fyi – GA’s Energy Cities at Work

• Education Synergy for Georgia’s Economy – Griffin Region College and Career Academy, 2019’s Academy of the Year is a great example of how institutions bridge student life and work life.
• City of Camilla Gets Strategic with EDGE – Following completion of the EDGE workshops, the staff and city council were ready to build a five-year strategic plan.
• A Goliath Chooses ECG Cities Again and Again – SKC Inc., an-nounced an unprecedented venture on the original Covington footprint. With an investment of more than $473 million.

ECG cities are diverse; urban to rural, mid-size to small. The economic vitality of downtowns is a hallmark of ECG cities across the state. The communities get noticed far and wide.

• Thomaston was selected with five other cities across the nation for the first season of “Home Town Kick-start,” an HGTV makeover show. “Home Town” hosts Ben and Erin Napier along with People magazine will highlight the town and the revitalization efforts.
• Fitzgerald made Wall Street Journal news with its latest tourism endeavor. It is the world’s tallest topiary sculpture. The chicken sculpture uses at least 16 tons of steel and includes a B&B to rent to visitors on the ground level. It is a nod to the Burmese chicken that famously co-exist downtown. The next tallest topiary sculpture is a likeness of Mickey Mouse in Dubai.
• The Georgia Downtown Association honors great city initiatives annually. Two of the 12 were ECG cities. Historic preservation honored in LaGrange.

“At its best preservation engages the past in a conversation with the present over a mutual concern for the future.” – William Murtagh

It was a close call for the Creighton Davis Building. Leon Moody was hired to demolish the historic structure, yet he asked permission for his structural engineers to explore if the building could be saved. The engineers devised a plan to restore the building. Today, it is a boutique with the potential for loft living space on the second floor. The City of LaGrange completed a pocket park next to the building featuring outdoor dining and cell phone charging stations. LaGrange won the Adaptive Reuse Award, defined as the aesthetic process that adapts buildings for new uses while retaining their historic features.

Premier special event honored in Thomasville

The 100th Rose Show & Festival celebration re-imagined its historic parade experience. A new interactive experience replaced the traditional parade with larger-than-life historic photo displays dating back to the 1920s lining Broad Street. Fifteen hundred rose varieties were abloom for festival-goers.

All right. All right. All right. Matthew McConaughey followed up his 2020 autobiography Greenlights with his initiative Grit and Greenlights to honor risk and reward in small businesses. He chose four businesses across the US to feature. Fuzzy Goat, yarn shop owner, Cadence Kidwell, in Thomasville was one of the four businesses with whom he did a digital face-to-face interview. Google the results!