Georgia County Government - March 2009 - (Page 8)

Focus on Southeast Georgia: Atkinson, Ware, Bacon and Coffee Counties ‘Citizen Leaders‘ Partner R Economic Diversity, High By Deborah Dewberry, Editor L ifelong firefighter Jimmy Brown, the soft-spoken, newly elected chairman of Ware County, has only just gotten used to being regarded as a local hero. Prior to his election to the Ware County Board of Commissioners, as county fire chief and a firefighter with 40 years’ experience, he earned the community’s steadfast trust commanding hundreds of firefighters – many dispatched here from distant parts of the country – in efforts to subdue the worst wildfires in Georgia’s history during the summer of 2007. But the commissioner’s firefighting days are over. Brown hopes to never again witness the devastation he saw during the protracted struggle to quell wind-driven blazes that destroyed more than 569,000 acres, damaging farms, commercial timberlands and personal property, and threatening the Okefenokee Wildlife Refuge and its unique ecosystem. (See Okefenokee sidebar.) While it’s not every day you hear about a lifelong fi refighter stepping into the shoes of county commission chairman, Brown is typical of leaders in Southeast Georgia in this respect – here as in most rural regions, elected officials are lifelong residents of their communities, serving local governments in the place they grew up, living among and answering to a public they know well. There’s an unspoken value attached to the familiarity of having lived in the community one is elected to serve, making the stake rural leaders have in local progress very personal. Perhaps because of this, the quality of life is staunchly defended, the pace allows for more deliberate inter-jurisdictional planning, and “citizen leaders” are often pledged to promote progress in as many ways as possible. If for no other reason, the futures of their own families, friends and neighbors depend on it. There’s the same high “pride of ownership” factor evident in local government leaders throughout Georgia’s rural jurisdictions. Pointing this out, everyone The Willacoochee Library, a ‘personal project’ of RDC Executive Director Lace Futch in years past, is perhaps the only public library anywhere located in a Victorian-era depot building. (Backdrop) The Phoenix Hotel building in Waycross was completely renovated in 2005 and today houses the Jones Company and several retail stores. 8 GEORGIA COUNTY GOVERNMEN GEORGIA COUNTY GOVERNMENT GEORGIA O N GOVERNMENT ORGI O N

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Georgia County Government - March 2009

Georgia County Government - March 2009 Contents President’s Message County Matters Focus on Southeast Georgia The Georgia Public Service Commission Jerry R. Griffin MPA Scholarship Recipients Named Extension News Research Corner Staff News County Parade Index of Advertisers

Georgia County Government - March 2009

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