Public Defender William LaBarre to hire an assistant public defender, replacing one who resigned two weeks ago. District 4 Supervisor Phil Fisher, who has regularly opposed filling vacant positions while the county is under a hiring freeze, cast the lone vote against hiring a replacement.