If you look on the Back Page of this week’s Tate Record, you can see some of the news that occurred in 2025.
If you read the pages of your Tate Record in 2026, you will read of the changes as they take place.
Our name says it all - Tate Record.
This week’s visit offers a quick chance to look back and hopefully look forward to what could happen in this place we call home.
Looking Forward
What do you want this community to look like in five, ten, 15- or 20-years?
Many of America’s problems fall at the feet of those who just let things happen. I’ve only been here a short while, and I believe many of the problems we find in our towns and in the county are due to a lack of a united vision.
Too many people are doing their own thing and, while I don’t fault movers and shaker, or just anyone who gets out there and goes, I do believe a plan and direction can make the pieces of a quality community come together smoothly.
Our towns understand this concept and that is why we have zoning boards and planning commissions. We’ve made rules and regulation because we feel they will help us get to where we want this community to go.
Counties are required by law to have a four-year road plan so politics and election time won’t see just certain roads get paved. That type of “investment” helps some, but not the community as a whole.
Any successful business has a plan. Industry often goes to great lengths to have 5-, 10- and even 20-year plans.
Looking Back
I have been your Editor for six months and have so much to learn about Senatobia, Tate County and all parts in between.
I’ve gotten the short story from many, but when I ask how something bad - or even something good - happened, they rarely have an answer.
I said earlier that I believe mistakes have been made and we are suffering for it. I hope we are wise enough to admit it, move on and not let it happen again.
I have had the good fortune to live in both good and not-so-good places in my life. I have found out it takes leaders to make big things - good things - happen in a community.
Sadly, being a leader often brings the venom of scoffers and the verbal abuse of the simple-minded. Leaders often have the means and talents to do great things for themselves and they don’t have to enter the public sector. And why would they want, to?
But I digress . . . So, what do We want to be! How do We want to grow?
What do We want to attract and what do We want to stay out of our town and our county?
And where is the plan, the roadmap we can all look to and see how we fit in this journey to build our community into a place we are proud to call home.
Floyd Ingram is Editor of your Tate Record. If you have a passion, a plan or positive input on how to make our community prosper call him at 662-562-4414.
