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PAGE 6A - THE COMMERCE (GA) NEWS, WEDNESDAY. MARCH 12. 2008
Jackson County Chamber Breakfast
Gwinnett Landed Richmond Braves
Because VA Politicians Struck Out
Gwinnett County would never
have gotten the Atlanta Braves
AAA minor league team had
Richmond, VA, officials not
dropped the ball.
Nick Masino, vice president
of economic development for
the Gwinnett County Chamber
of Commerce, traced the
events leading to the acquisi
tion by Gwinnett County of the
Richmond Braves. He was the
guest speaker Wednesday, March
5, at the Jackson County Area
Chamber of Commerce’s month
ly breakfast.
In reality, said Masino, landing
a minor league baseball team
was but one “bullet item" in
“Partnership Gwinnett," a five-
year development plan aimed at
bringing investment and improv
ing the overall quality of life in
Gwinnett.
The baseball team was listed
under the third of four goals in
Partnership Gwinnett, the goal of
“strengthening arts, cultural and
recreational assets."
In fact, Masino suggested great
er announcements may be forth
coming.
“In terms of recreational assets,
there are some big things, argu
ably bigger, that we are working
on now," he said.
Finding A Team
In reality, Gwinnett County
never expected to land a Braves’
affiliate, having been told by the
Braves, Masino said, that they
would not allow a competing
affiliate in the area. Under Major
League Baseball rules, the Braves
can limit any affiliate from locat
ing within 50 miles.
And the process began two
years ago, when Gwinnett offi
cials began their “partnership"
program and set four goals, each
with a lot of sub-goals.
“You all heard an announce
ment in January that the Braves
had made a commitment to
move the Richmond Braves to
Gwinnett," Masino said. “That
didn’t happen in December. It
Nick Masino, vice president for economic development of the
Gwinnett County Chamber of Commerce, regaled members of
the Jackson County Area Chamber of Commerce with the story
of how Gwinnett County landed the Richmond Braves baseball
team.
was a two-year process."
The first step in that process
was the hiring of a national
sports consultant, who surveyed
the attitudes of sports fans on
Major League (Braves) baseball
and about a minor league team.
Encouraged by those numbers,
they began negotiating in 2007
with three independent teams,
since the Braves “had made it
very clear they would not allow
another affiliate team in the
area."
Part of the process was to
take a 60-member team to Dr.
Pepper Ballpark in Frisco, Texas,
home of the Texas Rangers’ AA
affiliate, the Frisco Roughriders.
There, said Masino, they learned
that local attendance at Rangers
games actually increased due to
the presence of the Roughriders.
As late as the third quarter
of 2007, Gwinnett was negoti
ating with three development
groups aligned with independent
leagues.
Then, they got lucky.
“Some other people messed
something up and we benefited
from it," Masino explained. “The
politicians in Richmond failed
again and again and again to
commit to build them a new
stadium. Well, they (the Braves)
knew we were going to build a
new stadium ... We were moving
forward and they contacted us.
So, Richmond could simply not
to commit to it. It was a political
hot potato."
Negotiations between Gwinnett
and the Braves took place in
December and January, with the
result that the Gwinnett Board of
Commissioners and the Gwinnett
Convention and Visitors Bureau
entered an agreement. They
bought about 10 acres right off
Georgia 20, across from the Mall
of Georgia, and signed a 15-year
lease with an automatic 15-year
extension.
The economic impact from the
ballpark is estimated at $15 mil
lion a year in sales taxes and
200 new jobs creating $6.5 mil
lion in payroll annually. It will
seat 7,000 to 7,500 fans, Masino
said.
“The development will have
entertainment around it," Masino
added. “When the game is over,
there will be other things to do."
And, of course, it will be locat
ed in a prime retail area.
An audience member asked
Masino how the team managed
to get public support for the
project, including the bonds for
the stadium.
“Literally, you make sure you
cover all your bases," he said,
making use of a baseball meta
phor. “You get all of the lead
ers involved and engaged. The
second thing, you have to have
a need, which I like to call pain.
When you have pain, you do
something about it."
He also put a chamber spin on
traffic congestion at the Georgia
20 exit in response to a question
about the ballpark’s effect on an
already congested area.
“We’re really excited about that
opportunity," he said. “We now
get to call all of that congestion
'event traffic.”'
Speaking seriously, he said that
traffic engineers are at work on
the issue.
“Congestion is an issue," he
added. “When you’re success
ful, you have congestion. There’s
nothing you can do about it."
Water Authority
Cool To Oconee
Offer To Buy Water
Jackson County officials plan
to “move slowly" on a request to
sell water to Oconee County.
Through the board of com
missioners, Oconee County has
offered to buy up to 1 million
gallons of Jackson County’s
raw Bear Creek Reservoir water
daily (mgd). BOC Chairman Pat
Bell and the county water and
sewerage authority discussed
the offer at the authority’s
March 6 work session.
The offer is to pay Jackson
County $1.60 per 1,000 gallons
over the authority’s cost, which
would work out to a $48,000
profit each month — assuming
Oconee bought the full 1 mgd.
Because the county is already
involved in a dispute over
Oconee allegedly using Jackson
County water — with neither
permission nor payment — local
officials are cautious about the
new offer.
'They use an extremely com
plicated cost methodology,"
member Alex Bryan pointed
out. “It’s going to be difficult for
me to reach a comfort level."
Authority Chairman Hunter
Bicknell wants a “demand
charge" so that Oconee would
pay Jackson whether it uses the
water or not. Bryan prefers that
the agreement be couched as a
“lease" of treatment capacity in
the Bear Creek treatment plant
rather than a sale of water, rec
ognition that Oconee’s shortfall
is not in water, but in the ability
to treat sufficient amounts of
water.
A committee from the author
ity is challenging the manner
by which the Upper Oconee
River Water Authority allocates
costs for water. The authority
believes that methodology is
unfair and results in Jackson
paying substantially more per
gallon for water than the other
participants in the reservoir and
treatment plant.
“It’s going to be hard for me to
address this until we deal with
some of these other issues,"
Bryan told the authority.
Bell expressed concern that
Oconee might turn around and
re-sell the Jackson County water
to Walton County.
Drought Concerns
As usual, response to the
ongoing drought was a topic at
the work session.
The authority is trying to make
sense of often-competing direc
tives from Gov. Sonny Perdue
or the EPD, not to mention
pending legislation before the
General Assembly.
Perdue announced that water
providers can lessen the restric
tions on outdoor uses of water,
one of which is an unenforce
able 25-minute hand-watering
of landscapes on an odd-even
schedule from midnight to 10
a.m.
But the EPD has summoned
area water providers to a March
25 meeting in Braselton, where
they will be required to demon
strate to the EPD that the 10 per
cent reductions in water usage
ordered by the governor will be
sufficient to protect local water
supplies through 2009 under
worst-case drought scenarios.
The implied suggestion is that
the EPD could order more strin
gent reductions for some sup
pliers.
Back To Level 3?
When it meets Thursday
night, the authority is expected
to vote in support of a move by
the Upper Oconee River Basin
Water Authority to move back
to level 3 restrictions, which
would allow weekly watering
of yards.
With $1.6 Million Grant In Hand,
Airport Is Ready To Extend The Runway
With a $1.6 million AirGeorgia
grant in hand and a funding com
mitment from the county, work is
expected to begin the first week in
April on lengthening the runway
at the Jackson County Airport.
Local officials went to
Hawkinsville last week to sign
the contract, which allocates the
money to the Georgia Department
of Transportation, which will dis
burse it to the Jackson County
Airport Authority. The grant
was approved the last week in
February.
AirGeorgia is a program estab
lished by Gov. Sonny Perdue and
is funded by state revenue from
the federal tobacco suit settle
ment.
The project would extend the
runway 900 feet to 5,001 feet,
long enough for small corporate
jets to use the facility, explains
Bob Stapleton, airport manager.
The low bid for the work is
$2.7 million, and the project is
expected to take about a year.
A half million cubic yards of dirt
must be brought in to create the
expansion, which takes the run
way across a gully.
“The first week of April we should
be moving dirt," Stapleton said.
The contractor is Ace Grading,
Dawsonville, but Stapleton said
Ace will use local contractors to
move and haul the dirt for the
project.
“A good bit of those funds, with
all likelihood, will stay in Jackson
County," he predicted.
In addition to the $2.7 million
contract, the project will require
approximately another $300,000
for engineering, environmental
work, design and administration,
Stapleton said. Other sources of
revenue include over $ 1 million in
Federal Aviation Administration
money put aside for the project
over several years, and approxi
mately $385,000 from a previous
project.
HONOR A LOVED ONE
With A Commerce Library Brick
The Commerce Public Library is selling bricks to be engraved
in honor of or in memory of your loved ones. The cost is $50. The
bricks will be used in the upcoming library expansion, and the
proceeds will help pay for the expansion.
Printing on the brick is limited to three lines of 13 spaces each
(including letters, punctuation and spaces).
Call 706-335-5946
y/on /r STnuited £7o ?77te...
19 th Annual Easter Parade and Egg Hunt
“A True Commerce Tradition 99
Sat., March 22
10:45 a.m. Kids’ Easter Parade
(For kids ages 12 and under) begins in the parking
lot of Community Bank & Trust and ends at the
First Baptist Church. Walk and carry an Easter
basket or enter the contests:
• Best Decorated Bike • Best Decorated Wagon
• Best Decorated Battery-Operated Car
(Kids must be accompanied by an adult. No gasoline-
operated vehicles. Those entering the contest must be
at the CB&T parking lot by 9:45 a.m.)
11:00 a.m. Easter Egg Hunt
at the First Baptist Church with the Easter
Bunny!! More than 20,000 candy eggs and special
prize eggs. Come and have fun!!
In ease of rain, this event will be canceled.
Sponsored By Your Friends At
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VJl>i
Community
Bank&Trust
Commerce Area Business Association and
Commerce Downtown Development Authority