CULTIVATING CAPACITY

• The Fanning Institute, with support from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the Georgia Environmental Protection Division, convened the third Georgia Brownfields Academy on Jekyll Island. More than 60 participants learned about redeveloping brownfield sites in their communities and visited the new Georgia Sea Turtle Center, a former brownfield site. Panel discussions included: US EPA officials, environmental consultants and successful grant recipients in Georgia talking about how to successfully apply for a federal grant; lenders, consultants, EPA officials, insurance and transactional experts discussing five projects currently in the state’s brownfield program; and the opportunity for Rome and Social Circle to practice ‘marketing’ their brownfield sites to a panel of experts and responding to questions. Mac Brown and Courtney Tobin, assisted by Jennifer Carter, led the Academy.

• Georgia Cities Foundation Peer to Peer Mentoring Bus Tour: Brenda Hayes represented Fanning on the Resource Team for the tour, which also included representatives from DCA, DNR, DOT, GDEC, the Georgia Downtown Association, the Georgia Trust for Historic Preservation, Georgia Power, OneGeorgia Authority, MEAG, and the USDA. Officials from the cities of Adel, Ashburn, Claxton, Fort Gaines, Hahira, Ocilla, Remerton, and Reynolds visited Albany, Bainbridge, Camilla, Colquitt, and Thomasville, gaining knowledge by viewing projects and learning about downtown development from their peers and the resource team.

EXPLORING ISSUES AND OPTIONS

• Communities of Opportunity Initiative: Meetings were held in four of the twelve counties as part of the pilot implementation of the state Communities of Opportunity Initiative. Leigh Askew, Matt Bishop, Jan Coyne, Deborah Gonzalez, Louise Hill, Dionne Rosser-Mims, and Courtney Tobin led the strategic process to help community leaders to identify specific community threats. These threats were then prioritized and discussed in light of possible interventions that could be implemented community-wide.

ENGAGING COMMUNITIES

• The Country Moose, a buffet and grill in Zebulon, is now open in a renovated building on the west side of the town square. This is the third business to open after the project of stabilizing the building was complete. The restaurant initially will employ six people and involves an investment of close to $400,000. Bill Russell has worked throughout this project. Bill has also worked on the downtown revitalization program in Vienna, which has led to the opening of two new antique stores, bringing the total number to seven and helping to reestablish Vienna’s antique niche.