Click here for a map of the Appalachian Valley Fiber Network:   AVFN Map

Construction of the Appalachian Valley Fiber Network  (AVFN) is proceeding at an encouraging pace. Approximately 80 miles of conduit has been put into the ground and fiber optic cable is being installed.

Work is underway in the following corridors.

1. Polk  County along Georgia Highway 101
2. Paulding County along U.S. Highway 278
3. Bartow and Polk Counties along Georgia Highway 113.
4. Floyd and Gordon Counties along Georgia Highway 53

The team at Parker Fibernet LLC is doing a great job!

David M. Howerin

Northwest Georgia Regional Commission

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Every 40 seconds, an American has a stroke.  More than 1.1 million people are impaired, and many live in nursing homes as a result of a stroke.  $73 billion a year is spent in this country on healthcare related to stroke.  Experts now agree that many strokes are preventable.   One in 2.5 women will die of heart disease or stroke, compared with one in 30 from breast cancer.  But you can substantially reduce many of your risk factors for heart disease and stroke with a few simple lifestyle changes.  And if you’ve already had heart disease or stroke, the lifestyle changes can help you to a more successful recovery. 

Early detection of risk factors by AngioScreen®,  is also life saving.  AngioScreens®,  are completely painless and involve no radiation.  The screening is only $80 and includes carotid artery ultrasound, blood pressure, ankle brachial index (both legs), body mass index, peak systolic velocity, heart rate and heart rhythm EKG.  The test provides participants with information about blood circulation and risk of heart disease and stroke.  Immediately following the AngioScreen®, individuals receive a consultation in addition to a color ultrasound picture printout and digital record showing a picture of their carotid arteries.

Administered by Redmond Occupational Health, AngioScreens® are being offered to the general public by appointment on Wednesday, January 18, 2012 from 8am – 6pm at the Chattooga Chamber / Civic Center in Redmond’s Scan Van. The event is being hosted locally by the Chattooga County Chamber of Commerce and the Summerville-Trion Optimist Club.  AngioScreens® are NOT covered by insurance, but Redmond is able to provide the screening at a cost of only $80, a significant savings to you. If these screenings were done separately at a hospital, the cost could run several thousand dollars.  Payments types accepted are cash, check, credit, debit and tax saver/flex spending cards. Tax saver/flex spending receipts will be provided. To schedule your appointment, please call Redmond Occupational Health central scheduling at 855-847-0781.

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  Jobs have been an issue since early in 2008 when Chattooga had its highest unemployment rate approaching 20%.  The Chamber has conducted polling of our largest manufacturers at more frequent intervals in recent years to monitor our continued progress toward recovery.  While a rate of 10.6 is hardly desirable, Chattooga’s drop of .6 per cent is significant.

The last polling by the Chamber in October reflected that our largest employers had pulled back to within just a few jobs, less than 10, of their January 2008 levels. We expect to add to that total in our January 2012 polling.

Georgia saw the largest one month decline in unemployment since 1977 sparking Labor Commissioner, Mark Butler, to direct staff to double check the numbers.  The figures were confirmed for the Commissioner and released to the public this week.

The long reaching effects of the decline in housing has continued to inflict pain across the carpet belt of NW Georgia.  As you can see from the graphic, the counties where the carpet industry has a large presence also represent the counties with the larger unemployment rates.

While interstate highways have oft been considered a magnet for new industry expansion, it should be noted that those along the I-75 corridor have not fared much better in their rates in recent months with Gordon, Bartow, and Whitfield having very similar rates as Chattooga.  It begs the question…was the rapid expansion along the 75 corridor over the past two decades, along with the increased population, really only worth a few tenths of a percentage point in employment gains? These counties recall the old saying, “the bigger they are the harder they fall.”  Each of our surrounding counties have faced plant closures causing much pain to those employees impacted.  Larger company executives have credited workers in Chattooga county with a “work ethic” that prevented the type of closures seen in other areas.

The growing regional effect of the Chattanooga Metropolitan Area is also noted in the counties that border Chattanooga’s Hamilton county.  Over 40% of the workforce of Dade, Walker, and Catoosa counties work in Hamilton County Tennessee hence the positive impact on employment numbers.  This 40% number was before the opening of Volkswagen, Amazon, and Wacker which will continue to have a positive influence on the northern tier of counties, and hopefully Chattooga, in the years to come.

The goal is for everyone to have gainful employment. We won’t rest on a few good months of positive news, or be detered by negative months.  We will support our local industries as our quickest best bet for employment gains, continue our support of the commercial sector, encourage continued development of our tourism assets, and form new partnerships regionally with our colleges and technical institutions to move us forward into 2012.

Thanks for your support over the years!  A Merry Christmas and Prosperous New Year to all.

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Congratulations to our newest Chattooga County business!

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The Chamber is encouraging all our citizens to Think/Shop/Buy Local for the upcoming holiday season.  If every citizen of Chattooga County would pledge to shift $100 a month away from out of county purchases to local purchases we could have a $1,000,000 impact on the SPLOST for our county and school systems in both Chattooga and Trion school systems by the end of next year.  Currently 2 cents on each sales tax dollar goes proportionately to our schools systems and 1 cent goes to our county.

We are also asking our business members to add the think local logo to their website and their print advertising.

We encourage all our citizens to support all our local restaurants.  With the economy in a slow recovery here in Chattooga it is especially important that we keep our local dollars here in support of  all our new and existing restaurants and businesses.  If you would like a print quality logo to use on your website, please contact the chamber at info@ChattoogaChamber.org.

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Governor Deal’s announcement of the new Lowe’s distribution facility off Highway 53/140 in north Floyd county is good news for Chattooga County.  The center will be 20 minutes from Chattooga county and will provide up to 600 new jobs once at full capacity.  According to those close to the deal, the minimum wage at the facility will be over $10 an hour, and acceleration of the four lane from I-75 to Hwy 53 on Hwy 140 is an added bonus for Chattooga county. The deal has been in the works for over 5 years to give you a little insight into how long economic development really takes.  With unemployment numbers over 10% in several Northwest Georgia counties, including Chattooga,  the prospect of additional jobs is a welcome bit of good news in a dismal overall economy.  For more information check out our partner site at:

Chattooga County Radio:  http://www.chattooga1180.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=23177&Itemid=54

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David Carroll will be talking to us about how Chattooga County and Northwest Georgia fit into the whole picture of economic development for the entire Chattanooga region and how radio and television have worked to be equal partners in our regional development.

David Carroll co-anchors Channel 3 Eyewitness News Live at 5 and Channel 3 Eyewitness News at 6.

In addition to his anchoring duties, David reports on educational issues in his nightly School Patrol reports.

Among his recent honors are the Tennessee School Bell Award for outstanding coverage of education, the Best News Reporting award from the Tennessee Disability Coalition, three awards for Excellence in Education reporting from the Tennessee School Board Association, and the 2008 Beacon Award from the GeoDavrgia School Boards Association.

David, who joined Channel 3 in 1987, also co-anchors Eyewitness News election coverage and appears as an emcee and speaker at various events.

In 2011, David added author to his resume with the publication of “Chattanooga Radio and Television“, by Arcadia Publishing, a history of broadcasting in the Scenic City.

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Reprinted with permission from The Georgia Report.

State Revenues grow by $1.1 billion for fiscal year

Georgia’s revenues increased by a little more than $1.1 billion during the just-completed fiscal year, which represented a 7.8 percent increase after three years of an economic downturn, according to figures released by the revenue department Wednesday.

For the first time in several years, the state saw its tax collections and overall revenues increase in each of the 12 months over the total for the previous year rather than vice versa as Georgia’s economy rebounded a little – even though unemployment still hovers around the 10 percent level.

“The upward movement in Georgia’s revenue numbers is a clear indication that our state can and will advance as long as we continue the practice of maintaining a fiscally conservative state budget,” Gov. Nathan Deal said in a statement released by his office.

State revenues were $15.3 billion for fiscal year 2011 compared to $14.2 billion for the previous year.

Individual income tax collections were up by a healthy 9.1 percent, from $7.02 billion to $7.66 billion.  Net sales tax revenues grew from $4.78 billion to $5.10 billion, a smaller growth spurt of 6.7 percent.

Motor fuel tax revenues, partly reflecting the sharp increase in the retail price of gasoline at the pump, shot up by 11.2 percent, from $828.6 million to $921.1 million.

Corporate income taxes were the only major revenue category to show a decline.  They were down by 2 percent, from $684.7 million in fiscal year 2010 to $671.2 million.

The fiscal year ended strongly for the state, with revenue collections for the month of June $87.5 million higher than the same month a year ago, a 6.2 percent increase to $1.503 billion.

© 2011 by The Georgia Report

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Local Developer Larry Howard, not one for being in the limelight, is behind the Jefferson’s sign in the picture.  The Summerville version of the national chain restaurant is set to open on Monday, June 20.  Various vendors were stepping over each other trying to move things forward for the deadline.  The corner parking plaza has been paved and concrete trucks worked feverishly to complete the landing and approaches needed for delivery entry access.

Set to open at 11:00 Monday morning.  Check out the latest at:

http://www.jeffersonsrestaurant.com/summerville/

Larry hopes this is the start of the redevelopment of downtown into a tourist and shopping destination.  With this kind of private investment, success is just around the corner.

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The Chamber had mother natures best as we enjoyed the annual luncheon at our state park on Tuesday.  With a nice, all be it warm, breeze we heard from many new and some seasoned  officials from Georgia Power, Georgia’s Department of Economic Development, Department of Labor, Mayor Harvey of Summerville, and our Sole County Commissioner, Jason Winters.

Jason introduced his interns paid through the county commissioner’s association this summer.  Blake Tucker and Courtney Stowe will be working out of the commissioner’s office.  Chuck Scragg, Regional Economic Development Representative for Georgia Power, introduced the new manager to replace Danny Fricks at the local Summerville office, Scott Skinner along with the our new Regional Project Manager, Carl Campbell, of the Georgia Department of Economic Development.

Bruce and Ann Crim were recognized for their work in volunteering at Sloppy Floyd Park and staying on site during the summers helping to coordinate “Friends of Sloppy Floyd State Park.”  Will Wagner is the new park manager and will be active with the chamber and speak to us at a later meeting. Sloppy Floyd Park pumps over $7,000,000 into the local economy each year.  If you have available time to be a part of the Friends program, just call the park for more details.

David with Marsha Wilson

David introduced Marsha Wilson to the group who will be with us through funding from the Workforce Investment Act and Mercy Senior Care for at least the month of June.  Marsha will be available at the chamber office each workday this month from 10:00 to 4:00.

Kay Dixon shared news of the upcoming programs that Redmond is providing in the community and was recognized for providing Angio-Screens for Chattooga County through a partnership with the Chamber and the Optimist Club lead by Erick Housch, President.

Several new attendees were present and were recognized for their participation in the chamber gift certificate program that encourages citizens to shop local and patronize local business instead of moving dollars out of county.  The program is administered through the chamber’s outside accounting firm, Owens & Bowen, who can provide you with details of its operation if your business has interest.  Additional development of the program is essential to maintaining a high level of funds for our local option sales taxes that provide direct assistance to our school systems and county.

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