Positive News in Milledgeville and Baldwin County
INVESTED & COMMITTED
A Special Supplement to THE
UNION-RECORDER www.unionrecorder.com • Weekend, October 2-4
Local community leaders respond to our question: What have we learned in the wake of the economic downturn and how has Baldwin County put it to use effectively? he most important lesson to be learned from the economic downturn is our future will be different than our past. We will have a new normal, and I am not certain what will be normal. Diversity in our employment will be imperative. While we will still have a significant state presence in Milledgeville, we will not have the numbers of state institutions and services we had years ago. The downturn has forced us to use the great assets we possess to attract different investors. Retirees and high tech and environmental industries are just some of the investors we will pursue. I believe we will be attractive to those type of investors as well as others. I am confident we will emerge from this economy a different but stronger community. Whatever awaits us in the future, our citizens should be assured their leaders work hard everyday to make Milledgeville the envy of the state.
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Richard Bentley
Mayor City of Milledgeville aldwin County has learned a lot during our nation’s recent economic downturn, most importantly, we’ve discovered a lot about ourselves and our own resiliency. This community has taken a closer look at itself, identified weaknesses and strengths and worked toward improvement for the future. Through community forums held over the past several months, we were able to pinpoint some of our needs and local concerns and work together to move toward resolving them. By launching a community-wide campaign to get everyone behind the Work Ready program, Baldwin County was able to successfully become a Certified Work Ready Community, signaling to prospective employers that this community has a qualified workforce. Now, we are building on this momentum as we focus our attention on becoming a Certified Literate Community. We’ve also taken a look at our decrease in state jobs over the past several months and moved toward diversifying our job base. The past several months have been challenging for all of Baldwin County, but with construction beginning on the new prison, the Kroger shopping center and growth in small business development, we are taking some of the things the past several months have taught us, turning them into positives, and moving forward.
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Keith Barlow
Publisher The Union-Recorder
think we’ve learned how to be a stronger community and we’ve learned how to pull together and work with a collaborative effort. We have created partnerships with various organizations throughout the community, and we’ve learned to utilize the resources that we have. What we have also done is work with the local educational entities to examine our deficiencies in education, and we are working with local businesses to strengthen our weak areas. We’re working with local churches within the community on education programs to assist people in getting their GEDs so that when the economic downturn turns around, they’ll be prepared to be a progressive workforce.
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Linda Fussell
Chairwoman, Baldwin Co. Commission ommunity planners and economic development professionals all agree that diversity in employment is a critical component of an economically strong community. One thing I hope our community has learned through this crisis is that a large dependence on any one industry or organization, even if it is a state government is dangerous. As we move forward into what I think will be a bright future we must remember that lesson. We must also understand that in the world of today things move fast and change is the only constant. Business or industries that we have relied on for stable jobs in the past can be gone tomorrow, and we must always be working to improve our community and working to attract new businesses and new residents. Several groups in the community are to be commended for keeping a positive outlook in these tough times. The Chamber of Commerce and Partners for Progress are two organizations that are working hard to improve our community and think outside the box in how we can prepare for our future. The Communities in Schools initiative is working hard to reduce our illiteracy rate and encourage people to stay in school and get a better education. Currently 65 percent of the workforce in Baldwin County has a high school education or less. That lack of an educated workState Senator force is a challenge as we try to recruit industries and businesses for a 21st century R-Milledgeville economy. I like to remind people that when we lost the capitol to Atlanta in 1868, many people worried that Milledgeville would become a ghost town, but the leaders of the community back then did not give up, they worked with state government and with new businesses and industry and Milledgeville grew and prospered. If we remain positive and focused and work together, we can get through this crisis as well.
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Johnny Grant
n the wake of the economic downturn, the devastation of the high job losses in a couple of industry sectors has caused Baldwin County citizens and leadership to realize how detrimental it is to invest the future of a community in the hands of so few. We’ve come to realize that a diversification in our industry and business is paramount to future success. We also realize that the jobs of the future require much different skills, especially in the area of manufacturing. We have risen to this challenge as is evidenced by our high enrollment numbers in our three college institutions and our efforts to become a Certified Work Ready Community. We are fortunate that the industries remaining in Baldwin County are strong and expanding. The GEO group recently announced its plans to build an $80 million facility employing 300 people, and there is every indication that new jobs and opportunities are on the horizon. People often find “what they are made of” during a crisis. Fortunately, we have found that the leaders of our community have the right stuff to move us forward. Without realizing that an economic downturn was approaching, a concerted effort was already under way to closely examine future economic development opportunities for Baldwin County. This group of leaders had the foresight to know that the Executive Director jobs that had always sustained us may not be there forever. Strategic planning sesMilledgeville/Baldwin Co. sions were held with experts from around the state who assisted in laying the Development Authority groundwork for future development. Those sessions confirmed that we can build upon the core assets of our community, such as posing ourselves as a great place for retirees to live. We are emerging as a micropolitan community embracing technology as can be seen through receipt of a $860,000 broadband award from the State of Georgia and a $1.5 million grant from the Knight Foundation, which has enhanced the work being done at the Georgia College Knight Community Innovation Center and Digital Bridges. These efforts to rebuild and reinvent continue through grassroots efforts such as the Chamber of Commerce Partners for Progress. We simply have no choice but to look ahead and seek out the positive. As the dust settles from a recessional whirlwind, we find there are deep-rooted attributes throughout the community that can and will sustain us. This community will not settle for simply convalescing from a wounding economy; our insurrection and resiliency will be noted.
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Angie Gheesling