Toccoa/Stephens County featured in Georgia Trend Magazine.
A couple of years ago, when Toccoa-Stephens County sent a delegation to Washington D.C., they asked to meet with U.S. Representative Sanford D. Bishop, Jr. The congressman listened to their concerns, then he asked about the Tugaloo River. He told them he had never forgotten the canoe trip he had taken at the invitation of community leaders 20 years ago when he was a member of the Georgia legislature.
“You don’t know what’s going to impress someone,” says Tim Martin, executive director of the Toccoa-Stephens County Development Authority. “But if the community’s citizens have bought into who you are and what you’re trying to show, then prospects are going to feel welcome. And people always remember an experience.”
When prospects come to Stephens County, they are shown around by any number of community leaders who have gone through the development authority’s “Chauffer Academy.” These tour guides have learned to point out the area’s attributes and distinctions, whether it’s a visit to a school, a manufacturer or a stop at one of Stephens’s unique homegrown restaurants.
The Chauffer Academy is just one of the ways people are involved with the development authority. More than 40 people serve on six committees within the authority, tasked with some 100 responsibilities along the lines of recruitment and attraction of new industry, retention and expansion of existing businesses, development of the work force, infrastructure and the “product” the county has to offer.
In the last couple of slow years, Toccoa-Stephens County has worked on enhancing its product. The county’s third industrial park, 420-acre Hayestone-Brady Business Park, will have roads, sewer and water extended to it by late summer this year. Fiber-optic telecommunications and natural gas are available, and the county has an abundant supply of water. Power is provided by both Georgia Power and Hart EMC. Rail is planned, and an 80,000-square-foot spec building is ready for a new owner. Additional sites are being graded, and plans are ready for the next building to be constructed.
Click here to read the article: Toccoa/Stephens County: Working Together
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