EAST CENTRAL MISSISSIPPI 291 STRUCTURAL STEEL SERVICES After spending nearly a decade as a steel worker and plant manager for Bates Steel Company in the 1960s, Meridian native Tommy Dulaney set out to establish a company of his own. By 1975, Dulaney had gained financial support from two well-known Meridian businessmen, Sammie Davidson and Tommy Webb, and incorporated Structural Steel Services. Early on, Dulaney worked from a 12,000 square-foot shop located near St. Louis Street in the east Meridian Industrial Park. After some success, Dulaney expanded to include another building in 1979, and his company has continued to grow steadily ever since. For more than four decades, Structural Steel Services has provided steel and platework fabrication to customers and industrial markets in numerous locations. While much of Structural Steel’s business comes from power plants and steel mills in the United States, the company has worked across the globe, including China, Indonesia, and the Philippines. In June of 2015, Dulaney and his employees celebrated the company’s fortieth year, in which they looked back on decades of service and success. Today, Structural Steel Services includes six plants that, in total, cover more than 1 million square feet. One of those plants is the former Bates Steel Company, which Dulaney purchased in the mid-1990s. PHOTOS COURTESY OF STRUCTURAL STEEL SERVICES