ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT
The Development Authority of Jones County has several new members on its board of directors for 2023 after five retirements at the end of 2022.
New members are Chip Brooks, Mary Murray, Brian Utley, Erik Varnadoe and Chris Wieters. Remaining on the board are chairman Laura Rackley, Greg Mullis, T.J. Heath and Josh Lurie.
The activity on the board comes as interest in Griswoldville Industrial Park is at an all-time high.
Executive Director Haley Watson said several projects have reached out, and Jones County is still in the running for a large prospect from the fall.
“We’re hoping to hear something from them by the middle of February,” she said. “We are hoping for a site visit later in the spring for another prospect that could range from $1.5 billion to $4.5 billion in investment.”
Another prospect is looking for 200-300 acres, Watson said, but she does not have financial data yet for that.
She outlined two more projects, bringing the total to six currently assessing Jones County as a fit for their industries. Details are often sparse in the early stages of site location.
“We’ve never had that many since I’ve been here,” Heath said. “It speaks to what’s going on in Georgia. A lot of industry is moving here.”
Heath has also assisted the authority with timber management in an effort to make the site more visible to prospects.
“We cut some timber two years ago, and when you drive into the site, you can see downtown Macon,” he said. “The prospect really liked that.”
Heath said they looked at how to open up the site more and responsibly manage the land. That includes spraying where trees have already been cut to keep new ones from growing back. To pay for that, the authority bid out thinning out more trees.
“The quote for spraying was about $67,000, and we can take the money from the thinning to maintain the openness of what we clear cut a few years ago,” he said. “They’re still out there cutting, and we’re at $153,000. We’ve hit that by a long shot.”
Heath said it is now easier to see the size of the entire site.
The board voted unanimously to move forward with spraying the clear-cut area of the industrial park.
Watson updated new board members on the efforts to become Georgia Ready for Accelerated Development (GRAD) certified. She described it as due diligence to make investing in the community safer for industries.
“For GRAD, I have a call scheduled at the beginning of February to finally go over submitting our application,” she said. “The regulations have changed multiple times.”
Watson also outlined a number of ideas for how to get state project managers to visit Jones County.
There will be no February meeting. The board will instead travel to Atlanta along with leaders from the community for a full-day session on economic development.
New board member qualifications
• BrianUtley–JonesCountycityexecutive, Morris Bank
• ChipBrooks–productionengineer/ area leader, KaMin (BASF)
• ChrisWieters–CFO,Landmark Management and affiliates
• Mary Murray – CEO, Delong’s Gizzard Equipment
• ErikVarnadoe–vicepresident,First Environmental
