“My wife and I had been looking for a way to get more involved in the community and get the appropriate training,” said Jon Riley, who transplanted to Bay Springs two years ago with his wife, Kristy. “We moved down here from Columbus two years ago. Ever since, we’ve been kind of looking for a way to get a little more involved.”

One way that Riley found to get involved was to attend a workshop called YourTown Mississippi, sponsored by Mississippi State University and the Mississippi State Community Action Team (MSCAT), directed by Virgil Culver.

According to its website, “The YourTown Mississippi program is a three-day workshop focused on community development using basic design and planning principles.” Participants hear brief lectures about topics such as rural tourism, natural resources, marketing and branding, planning and many other topics.

Riley and Kristy attended the May 18-21 at Lake Tiak O'Khata in Louisville. Also attending were Heidelberg residents D.L. Geiger, Jr. (Heidelberg Public Works director); Curtis Morgan and Jasper County Learning Center Director Lela Bryan.

In the past, Jasper County residents Beverly Alexander, Heidelberg Mayor Juan Barnett, Bennie Hales, Patrick Hurd and Latoya Windham have attended.

Riley said of they event, “They brought in some trained people at Mississippi State and the first thing they did was, they broke us up into teams and gave us some project work in developing a town very similar to Bay Springs. We assessed the strengths, weaknesses and assets of the town and worked as a group to create proposals for growth in the town and assess what your problems are and what are some possible solutions and it was a very enjoyable experience... And there was also a lot of before and after pictures where they said ‘OK, here is the town. Here are the problems they face. This is a picture of before and this is the after picture of after they’ve gone through this five years down the road.”

Riley saw, through the program, potention for Bay Springs. He said, “what I saw was the whole image of a “walk-able” town and a “walk-able” downtown and that’s something that I’ve seen in a lot of small towns and small communities. In Philadelphia, you can go downtown and just the sidewalks and the street-appeal to go downtown and spend Saturday morning downtown. That’s something that I feel like we’re missing here. That you can go downtown and even if you’re just going across the street, you drive from one side to the other instead of actually being able to get out and take part of that part of the community.”

Riley feels that helping Bay Springs achieve that “walk-able” downtown status would promote the town’s sense of community and pride in its residents. He said, “ I think a lot of people would like to spend some time downtown and would like to spend some time in the rose garden but they are never gonna drive just to go to the rose garden. They might go drive and park downtown to do a lot of that stuff as a group. If you can do it all where you spend a morning doing all those things. And we have a little daughter, and it’s always hard to get her in and out of the car. So, it’s just a lot more convienent.”

Riley said that he feels that community input and action are what will make a positive change for the town. That change can begin next Tuesday, according to Riley. “I think that this Tuesday night meeting is the opportunity for everybody to be heard and what they see as the future of our town. I know I have a young daughter and I’d like for her to grow up and want to come back to Bay Springs... I think that everybody understands that there are people who want to get involved and want to be here. Through things like this meeting on the 22nd [of June] and through the YourTown Mississippi that we’ve been to, to send the message that we’re here and we’re ready. We want to be a part of something. There’s training available to show us what to do... I think it’s really important for everyone to know that we want everybody at this meeting, not just people on the chamber, people involved in local business. If you work here, whether you live here, whatever your tie to Bay Springs is, we want you there. We want your input because those are the people that make up our community and this really is our community, so it’s our responsibility to move it on to the next level.”

After the meeting next Tuesday, Riley hopes that other residents will place interest in attending upcoming YourTown programs. He said that he feels like the program helps residents develop plans that turn ideas into realities.

The future of the community lies in the hands of its residents, Riley said, “I think as a community, if we all get together, plan together and show that all of these unique projects going on are tied to the same plan and that we’re going somewhere with it... I really think that there’s a whole new surge... I’m seeing a new group of younger people and new parents that are coming out and wanting to do things and wanting to get involved.. I run into people and they are excited about what’s going on and you can see construction going on downtown and see that there are good things happening. I think everybody gets the feeling that things are starting to move and change and if all those people say ‘hey this is a good thing and want to get involved’, a great way to do that is to be at this meeting on the 22nd and that’s really what I see that’s the springboard that’s going to bring us from where we are now to where we want to be.