If the success in Clarke County is any indication, a $1.15 million federal jobs grant could help put people back to work in Natchez and Adams County.

The grant, announced this week by U.S. Rep. Chip Pickering, will help assist workers laid off from International Paper with adult education, computer and job skills classes, entrepreneurship and on-the-job training; apprenticeships; relocation and transportation costs; and clothing and child care.

We’ve seen this month &045;&045; in part, with the amount of requests social service agencies have received &045;&045; how tight our economy is right now.

We know how important it will be for former IP workers to receive these funds.

Clarke County’s success could give us an indication of what might happen: After losing four plants in two years, a similar jobs grant brought the unemployment rate there down from 14.7 percent to 5.7 percent in 10 months. The jobs grant may not have been the only factor in that success, but we can imagine it had quite an impact. When potential employers looking at our area see that an available, loyal workforce is retraining for new jobs, that effort does not go unnoticed.

Kudos to those who have worked hard for this grant &045;&045; including our local leaders and economic development officials &045;&045; but in particular Pickering, who has remained committed to helping Natchez and Adams County out from under our economic problems. Adams County is in Pickering’s district for the first time this year, and he has not left us behind as he works for Mississippi.

In announcing the grant, Pickering noted how hard the community has worked &045;&045; and how hard officials have worked together &045;&045; to recover from losing our largest employer.

We look forward to what this jobs grant, paired with the other efforts of our economic development officials, will do for our workforce and for our community.