The Mississippi Small Town Development Program shall consist of the following:
The Mississippi Small Town Development Fund, administered by the Mississippi Department of Economic and Community Development. Such fund shall be used to further the purposes of this chapter, specifically to provide grant application development expenses, grant application matching requirements and for related purposes.
Mississippi Small Town Technical Assistance Network, administered by the Mississippi Department of Economic and Community Development, which shall consist of the following elements:
Provide direct technical assistance to individual small towns to improve their effectiveness and efficiency.
Shall be organized geographically using Mississippi Planning and Development District lines.
Shall not duplicate the efforts of the myriad public agencies, departments, and private not-for-profit corporations, but will seek to maximize the effectiveness of existing efforts to improve small town government in Mississippi.
Shall be authorized to enter into mutually beneficial agreements with these and other local, state and federal agencies and departments, as well as private not-for-profit organizations, to receive donations, grants, real or personal property, and to further the purposes of this chapter.
May use interns from Mississippi’s public universities through the existing Mississippi Public Service Internship Program.
Other programs of the Mississippi Department of Economic and Community Development, as well as other state agencies, that currently target the small towns of the state shall work with the Mississippi Small Town Technical Assistance Network to improve their publicity and effectiveness.