Brooks County Development Authority

Development Authority Works to Enhance Economic Vitality

Source: Quitman Free Press

Date Published: March 30, 2011

By: Bonnell Holmes, Editor

The Development Authority is constantly working for Brooks County. Much of the work is behind the scenes but is an ongoing endeavor.

Brooks County Development Authority Executive Director Tina Herring outlined some of the projects the Development Authority has accomplished and is working to achieve.

A big plus has been completion of the industrial park. Water, sewer, roadways and drainage infrastructure was completed in January 2011 creating a viable product to potential industries.

"A tour of South Georgia early this month, sponsored by Electric Cities of Georgia, brought eight statewide economic development project managers to the new park. This visit has resulted in our park being considered as the location for three new industries and could result in investments of more than $1 billion in our local economy. A follow-up meeting with statewide project managers from GDEcD, Georgia Power, ECG and EMC will be held in May," said Herring.

In spite of our fine facilities we still must compete with other counties to attract industries.

In 2009 Brooks County met the goals required to become a Certified Work Ready community. This title illustrates, to potential and existing employers, that our community has an available and skilled workforce.

"To achieve this status, Brooks County was required to increase the high school graduation rate nine percent within three years and satisfactory completion of the three-hour assessment by our citizens from both the existing and available workforce.

A pre-determined number of people from each of eight categories, private sector employees, government employees, unemployed adults, technical college graduates, high school graduates, high school seniors, GED graduates and four-year college graduates were assessed," Herring related.

Working closely with Brooks County High School and Sharon Cunningham, Brooks County surpassed the State goals by increasing the graduation rate 11 points to 69.7 percent and assessing more than 424 persons. This was 95 percent above the goal. To date 773 Brooks County citizens have received a work ready certificate.

Next week we will look at Brooks County's retail marketing campaign, joint marketing teams and other data.