TaCo Times and Perry Newspapers, Inc.
Contributor
Expressing a desire to fill “a void” when it comes to hometown banks and providing personalized services to local residents and businesses, Madison County Community Bank (MCCB) officials have announced plans to construct a new bank in Perry.
Subject to state regulatory approval, the new bank will be known as Taylor County Community Bank -- a division of MCCB.
“We are a state-chartered FDIC bank, and we have submitted our application to open a branch here in Perry,” MCCB board member Ed Meggs said. “The FDIC has 60 days to approve from the time a completed application is submitted. We are well capitalized and there are no regulatory issues, so there is no reason to deny our application.”
The bank will be located at the corner of Jefferson and Church Streets on parcels of land purchased on Thursday, June 24. The site currently houses the Habitat for Humanity Thrift Store and J&M Feed, as well as buildings formerly owned by Andy Jackson and family and home to Jackson Furniture.
According to Meggs, MCCB plans to place a modular unit on a portion of the vacant land by the end of the year and then hopes to begin construction of a new bank building.
“Once we get started on an actual building, we think it would take a year to construct,” he said.
Meggs indicated the bank has offered to allow the thrift store to remain in its current location rent free for the remainder of the year, adding that an offer has been made to J&M Feed that would allow them to purchase the building they are currently in, and there are two other entities interested in the remaining property.
“We want to come here and be a part of this community,” Meggs said. “We want to help folks, individuals and businesses achieve their financial goals.”
“We have been doing business here and in Steinhatchee since 2016 or so. We feel when Citizens Bank left, it left a void here,” Meggs said. “Our focus in Madison – just as our focus will be here in Perry -- is on the community. These are our friends and our neighbors. We see them in the grocery store; we see them in our churches and civic clubs.
“Right now you have two banks in Perry, and both are headquartered elsewhere. The rest are credit unions, and there is a world of difference between banks and credit unions,” Meggs said. “We feel like there is a need for local representation, local control and local customer service.
According to Meggs, Ashley Price, an Air Force Veteran who was born and raised in Taylor County, has been hired to be the local branch manager, adding that the process of hiring the rest of the staff will begin soon.
“Our intent is to hire and staff with all local people,” Meggs stated, adding that Price is currently working out of an office located in the space formerly occupied by Dr. Taylor's optometry office next to Tri-County Electic Co-Op on Jefferson Street.
“Right now I have seven local community business leaders who have joined in the effort to bring a bank here. They are my ears and eyes,” Meggs said.
“I saw one of them at a restaurant in Madison as we were going through the chow line and chit-chatting about eight or nine months ago. When he got finished eating, he came over to my table and asked when were we coming to Perry, and I said, 'Just as fast as we can',” Meggs said.
“We had a gentlemen's agreement (with Citizens Bank) that if you don't fish in our pond, we won't fish in yours. They opened a branch in Madison and, of course, they have sold now.
“When we started Madison County Community Bank, we made sure our board represented every segment of the community, including Pinetta, Greenville and Sirmans. We had 19 members originally, and it worked well for us,” Meggs said.
When he began his banking career in 1968 with Lewis State Bank in Tallahassee – the oldest state-charted bank in the state – Meggs said he tired of hearing “this is how we do it in Tampa” after being bought out by First National Bank out of Tampa following a recession in 1974.
“If I heard it once, I heard it a thousand times, and I remember telling my boss, we are not in Tampa,” Meggs said.
Later in his career with larger banks, Meggs was instructed to tell certain smaller clients who did not meet certain criteria to call a 1-800 number, leading to his decision to help start Madison County Community Bank.
“You will not hear from us, this is the way we do it in Madison. We are going to do it the way we do it in Taylor County,” Meggs said.
“We don't have a separate department for every little thing. In a community bank you have to do everything that has to be done. I have found in my 23 years when you work with a big company you are an order taker, but with a small bank you handle the order from stem to stern and you are accountable for all parts in between. I like that because not everyone fits in the same mold. We want to be responsive to our customers.”
“I've always operated under the philosophy that when you have a progressive community bank you will have a progressive community. So that is what we want to be,” Meggs added.