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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Sky 21 is our newest chamber member.  They have joined forces with Charter Cable and Chattooga County Radio 1180AM to bring more programming and informational service to our citizens.  Take a look at the article below from our gold sponsor 1180 radio:

In what may be a first for Cable and broadcast television, Charter Cable has now added all 5 of WKSY (Sky 21) Television channels to their Summerville and Mentone lineup. Sky 21 owner Terry Adams took advantage of the new digital broadcast spectrum when it became available and turned one channel into five which most stations still have not done. The larger stations in Atlanta and Chattanooga are only broadcasting 2 channels. Although it was a challenge, it seems to have paid off as Charter launched the remaining 3 channels from Sky 21 Tuesday morning of this week. A complete channel lineup and schedule for each channel can be found on the Sky 21 web site at www.sky21.com.

Sky 21’s Terry Adams also announced this week that AM 1180 Chattooga County Radio owned by Jimmy Holbrook has been added fulltime to the information channel offered by Sky 21. The channel which is broadcast over the air on channel 21.5 and Charter Channels 95.5 and 136 airs live local weather, headline news from around the country and community information. AM 1180 has to sign off the air at sunset each day which left a void. Adams and Holbrook saw this as a great opportunity for the local media to work together for the good of our community. If you have an event you would like to place on Sky 21’s information channel you may email the information to sky21@windstream.net .

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Your Chattooga County Chamber of Commerce would like to congratulate our recent graduates of the Georgia Academy for Economic Development held earlier this year in Rome.  This is a great training available each year from our friends at the Georgia Department of Community Affairs.

Photo lineup is: Mike Pennington, Academy Board Member and Executive Director of the Georgia Economic Developers Association, Niki Knox of Georgia EMC, John Sterner, Sylvia-Lee Keziah, Jay Henry, of Chattooga County,  and Chuck Scragg of Georgia Power.

Class participants represented a number of professional and non-professional economic development fields, including elected officials, public servants, business leaders, educators, and social service providers from thirteen counties in Northwest Georgia.  The Academy provided each of the graduates an opportunity to gain a unique understanding of the complexities of economic and community development on the local, regional, and state levels.

A special thanks to each of our graduates for taking the time to participate in this valuable training for our community.

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Overall state revenues continue to climb each month this fiscal year.  Personal income taxes were up a little over 8% indicating continued positive movement in that area.  Contained within the figures we see corporate income taxes down by over 23% which could indicate a combination of factors:

• Increased spending on plant and equipment
• Increased hiring
• Increased fuel costs driving down bottom line

Sales Taxes only saw a 2.2% increase which may reflect decreased sales due to increased fuel costs for everyone.  The price of gasoline  is taking up the funds folks have for other things in their budget.  This trend seems to be reflected in the income from motor fuel taxes which saw an 11% decline.  This decline is reflected in national data regarding demand for fuel declining as folks drive less.  These factors should signal that as the demand for fuel decreases that the price of gas at the pump may follow.  Isn’t it funny how it never goes down as fast as it goes up!  Remember these are April figures.  Sharp spikes in fuel prices in early May will tell us a lot as they trickle in come June.  Let’s hope we stay on the positive side!

Hope you are able to take advantage of the many activities around the county this weekend!

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The Hair Depot comes to 71 E. First Avenue in Summerville (formerly Harold Bishop construction office).  Local Chamber of Commerce officials, Commissioner Jason  Winters, and local developer Rex Evans were on hand for the ribbon cutting earlier last week.  The Hair Depot held an open house on Saturday, 4/30/11, from 9 to 4.  Linda, Jeff, Leicia, and the entire staff thank  you for dropping by.  For additional details call The Hair Depot at 706-857-6069.

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Several chamber board members accompanied David Tidmore to Berry College’s Business Outlook Luncheon at the Ford Dining Hall on Berry’s Campus.  Attendees included in the photo are Lyerly Mayor,  Jessica Eller; Summerville Mayor, Harry Harvey; City Manager, Russell Thompson; Commissioner’s Office representative, Sylvia Lee-Keziah; and  Joint Development Authority representative, Butch Eleam.

The Rome News Tribune reported:

The index of leading economic indicators has risen more than 6 percent during the last six months, but Tutterow said the overwhelming number of jobs lost will not be recovered quickly.

“It may take 44 months to rebuild the job losses we had,” Tutterow said. “We are adding jobs again, the economy is growing, but when you fall as far as we did it takes several years to dig our way out of that hole.”

Tutterow reported the country lost 8.8 million jobs between December 2007 and January 2010.

Looking specifically at the Northwest Georgia region, the Macon-based economist reminded the audience that as the housing industry goes, so goes the carpet industry, which has been the heart of the regional economy. Dalton, for example, lost nearly one of six jobs during the recession.

“We have stopped the bleeding in Dalton,” Tutterow said.

He said oil prices also could pose a threat to recovery.

“Particularly if they were to get past $120 to $125 a barrel, at that point, I would start to be concerned that it would have a dampening effect on economic activity,” he said.

On the New York Mercantile Exchange on Wed­nesday, crude oil added 86 cents to settle at $107.11 per barrel.

The weakened position of the U.S. dollar has helped Georgia companies in terms of exports, and the economist pointed to the fact that Savannah is one of the fastest growing ports in the nation.

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Several local officials were on hand to welcome Patti Grindstaff (far left) and local manager Ellie Penson (center) of Jefferson’s Restaurant to Summerville.  Included were Chattooga County Sole Commissioner, Jason Winters; Summerville Mayor, Harry Harvey; Chamber President, David Tidmore; local commercial realty specialist, Susan Tippins-Hargrove.

Work is well under way toward opening in June of this year.  They will be looking for around 25 employees who will be hired with the assistance of the Georgia Department of Labor.  Watch your news sites for more information as we move into May. They hope to have folks at work for training by early June.

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Jefferson’s Restaurant, a Jacksonville Alabama based 20 year old restaurant chain, with outlets across the country, is coming to downtown Summerville.  Patti Grindstaff, owner of the St. Louis based franchise of Jefferson’s announced the culmination of the deal through Prime Realty, Steve Baker, Broker and Prime’s own commercial realty specialist, Susan Tippins Hargrove.  The deal was with local real estate developer, Larry Howard, for a build to suit lease agreement which calls for a portion of the old Richies location in downtown to be retrofitted to Jefferson’s specifications. They hope to be open for business in the summer.

“This deal was the product of the excellent working relationship developed between the city and county and commitment to continuing economic development for all our citizens,” said David Tidmore, Chamber President.  Chattooga’s Sole Commissioner, Jason Winters, and City Manager, Russell Thompson, and Tidmore met with Ms. Grindstaff and Prime Realty officials last month to outline a path toward enabling Jefferson’s to make Summerville their newest location for the chain.

Many Chattooga County folks are familiar with Jefferson’s either through their Rome location or through Jacksonville State University where Jefferson’s was founded. For a peak at the upcoming menu check out their website at http://www.jeffersonsrestaurant.com/menu/.

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Make a note for our next Luncheon.  We have some surprises coming, so don’t miss it!

Register here on the website or reply to info@ChattoogaChamber.org.

Sally’s will cater our event @The Depot @ Noon.

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Please note that this month our luncheon is sponsored by Floyd Medical Center.

We will be at the Tavern in Trion and hope to see you there at Noon.

Please RSVP or register on the luncheon page on this website.

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