Toyota: What the papers are reporting
Now that Gov. Haley Barbour and a gaggle of Toyota officials have made the formal announcement, papers in Northeast Mississippi and across the state have been spilling lots of ink on the automaker’s decision to locate a plant near Sherman a few miles up the highway from Tupelo.
Northeast Mississippi Daily Journal: “Half a world away in Tokyo, while most of Northeast Mississippi was still asleep late Monday, the board of directors of Toyota Motor Corp. officially gave its stamp of approval for a project that likely will forever change the landscape of the region.”
The New Albany Gazette: “The once tiny town of Georgetown, Kentucky probably didn’t expect the economic boom it was about to undergo when Toyota announced the opening of a manufacturing plant there in December of 1985. Once a small community of roughly 10,000 that depended heavily on tobacco farming for its primary economic backbone, the city was able to lure in Toyota’s first entirely owned U.S. manufacturing plant 20 years ago. The changes felt from that move are monumental, according to Georgetown Mayor Karen Tingle-Sames.”
The Commercial Appeal, Memphis: “The primary reason Toyota selected Tupelo was the quality of the workforce and the leadership in the community,” Gov. Haley Barbour told a standing-room-only crowd at Tupelo High School’s Performing Arts Center. “North Mississippi has a strong and productive workforce and the selection of this site is a tribute to those outstanding workers.”
The Clarion-Ledger: “Toyota Motor Corp.’s Mississippi automotive manufacturing plant will end up with 4,000 jobs, twice as many as the company announced Tuesday.”
The C-L has extensive coverage, including commentary from Perspective Editor Sid Salter and a quick-read Q&A session.