Newspaper Page Text
WEDNESDAY, APRIL 20, 2016
THE COMMERCE NEWS • THE BANKS COUNTY NEWS
PAGE 11A
Kindergarteners Recognized
Banks County Primary School recently named its “Little Leopards” for
the month of April. The students were recognized for a combination of hard
work, attendance and a positive attitude. Shown are: (top row, L-R) Jayden
Powers, Kaide Edwards, Bethany Shockley, Hayden Moore, Dalton Tucker
and Brooks Stafford; and (bottom row, L-R) James Smith, Leonardo Pantoja,
Levi Dowis, Bella Pace, Kaleigh Giles and Easton McIntyre.
First graders named
These Banks County Primary School first graders were named “Little
Leopards” for April. Shown are: (top row) AdaRae Thomas, Lily Collins,
Meagan Patrick, Reagan Patrick, Charlie Powell and Andrew Mondragon;
and (bottom row) Mary Holbrooks, Shelby McDougald, Seven Chandler, Luka
Barret, Dorothy Ann Busenlehner and Joseph Hix. The students were recog
nized for a combination of hard work, attendance and a positive attitude.
Second graders named
These Banks County Primary School second graders were named “Little
Leopards” for April. Shown are: (top row) Kayla Pursley, Karson Porter,
Johnathan Moore, Presley Hobson and Logan Guess; and (bottom row)
Charlotte Pritchard, Alan Nix, Jesus Torres-Vazquez, Gaven Sears and Noah
Thomas.
Jackson County's top young authors
Students in the Jackson County School System recently competed in the
Young Georgia Authors Competition. Winners for the system are, left to right,
(front) Braylee Garrett, Sarah Rountree, Leila Huss, Yazmine Pittman, Georgia
Lance, (back) Madison Placencia, Addison White, Jaylie Mergele, Harley
Glass, and Kaj Siab Aaron Moua.
The school
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prior to
publication.
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IDA seeks model to
predict economic imapcts
The group responsible for
managing Jackson Coun
ty’s economic development
is searching for a new tool
to measure the economic
impact of proposed new
industries.
Jim Shaw, executive direc
tor of the Jackson County
Area Chamber of Com
merce and economic devel
opment director, told the
county’s industrial develop
ment authority last week that
he’s shopping for “econom
ic impact models,” comput
er programs that, when per
tinent data is plugged in, can
predict how a new industry
will affect the county. It could
predict the number of new
employees likely to reside in
Jackson County, the number
of students those employees
would add to local schools,
in addition to forecasting
spending growth and sales
and property tax income.
“There’s some models
out there that are extreme
ly complex and extremely
expensive, that I don’t think
we’ll need,” Shaw told the
authority. “I will likely be
back with a request or a pro
posal to help fund that.”
He cited one program as
costing $2,000 for the initial
license, plus $500 to load
all of the county’s econom
ic development data, then
an additional annual license
renewal fee. That license, he
said, would cover the county
and several municipalities,
and Shaw suggested that a
cost-sharing arrangement
will be part of the eventual
proposal.
“It would just be good
for us to have the ability to
measure a little deeper the
economic impact of any of
these projects coming in,”
Shaw said.
Chairman Scott Mar
tin pointed out that some
times when the county has
a potential project, not all
of the data needed by the
model is available.
“The models work great
if you’ve got enough of the
information up front to make
it useful,” he comment
ed. Martin asked Shaw to
estimate how many of the
projects Shaw has worked
on since he was hired in
January provided enough
information to utilize such a
model.
“Half, at least,” Shaw
replied.
“There are some vari
ations (on the models),”
Martin said. He warned that
using the models requires a
lot of “assumptions” to be
made and warned that every
new project is likely to be dif
ferent than a company’s pre
vious plants in other areas.
“You have to make a lot
of assumptions and be sure
you’re not kidding yourself,”
Martin said. “I guess if we
start to train ourselves on
the information we need to
make our model work, we
can start asking those specif
ic questions.”
“The big cost will be to
get our data up to date,”
commented Jackson Coun
ty Board of Commissioners
chairman Tom Crow. “The
initial cost will be minor
compared to getting our data
up to date.”
Activity Report
Shaw reported that most
of the recent interest in
Jackson County has been
focused on the IDI Gazeley
building located in the Jeffer
son Distribution Center.
“That building is in an
opportunity zone, which
makes it very attractive from
a tax credit standpoint,”
Shaw said. “More tax credits
accrue on that building than
on any other building.
The Jefferson Industrial
Development Authority has
primary responsibility for
dealing with projects there,
but Shaw said the chamber
has fielded inquiries from a
couple of potential projects.
“We had a feeler on the
Commerce 85 Business
Park,” he added. “Nothing
specific at this point, but
we would love to work it to
where we can get specific.”
Shaw said one project
looking at five sites in Jack-
son County opted to go to a
location outside the county.
“That community came up
with a significant amount of
cash to make that work,” he
said. “That’s pretty hard to
compete with.”
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