Flora Mayor Leslie Childress is caught between two worlds: small town Mississippi and booming suburban sprawl.
He is mayor of a small rural Mississippi town that was founded in 1886 as a railroad stop for cotton, cattle, mules and wagons. Yet today Flora sits on the doorstep of some of the wealthiest residential developments in Mississippi.
Drive a few miles east and you encounter Annandale, Reunion, Lake Caroline and other upscale Madison County developments. Million-dollar houses, golf courses and five-acre estates are increasingly part of the greater Flora economy.
Meanwhile, Childress still gets on a tractor and mows the town right-of-way.
Welcome to Flora.
Childress recently spoke to the Rotary Club of North Jackson. His talk illustrated the fascinating crossroads facing this little town.
When Childress joined the Flora Board of Aldermen in 1997, there were still two cotton gins. Childress himself was a row-crop farmer, growing cotton, soybeans and corn and raising cattle.
Today people aren't necessarily calling Flora looking for farmland. They are asking, "Can you find me five acres?"
That's quite a transition.
The official population is about 1,850, although Childress believes Flora has already exceeded 2,000 based on the number of water meters the town serves. The greater Flora area is considerably larger.
But population numbers don't really tell the story.
Money is moving north and west from Madison and Ridgeland, and Flora is sitting squarely in its path.
The results are becoming apparent.
Entergy bought the old Primos manufacturing facility and, according to Childress, invested $32 million converting it into a facility supporting its high-voltage transmission operations.
Salad Days started growing hydroponic vegetables near Flora and recently built a $12 million facility. Its lettuce is now distributed throughout the Southeast.
AgUp, which operates John Deere dealerships, established its headquarters in Flora. RiverHills Bank is building on Main Street.
Then there is the fun stuff.
Flora has developed an unlikely collection of upscale boutiques, restaurants and specialty businesses. One Rotary member told Childress he makes special trips to Flora to buy wine by the case.
Next door is a butcher selling Wagyu beef.
Think about that for a minute. This is a town where the mayor raises cattle and admits he had never heard of Wagyu beef until a fellow walked into his office wanting to open a store selling it.
That's the new Flora.
And now the chains have discovered it.
Childress said Jack's is coming. More surprisingly, property has been purchased for a McDonald's.
Yet Flora doesn't have an auto parts store.
Childress joked that he can get Wagyu beef but has to drive somewhere else to buy windshield wipers.
That's Flora's predicament in a nutshell.
Does Flora remain a traditional Mississippi small town? Does it become another Madison? Or does it carve out something altogether different — a quaint, upscale village surrounded by country estates?
Childress seems determined not to overthink it.
He likes locally owned businesses. He likes entrepreneurs willing to risk their own money. But he also understands free enterprise. If McDonald's wants to come to Flora, that's progress too.
Interestingly, he has little interest in annexing the expensive subdivisions surrounding Flora.
His reasoning is refreshingly practical. A $10 million house sitting on five acres sounds wonderful for the tax rolls, but somebody eventually has to maintain the roads, provide police and fire protection and deliver municipal services. Sparse development can cost more to serve than it produces in taxes.
That's the farmer in Childress talking.
For all Flora's newfound sophistication, its government remains decidedly small-town.
The police department has eight full-time employees. The fire department relies heavily on volunteers who work professionally for larger departments on their days off. Madison County handles emergency dispatching because Flora couldn't afford to staff its own operation around the clock.
And the mayor makes $28,000 a year and says he's on call "24/7, nine days a week."
He also mows rights-of-way and digs graves.
Therein lies Flora's charm and, perhaps, its opportunity.
Madison and Ridgeland have become successful suburban cities. Flora doesn't need to imitate them.
Its appeal may be precisely that it isn't Madison.
People can live on five acres, shop for Wagyu beef and fine wine, eat hydroponic lettuce, and still know the fellow driving the tractor cutting the grass along the highway is the mayor.
There aren't many places left where you can do that.
Flora has one foot planted firmly in the old rural Mississippi and another stepping into the affluent suburban Mississippi of the future.
If it can keep both feet underneath it, Flora may have the best of both worlds.
