Business View Civil Municipal - July 2023

153 CIVIL AND MUNICIPAL VOLUME 4, ISSUE 7 GREENVI LLE , TE XAS be precise, nearby Plano, Texas––just 50 minutes from Greenville––will be one of the best sites in the whole country from which to see the eclipse. “We expect to see a large number of people arriving in the city to see this,” said McBay. “We’ll actually have one of the longest windows in the entire nation: four minutes and 10 seconds or so.” And he noted that the Audie Murphy American Cotton Museum draws some 25,000 people a year to Greenville. Murphy, one of the most highly decorated combat soldiers in American military history and a famed hero of World War II, was born in Kingston, also in Hunt County and not far from Greenville. The museum also tells the story of Texas agriculture history and the long generations when cotton was king in the Lone Star State. Airports are a key component of any city’s economic toolbox, and in Greenville, there’s the Greenville Municipal Airport: Majors Field. It provides a safe and efficient aviation facility for Greenville and the surrounding region. According to the City of Greenville, it’s situated just a short distance from I-30 and 45 miles northeast of Dallas in a prime location for corporate, medical and general aviation businesses and pilots. The runway is more than 8,000 feet long, and Spurlock said it can accommodate some of the largest aircraft in the market. “But not a B-52!” she quipped with a laugh. Relatedly, on the nearby south side of the airport, defense contractor L3 Harris employs some 6,500 people on what was once a U.S. Army base. And of course quick access to the Dallas- Fort Worth International Airport––one of the biggest and busiest in the country, as McBay noted––is certainly economically advantageous. Greenville’s economic future certainly appears to be a bright one. Amongst other things on the horizon is a new EOC or emergency operating center that is now being built. It will include local fire administration and a fire- training facility. The project is a partnership with Paris Junior College. One of PJC’s three