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PAGE 4A PICKENS COUNTY PROGRESS THURSDAY. JANUARY 7. 2016
New year greets Ball Ground with a flurry of good news
New businesses should bring jobs to area
Construction of the new LAT Sportswear plant on the Ball Ground Highway south is well underway. When completed, the new plant
should offer numerous employment opportunities to area residents.
By Larry Cavender
Contriubting writer
From a new parking lot and
economic development to the de
nial of funding for a project that
brought numerous protests from
Ball Ground residents last year,
the new year of2016isa harbin
ger of good tidings for the city.
Perhaps the most obvious sign
of the good news was the recent
opening of the long-awaited and
much anticipated downtown
public parking lot. The parking
lot, a joint effort between the city
and the Ball Ground Downtown
Development Authority, was
opened to the public last month
after the paving was completed.
The new lot is located off Gilmer
Ferry Road on land that was lo
cally known as the "marble park
ing lot" next to the old Holcomb
Supermarket building.
According to a recent news
release from Ball Ground City
Manager Eric Wilmarth, the
parking lot, which is accessible
from Valley Street, will eventu
ally gamer as many as forty new
parking spaces for patrons visit
ing downtown businesses. The
exact number of spaces is un
known at this time because as
Wilmarth said, "The lot isn't
striped yet, but we hope to have
that accomplished in the next
several weeks." The lot, which is
located directly across the town's
main street from the newly
opened and highly popular
Burger Bus, will provide needed
parking relief to an area which
has recently become extremely
congested with three popular eat
ing establishments downtown,
and another. Chef Rosario's, an
Italian restaurant, set to open
soon.
In economic news, a construc
tion project was recently begun
on the Ball Ground Highway
south of the town. In recent
months, LAT Sportswear broke
ground for their new facility
which will be located on the east
side of the highway just south of
Magbee Lumber Company and
Sharp Mountain Church behind
the former location of Watkin's
Dairy. Although construction is
well underway, the completion
date is uncertain. Tommy Cowart
of Cowart Steel Erectors in Stone
Mountain Georgia is one of the
contractors working on the LAT
project. When asked about the
completion date, Cowart laughed
and said, "Who knows, what
with all the wet weather we've
been having lately. It's been so
wet that a decent road hasn't even
been cut into the site as of yet."
Although the facility is not lo
cated within the Ball Ground city
limits, Wilmarth noted, "The city
will benefit from the construc
tion...because it lies within our
water service delivery area and
will result in the installation of a
new sixteen inch Cherokee
County water main from East
Cherokee Drive that will supply
fire protection to the new plant.
Once the line is complete, we
will also make a connection from
it to our city water system.
Adding this new connection to
our system will give us addi
tional capacity in the event some
thing should happen to our well
or if we should experience main
water line failures in other parts
of the city." Construction of that
new pipeline is now well under
way.
When the new LAT Sports
wear plant opens, the new facil
ity should provide several new
employment opportunities for
area residents as will the new
Universal Alloy plant which will
have their groundbreaking cere
monies in late April or early May
according to officials of the com
pany who made the announce
ment in a notification to the city
in recent days. The plant, which
will manufacture aerospace
products and will possibly add as
many as 250 new job opportuni
ties, will be constructed where
Howell Bridge Road dead-ends
near the Ball Ground Pharmacy.
Of the new Universal Alloy
plant, Wilmarth said, "We are
looking forward to a long term
relationship with UAC and are
excited about the jobs this highly
regarded international firm plans
on creating in our city."
A sigh of relief came from
many Ball Ground residents
when the city manager an
nounced that funding for the Ab-
bington Ridge low-income
housing development had been
denied by the Georgia Depart
ment of Community Affairs. In a
complicated funding system
based on points, Rea Ventures,
the developer of the housing de
velopment which was planned
for construction on Northridge
Road, fell short of meeting the
state funding criteria by one
point.
"This marks the third time in
four years that an applicant came
within one point of funding in
the City of Ball Ground," said
Wilmarth, who continued,
"Given the non-selection, it is
doubtful that the developers will
move forward with purchasing
the property along Northridge
Road." When plans for the low-
income housing project were
made public last June, over a
hundred Ball Ground residents
turned out to protest at a meeting
hosted by the developer at Chat
tahoochee Technical College in
Jasper. The residents were con
cerned about possible lower
property values and higher crime
rates if the low-income housing
had been constructed.
ETC receives national honor
Corporate America Magazine
recently voted ETC Communica
tions as the Best Diversified
Communications Company in
Georgia during its annual Soft
ware & Technology awards. Cor
porate America is considered the
definitive magazine for CEOs,
top tier management and key de
cision makers across the US.
“Selecting these luminaries is
the result of a rigorous judging
process carried out by our dedi
cated awards team, dining which
we left no stone unturned to en
sure that all winners were chosen
purely on merit,” said Hannah
Stevenson, managing group edi
tor of AI Global Media. Steven
son added that nominees can take
pride in being counted among the
real leading lights in their indus
try.
ETC Communications was se
lected based on a number of cri
teria including the methods it
uses to manage its people and in
ternal processes, the way clients
interact with the company online,
and overall social media pres
ence. “We are truly honored to be
recognized as an industry
leader,” remarked Jason Smith,
Vice President of Business De
velopment for ETC. “We are al
ways striving to offer valuable
services that enhance our cus
tomer’s technological and enter
tainment needs and honored that
others around the country are
noticing our efforts.”
Created to inform, entertain.
influence, and shape the corpo
rate conversation across the na
tion through high quality
editorial, in-depth research and
an experienced and dedicated
network of advisers. Corporate
America provides readers with
current analysis of the major
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The publication is distributed
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presidents and directors, and fea
tures high quality editorial sub
missions from some of the
biggest players on the global cor
porate radar.
Jasper Merchants offers website program for members
The JMA wants to wish each
and everyone of you a happy
new year.
As we roll into 2016, the JMA
is rolling out an incentive pro
gram that we feel you as a JMA
member will be excited about.
As a paid member of the JMA
we want to give our members
something as part of that mem
bership. That something is the
combined knowledge of our
members and the ability to get
your organization or business
recognized and out there in the
social media universe and on the
world wide web.
Any member that does not
have social media (Instagram,
Twitter, Facebook) or a business
or organization website
(www.(yourcompanyname).com
) or both. The JMA will now
offer for free a one on one con
sultation with you on your ideas
and then help set up and design
what your company or organiza
tion needs. This includes per
sonal service from JMA
Secretary - Paul Poore, includes
if needed a Web Page design, and
also getting your very own web
domain. Other service we will be
offering is a 30 second to one
minute Youtube commercial that
will help get people into your
stores by showing them who and
what you are.
Please check out the follow
ing websites to get an idea of
what we can now do for our
JMA Members. The only fees
associated with this program will
be your Domain Name Registra
tion. You will have all access and
control over this and the fee is
waived for the first year of serv
ice and then a yearly fee, de
pending on your website, would
run between $35 to $70 a year.
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That's it!
If you are interested in using
this new program, you must be
current on your JMA dues and
you will need to set an appoint
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email us here at the JMA and let
us move towards a bigger and
better 2016 together.
The Ball Ground
Burger Bus
11:00 a.m. - 7:00 p.m. Monday - Saturday
12:00 Noon - 6:00 p.m. Sunday
Yes, the Burger Bus is open 7 days a week
Even on MONDAY
288 Gilmer Ferry Road
678-454-BGBB (2422)
96 Craig Street, Ellijay, GA - 276-2626