The Baxley News-Banner

By Jamie Gardner

The Appling County Commissioners met on Tuesday, September 5 for a regular monthly meeting. During the meeting County Manager Lee Lewis reported that he and County Road Project Manager Hayden Rozier had met with the contractor and engineer on the Lake Tara (Dunns Lake) dam project to see if there were ways to value engineer the project. Lewis reported that even after finding a $100,000.00 in savings on the project, the projected cost is still roughly $1.7 million.
The manager stated that he thought about possibly rebidding the project out. However, he stated that the county would probably not find a contractor to do the project due to state Safe Dam Regulations. Lewis also stated that the few contractors that do this type of work were all above Macon.
The commissioners gave Lewis permission to proceed with the project. The project is estimated to begin in the fall and should take approximately nine months to complete...

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By: Jamie Gardner

To get a look at the future, let’s first consider some of our history. At a May meeting of the Georgia House of Representatives Rural Development Council, held in Tifton, Matt Hauer, with UGA’s Carl Vinson Institute, reported that Georgia has doubled in population over the last 40 years. One area that contributed to this increase is migration from other states. However, a total of 37 rural counties in Georgia had larger populations in 1920 than they did in 2010. Eleven counties had larger populations in 1860 than they did in 2010. Seventy-eight counties have lost population since 2010 and 99 counties have more people moving out of them than moving in. So where are all these people going in Georgia? Plainly speaking…metro areas.
Here is another tidbit Hauer offered at the meeting. By the year 2030 rural Georgia will have a -1 percent growth in ages from 0-19, a -1 percent growth in ages 20-64, and 60 percent growth in ages 65 and older.
Why are people locating to urban/metro areas in our state? In most situations you only need to follow the money to find the answer and of course jobs or better opportunities are probably the best answers to that question.
So how do we turn this tide around? How do we get industry to look at us? Unfortunately, many believe there is not a simple answer to that question.
In my opinion, rural Georgia must have a change in attitude if we ever want to buck the trend. To paraphrase some of Hauer’s valid points, do we have a strategy to attack the problems? Are we focused? Do we understand the problems facing our area? And finally, do we have the commitment to find resolution to these problems? We should also probably understand that change will not come quick or easy. Some of the problems he identified focused on education, workforce and leadership issues.
Last week I spoke to Kevin Williams of Williams Dairy Trucking here in Baxley. I knew Kevin has been struggling to find qualified truck drivers for his company. The company is offering all types of incentives to try to get drivers to sign on with them and the pay and benefits Kevin outlined are incredible. I’ll just say that it is very good compensation for this part of the state.
During the discussion I asked Kevin if he had talked with the local technical college about any type of partnership with the school’s truck driving program. Kevin stated that he has, but no partnership has been established at this point.
Williams is not alone in trying to find drivers. I have another friend that works for a large trucking company, also in a rural setting, and his job is specifically recruiting and retaining drivers for the company. Again, the company offers excellent pay and benefits, yet they struggle to find people willing to work.



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