“I do think certainly we’re moving on the right path.”

At its monthly meeting on September 7th, the Jasper City Council moved forward with its new water tank project. The tank will be located on Allred Mill Road. The project includes a new water line beginning 2.42 miles or 12,790 feet from Rocco’s Pub and extending to the Hwy 108 intersection north along 515. According to Finance Director Tacie Williams, $100,000 was initially budgeted in the capital budget for the water line this year. However, Williams said that the city can get funding for the line from the state through the Georgia Environmental Funding Authority (GEFA). The GEFA funding will be in the form of a low interest loan, she said, with a rate of 3.81 percent.

“There’ll come a time,” Williams warned, “ when GEFA won’t be available and so I think the city is best served by taking these low interest loans that could very well disappear in a few years.”

Water Superintendent David Hall estimated the project would take between six and eight months to complete. Mayor John Weaver said that, if the plan runs smoothly, the project will begin in late March or early April. Proceeding with the project, the council resolved to continue taking bids from contractors, submitting a request for additional funds from GEFA and consulting with engineers on the project. The council’s resolution conformed that this information will be gathered and presented at the next city council meeting. Hall said that the new system will benefit homes near the Hwy 108 intersection, taking pressure off the current system.

Later in the meeting, Community Economic Development Director Gerry Nechvatal presented the latest Economic Development Report. Before giving his official report to the council, though, Nechvatal preempted his talk by announcing that he would get on his soapbox. As such, he lamented the excessive regulations on businesses. He said that these regulations start at the national level and trickle down, ultimately affecting local communities.

“There was some talk,” he said, “about tightening up the regulations on power generation. Here in the South we’re very reliant on coal-fire plants for electricity and one of the selling points we’ve had is the low cost of electricity that we can offer industry. And if they go away, both in terms of cost, as well as perhaps reliability, that further handicaps our ability (to draw industry into the region).”

After apologizing for this preface, Nechvatal then discussed a Competitive Initiative Meeting sponsored by the governor that he recently attended. The idea of the meeting was to get people together from the community to talk about ways Georgia can be more economically competitive. The two overarching ideas that came of the meeting were tourism and entertainment. According to Nechvatal’s report, Pickens appears to be moving forward in both areas.

“We’ve got a small company doing a production here in Pickens County,”

he told the council. The production company is a film company called Lugosi Films. Nechvatal said that Lugosi has already done some work at Piggly Wiggly and that he is helping the company to find new locations in Pickens for its production.

He also said that the county is looking to strengthen the tourism industry in Pickens.

“I’m also pursuing a grant from the state of Georgia, a tourism grant,”

he said. In a recent correspondence with FYN, Nechvatal noted that the grant application will be for $5000, which requires a $5000 local match, for a total of $10,000. If approved, the money will be used for

“an in-depth study that will take a tourism venue concept to an actionable plan.”

Despite all of the regulatory obstacles, Nechvatal felt confident that the county is moving in the right direction economically.

“Certainly, you can see some of the hurtles that stand in our way, from a regulatory standpoint that makes it difficult in trying to bring in new industry,” Nechvatal said, but added, “I do think certainly we’re moving on the right path.”