The downturn of the national economy is on everybody’s mind these days. The news is grim and sobering, and families from St. Tammany Parish to Nome, Alaska, are worried about their economic futures.

But in the small town of Pearl River things are looking up in the midst of all this doom and gloom. If all goes well, by August 2009, Pearl River will be home to one of the largest furniture distribution facilities in the country. The Rooms To Go company has started building a 90,000-sqaure-foot facility covering 60 acres. The site will also have a Rooms To Go retail store.

Rooms To Go is injecting $45 million into the local economy to build the facility. The company selected the site because of the proximity of the railroad and the convergence of Interstates 10, 12 and 59, giving the company easy access to the entire Gulf South. To get the project, the Pearl River Board of Aldermen had to annex 300 acres into the town to seal the deal. This means not only more property tax revenue for the town, but also revenue from water and sewage services. When finished, the facility will mean hundreds of new jobs created, and that will fatten the coffers of both Pearl River and the parish.

But that is not the best part. The remaining 240 acres, which are owned by the Schneider family, who own St. Joe Brick, will be turned into an industrial park. Pearl River Mayor James Lavigne said the construction of the Rooms-To-Go facility has spurred interest from other national companies that might want to set up shop in Pearl River. Again, this means more jobs and money injected into the parish economy, which means a lot during this economic meltdown.

Who would have thought that a small sleepy town like Pearl River could be the linchpin to keeping the economy of this section of the country alive and kicking? But then, small towns have always been the backbone of this country, and Pearl River is a shining example of that, and also of the idea that anything is possible in the USA.