Jackson provides economic development status report

Published 8:00 am Saturday, February 18, 2023

There are several economic development positives at the moment in Milledgeville and Baldwin County.

And no one knows that any better than Jonathan Jackson, executive director of The Development Authority of Milledgeville-Baldwin County.

“The Development Authority right now is undergoing a very intensive program that’s going to be two years long,” Jackson said. “It’s called Propel and it’s sponsored by the University of Georgia.”

He said officials with the program approached local development authority officials and told them they wanted to include Milledgeville and Baldwin County in the program.

“They tackle smaller communities, normally,” Jackson said. “We’re the largest community that’s part of this second class to this program.”

Propel is a different from most strategic comprehensive plans because it comes with coaching, Jackson said.

“It comes with implementation and it comes with someone to help us guide all of our local stakeholders through the local process of implementing these plans,” Jackson told the mayor and members of Milledgeville City Council at a work session Tuesday.

There have been two meetings thus far.

The first such meeting was a kickoff where local officials got to meet and work closely with economic development officials from Burke and Ben Hill counties, Jackson said. The meeting was held at Central Georgia Technical College in Milledgeville.

“We were the three Bs,” Jackson said.

He said the core group, which will be counted on heavily, includes heavy lifters.

“They are going to be people who are going out and engaging with people to help gather public input,” Jackson said. “The second committee is the steering committee. It’s a larger group, and there are about 30 people on it.”

Jackson said locally, officials will be coming out of the gate and embarking on some heavy issues.

He explained that some of those issues have yet to be identified.

“It’s a living and moving organization, and a living and moving group,” Jackson said. “The committee will probably change somewhat over the course of two years with new people coming in.”

Local officials are hoping to abolish some of the existing roadblocks standing in the way of economic development.

“Things like having consistent policies in both government entities that we deal with,” Jackson said. “Things like having, for example, where we have zoning in the city, but we don’t have it in the county.”

He said no one is attempting to implement it but instead trying to start a conversation.

“That’s what this does; it facilitates that,” Jackson said.

He said the group is working on identifying infrastructure and other basic economic development issues.

“This is a very good program because we have help in getting (things) implemented,” Jackson said. “It’s not just going to be a piece of paper and stuck in a binder. This is going to be something that is hopefully guide us on our path.”