Video: Grenada Leaders Learn About Development Through the Friendly City

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COLUMBUS, Miss. (WCBI) — Grenada could soon look a little more like Columbus.

City leaders were visiting the friendly city to learn more about how it’s grown the last 20 years.

The Riverwalk became part of show and tell in Columbus as Grenada leaders learned how to attract people to their city.

“We all need to be finding ways that we’re keeping our young professionals in our Mississippi small towns and that means finding the ways to serve the needs of families with small children,” says Deborah Bailey with the Grenada Community Foundation.

Other attractions they would like to implement … the Soccer Complex , filling downtown with lofts to rent, and bringing in more local restaurants.

Deborah says one of the most important thinks they learned today is that Main Street is part of the glue that keeps a city together. That’s why they’re making sure becoming a Main Street member is part of their priorities.

Columbus Main Street members are helping them through that application process.

“Very often we forget what a jewel we have here and we are reminded when other people want to come and mimic our downtown and our community and do what we’ve done to make our communities better,” says Barbara Bigelow with Columbus Main Street.

She says working together has been key to Columbus success. That’s a lesson Grenada leaders are picking up.

“In a small town there are often different opinions about what should be done and Main Street’s huge value in finding a way to listen to all the views and then drive toward a common approach rather than a divided approach,” says Bailey.

It’s an approach that continues to grow Columbus one business at a time.