Mayor Denson Appoints Economic Development Task Force

Athens has the Chamber of Commerce, the ACC Department of Human and Economic Development and the Economic Development Foundation. Adding to the mix, Mayor Nancy Denson has appointed the Mayor’s Economic Development Task Force, who has their first organizational meeting on Thursday.

“We’re not doing economic development as effective as we could be doing,” the Mayor said Friday morning. “I’m not sure what the missing piece is. We’ve missed out on a lot of things we should have gotten over the years.”

One of the things she wants the task force to do is to look at the structure of economic development in Athens. There are so many different groups that work on economic development--should they be combined, or should their roles just be clarified? Denson asked.

“I want us to define who does what, even if there’s no change to the existing groups,” she said. “Maybe we just need to have some kind of organized voice.”

The task force is to develop a strategic economic development plan for Athens, Denson said.

She wants them to conduct "a real thorough self-examination of our community to define what we want and what are we willing to support," she said. "What do we need to do to attract the kind of job creators we want here? Is what we want attainable? Do we have assets we’re not exploiting?

"I want Athens to get back in the economic development game," she said.

Task force members include :

Athens native attorney and former state representative Michael Thurmond, the former Georgia Commissioner of Labor;

Athens native Grant Tribble, chief financial officer of and a member of the EDF;

Katy Arrowood;, founder of ;

Businesswoman Maxine H. Burton, of the specialty gift company Burton + burton;

financial planner Bob Carson, Jr.;

 Lenn Chandler, regional manager of Georgia Power;

UGA accounting professor Mark C. Dawkins, PhD., the associate dean of the Terry College of Business;

real estate developer Dave S. Dwyer, almost director of the project;

 Wilmot Greene, owner of the ;

one-time commission candidate and insurance executive David Hamilton;

Robert “Bobby” Heath of ;

Thomas Hinson, owner of ;

Harris Lowery of .;

attorney Janice Mathis;

Athens native and attorney Mike Morris;

former Athens Banner Herald business editor Don Nelson, now the public relations director at ;

real estate developer Edward “Ed “Nichols;

John O’Hara, general manager of Noramco;

Carl Parks, a UGA graduate who recently retired to Athens from Washington, DC.;

Retired Athens native Alexander “Alex” Patterson;

retired businessman Lewis Shropshire, the former face of the Holiday Inn;

Tracey Stice, VP Finance and Operations at Aruna Biomedical, Inc.;

environmentalist, nurse and historic preservationist Madeline Van Dyck;

attorney Jim Warnes;

land developer and real estate maven Gerry Whitworth;

historic preservation expert, restorer and builder Smith Wilson;

and businesswoman and former nursing home administrator Betty Brown Williamson of Gardenview Funeral Chapel.

The task force will participate in a “visioning” process before giving a document to the Mayor and Commission in October of this year.

UGA’s Carl Vinson Institute of Government will coordinate the group's activities, through “facilitation of the task force and public input meetings,” according to an ACC press release. Dennis Epps and Catherine Bennett with the Vinson Institute will serve as the facilitators.

Denson said the task force has people who’ve “not been part of this discussion before.” it will meet monthly and then present its work at the September 11 work session meeting of the Mayor and Commission, who will vote on the plan in October.

The next meeting of the task force is Wednesday, February 15 from 8:30am. until 12:30pm. A public input meeting is scheduled for Wednesday, February 22, from 6:00 p.m. until 8:00 p.m. at a location to be determined.