Pioneer Bay CDC begins new chapter

The Star

J. Richard Benderson, the new fulltime chief executive officer of the North Port St. Joe Community Development Corporation, grew up in a paper mill town.

Just not Port St. Joe.

It was Demopolis, Alabama, a town about 50 miles west of Selma, and that’s a big reason why the veteran city and regional planner is confident he has the familiarity and the experience to make a difference in his new role.

“We have so many people who are born and raised here, and there’s the challenge of different factions,” he said, as part of an interview last month in North Port St. Joe, a neighborhood that historically was the African-American hub of a community where the paper mill played an enormous role.