JONES COUNTY, Miss. (WDAM) – The City of Ellisville and the Town of Soso are new associate members of the Mississippi Main Street Association.

The association is designed to help downtowns develop.

Revamping and revitalizing efforts are underway now with the help of Ellisville Main Street.

Sarah Hinton owns two businesses downtown and is the president of the new organization.

Hinton said being a part of the Mississippi Main Street Association can help Ellisville not only keep merchants, but recruit more.

“The downtown area is historic and Mississippi Main Street focuses on that historic element, but also tries to recruit new businesses,” said Hinton.

The group is teaming up with Jones College and the City of Ellisville to promote economic development.

Hinton said the main goal now was to create community events and make improvements to facades of businesses downtown.

“We’ll have access to the information that will help us grow,” said Hinton.

Across the county in the Town of Soso, the community was feeling the perks of also being part of the association.

“We’re really excited to partner with them,” said Soso Mayor Mike Moore.

Moore said while the partnership is expected to be good for the town, Mississippi Main Street also may be able to help a speeding issue the downtown area faces.

Three highways intersect downtown and drivers don’t slow down through the area, Moore said.

“What we’re going to do is set up radars on (the) highways to let drivers know the speed limit that they’re going,” Moore said. “Other towns have done this, and it has helped.

More businesses are beginning to pop up in the area, and Moore said collaborations with other towns can continue to help with that development.

“It gives us an opportunity to better our town, to reach out and help out ways that the others are doing things,” said Moore.

Both municipalities will have access to resources and training, as well as connections with other Mississippi cities.

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Welcome to Extra Points – a weekly video segment hosted by the staff of Mississippi State on SI.

This week, Tanner Marlar dives in to one of the biggest question marks surrounding Jeff Lebby’s fresh Mississippi State offense. With Seth Davis sidelined for the season, who will shoulder the load for the Bulldogs on the ground and set the tone for Lebby’s squad in year one?

Booth nearly had a bit of a breakout year last season for Utah State, and offers the mix of speed and elusiveness that could coss problems for second level defenders in the SEC.

Above all else, Pittman runs hard. That was evident in last year’s rushing attack as Pittman showed the ability to break big plays in spurts. If he can find more consistency, he could be a legit big time threat on Saturdays.

Daniels was the number one junior college running back in the country and was one of Lebby’s first recruits to sign on with him in Starkville. His speed on the outside is something that could warrant Daniels shouldering a majority of the load.

With Lee’s bruising style of rushing and sheer size, the former Nittany Lion shows promise as a goal line back who could force his way into the end zone if given the proper opportunity. Bulldog fans have seen brief flashes of Lee’s promise, but the former Penn State transfer has otherwise had a quiety career in Bulldog country. This season could change that.

MS fastest growing population will get its own exhibit on display for a special evening viewing this Thursday.

With a unique combination of oral history and contemporary photography, the Mississippi Museum of Art in partnership with Mississippi Humanities Council and Immigrant Alliance for Justice and Equity is presenting “Nuestro Mississippi,” an exhibit documenting how Hispanic immigrants have found a home in the Magnolia State for decades. 

The exhibition will be open until Oct. 13, but museum go-ers will get a special chance to take a look at it this Thursday, Aug. 15, from 5 to 9 p.m. as the museum invites guests to see the photography display of Mississippi’s Latino community with a twist: a night at the museum. 

“Guests can expect a celebration of our Hispanic communities here in Mississippi through food, dance, art and a panel discussion with community leaders about the challenges, joy and contributions of their people,” Jasmine Williams, associate curator of public programs and community engagement at The Mississippi Museum of Art, said in a statement. 

The project started with The Mississippi Humanities Council, which wanted to find a way to raise visibility about the state’s Latino community, the fastest-growing population in the state with numbers projected to double between 2020 and 2024.

Enlisting the Immigrant Alliance for Justice and Equity, or IAJE, they selected Austin-based photographer Roj Rodriguez, who has made a name for himself documenting communities along the Texas-Mexico border. The two organizations brought Rodriguez to Mississippi for two multi-day tours of the state, where he was tasked with documenting Mississippi’s diverse Latino population.

“We have college professors. We have a rancher. We have folks who work in the poultry industry. We have archivists. A really wide array of folks,” said Stuart Rockoff executive director of the Mississippi Humanities Council. “What I love is the richness in the stories that reflect both the history and the contemporary times.”

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In both English and Spanish, Rodriguez and IAJE interviewed a variety of immigrants from Latin America, documenting their stories in an oral history series on YouTube.  

At the museum, visitors will get an in-person look at Rodriguez’s images, Mississippi Museum of Art’s Associate Curator Kaegan Sparks said in a statement. Each image will be paired with the subject’s name, where they currently live and where they were born. 

“Our hope is that the exhibit will get visitors to understand the diversity in our state and to appreciate and recognize a community whose stories have not always been incorporated into the larger Mississippi story,” Rockoff said. 

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The after museum experience is also a chance for visitors who don’t have the time to see the museum by day to visit its galleries by night. Every third Thursday, the museum keeps its doors open late, offering live music, pop-up exhibitions, an open bar, food trucks and other activities that aren’t normally available during regular daytime hours. 

“Nuestro Mississippi,” open Thursday evening for a night of stunning portraits and live music, lives up to its name, bringing the community together in and outside of the frame.

“The title of the exhibit is very intentional, and our goal was to give these members of the Latino community an opportunity to show and share what their Mississippi is,” Rockoff said. “The title ‘Nuestro Mississippi’ means ‘our Mississippi.’ The people on those walls are part of Mississippi.”