Georgia County Government - October 2008 - (Page 119) C CAPCorner Walter F. Rosso, Cusseta-Chattahoochee County Commissioner Walter F. “Walt” Rosso enlisted in the U.S. Army in 1953 and attended Airborne and Ranger schools. He was commissioned as second lieutenant in 1962 and retired as major in 1975. Currently serving his first term in office for the Cusseta-Chattahoochee County Unified Government, Rosso was elected in 2007 but served previously too, as a county commissioner for Chattahoochee County. He is a former member of the ACCG Board of Managers. The retired U.S. Army officer is a veteran skydiver, who has 1,370 freefall jumps and approximately 200 military jumps. Commissioner Rosso has jumped in all 50 states and today, at 72, claims to have logged more miles in the air “than some people have on the road.” As of April 2006, he was the eighth person ever to have skydived in all 50 states. Economic Development is a Process By Walter F. Rosso, Commissioner, Cusseta-Chattahoochee County Unified Government he Georgia Academy for Economic Development was the Certif ied Commissioners Advanced Program (CCAP) course of most interest to me, for a number of reasons. The course broadened my understanding and appreciation for the community economic development process that would move Chattahoochee County from a “bedroom community” of Fort Benning and Columbus to a self-sustaining community made up of houses, businesses and industries. The course identified the key players involved in the process at the level of state government – the Georgia Department of Economic Development (GDEcD) – and at local levels, as well as those involved at the Association County Commissioners of Georgia (ACCG) and the University of Georgia. This course has also introduced me to the statewide resources available to our community, identified the community benchmarks and success measures necessary to measure our progress. Lastly, my understanding was enhanced as to the regional cooperation necessary to be successful. T Identify What People are Looking for When attempting to determine why Chattahoochee County, as well as the rest of southwest Georgia, fell short in attracting industrial and commercial developers to the area, it was necessary to find out what these people were looking for. The Georgia Power Resource Center provided me with information concerning what companies are looking for when relocating to Georgia: 1. A qualified work force; 2. Housing for employees; 3. Property large enough to accommodate their business; 4. Adequate water and sewer; 5. Buildings large enough to accommodate their business; and 6. Zoning With this information, an inventory of my county was made with the assistance of our local Regional Development Center (RDC), the Valley Partnership (a partnership of those located within the region who are committed to recruiting businesses to the area) and the Better Business Bureau. Cusseta-Chattahoochee County does not have sewage treatment, but does have a countywide water system. The unified government does not have an industrial park. Our workforce is limited, as the majority of people who are willing to work can find employment at Ft. Benning or in the Columbus area. Our jurisdiction does have zoning; therefore, we can control growth to some extent. A developer from Newnan is in the process of building a 1,200-unit subdivision, which could provide housing for our work force. This course encouraged me to use the information in all the handout material, in order to improve my effectiveness as a county commissioner, and it started a dialogue with the other commissioners, as well as other players in the county and state, to begin the planning process, in an effort to make our County attractive to developers. To date, I have employed the knowledge I gained from the course to improve the effectiveness of our local government in efforts to deal with the following projects: 1. A subdivision developer researched the possibility of constructing a sewage treatment facility, which would have ROSSO continued on page 120 OCTOBER 2008 www.accg.org 119 http://www.accg.org
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