SEARP&DC celebrates 50 years

Fifty years of service through Wiregrass partnerships were recognized at the Southeast Alabama Regional Planning and Development Commission Annual Regional Dinner held at the Enterprise Civic Center Sept. 26.

Hundreds from Coffee, Dale, Barbour, Covington, Geneva, Houston and Henry Counties attended the 50th Anniversary celebration of the organization that was created through state legislation passed in 1969.

SEARP&DC Executive Director Scott Farmer said the mission of the organization is to improve the quality of life for the citizens in the member counties through programs which include Community and Economic Development, Head Start, Senior Aides and Wiregrass Transit.

The commission is administered and governed by 35 people from the member counties, Farmer said. “These individuals act as liaisons for the citizens in their counties.

“The needs of the citizens are given to SEARP&DC and goals are established,” Farmer said. “The staff of SEARP&DC is constantly striving to make Southeast Alabama a better place to live.”

Elba Mayor Mickey Murdock of Coffee County is the board chairman, Bernard Stewart of Covington County is the first vice chairman, Dale County Commissioner Steve McKinnon of Dale County is the second vice chairman and Lori Wilcoxon of Houston County is the secretary/treasurer.

SEARP&DC Leadership Awards were presented to W. Fred Dykes Jr. and Thomas B. Solomon. “These gentlemen were instrumental in setting the tone of our agency and helping it expand statewide,” Farmer said. “Both were very active in terms of writing partnerships not only locally, regionally and throughout the state but through the federal communities and agencies, too.

“Most importantly they are just good people that made SEARP&DC a welcoming and nurturing place for us, as staff, to work and grow our skills,” Farmer added.

Farmer said that one of the SEARP&DC’s largest departments is the Head Start/Early Head Start Program which operates six Head Start programs and two Early Head Start programs in Barbour, Covington, Geneva and Henry Counties.

The program serves over 300 children and their families, said Head Start/Early Head Start Director Searcy Rushing.

“Head Start has had the opportunity of not only producing administrators, educators, community leaders, preachers and medical professional but also has had multiple pro-athletes go through our program,” Rushing said. “And one such pro athlete from Eufaula is Jerrell Jernigan.”

Rushing showed an interview he had filmed earlier with Jernigan, who is a former New York Giants Super Bowl Champion, three-time 1st Team All Sunbelt player as a Troy University Trojan and Eufaula High School All-American, now a wide receiver football coach with Eufaula High School.

“Head Start helped me along the way a lot,” Jernigan told Rushing on the video. “I wasn’t old enough to go to kindergarten, my mom was working two jobs at the time and my dad was working.”

Jernigan thanked the SEARP&DC board for their support of the Head Start Programs. “You took me in when you didn’t have to and that greatly impacted my life,” he said.