Author: Randy Southerland

White County: Brightening Prospects

  Located in the northeast corner of Georgia, White County is a study in contrasts. There are lush forests and majestic mountain vistas that call out to lovers of nature and beauty. Some visitors are charmed by Cleveland’s small-town square…

Rabun County: Changing The Game

  Rabun County sits serenely in the northeast corner of Georgia. This land of lush forests, placid lakes and breathtaking mountains is the kind of place where people come to be charmed by the natural wonder.  Yet all the outdoor…

Macon/Bibb County: Forward Progress

Macon and Bibb County, sitting at the intersection of two interstate highways, have long claimed to be the economic heart of the “other Georgia” – that largely rural expanse lying south of Atlanta. The community has also endured a bruising…

Cobb County: Closing The Gap

  As the Great Recession refuses to relax its grip on the national economy, the distance between winners and losers has grown. Nowhere is that gap more apparent than in Cobb County. Long a bastion of economic stability, this diverse…

North Fulton: Magnet For Business

  Wealth in North Fulton is represented by more than rows of palatial executive homes and luxury cars that ply the roadways. The region brings assets to the table that are proving increasingly attractive to companies and new businesses –…

Augusta/Richmond County: Powerful Engines

These days, Augusta’s economy is being driven by three powerful high-tech engines – healthcare, nuclear energy and the military. There is the rapidly growing Georgia Health Sciences University with its $112-million College of Dental Medicine building – one of the…

Effingham County: Powering The Future

Rising up along a rural expanse of Georgia Highway 21 between Springfield and Rincon is a sprawling complex of high-ceilinged buildings. Tall metal exteriors are draped in large poster-like images of industrial scenes and, for Effingham County, a now familiar…

Walker County: Prime Location

For many years, it was the land bypassed by the interstates. It was over there somewhere on the drive up the never-ending expanse of I-75. No more. Walker County is fast becoming a destination for both history-seeking tourists and, in-creasingly,…

Jefferson County: Back In The Game

Folks in Jefferson County have gotten used to bad news over the years. With an unemployment rate hovering around 14 percent, this rural East Georgia region has been battered by a series of plant closures and layoffs. Since the 1990s,…

Dodge County: Ready To Fly

On a crisp winter day, Heart of Georgia Regional Airport in Eastman is a hive of activity. Groups of young men and women gather around planes and move between hangers. Aircraft of all kinds line the expansive 6,600-foot runway, at…

Rome/Floyd County: An Early Harvest

They’re calling it Rome’s summer of 42 million – that’s dollars of new business expansions that have unfolded in recent months. “That’s a pretty good investment in this economy during a recession summer,” declares Heather Seckman, director of economic development…

Liberty County: Making Adjustments

Sometimes it’s your best friend who can hurt you the most. At least that’s the way Hinesville and Liberty County were feeling about the sprawling 280,000-acre Fort Stewart, home to the 3rd Infantry Division and more than 22,000 soldiers and…

Emphasis On The Practical

In two decades as a Savannah resident, Linda Bleicken never saw Armstrong Atlantic State University (AASU) in her future. As a professor and provost at the much larger Georgia Southern University in Statesboro, she was happy where she was and…

Barrow County: Fortunate Location

A few years ago the folks in Barrow County were seeing nothing but growth coming at them, as the next stop on Metro Atlanta’s fast-moving expansion. Homebuilders were working overtime and companies were following their employees in search of better…

Cobb County: Forward Progress

The great recession of 2009 may have laid low communities across Georgia, but not Cobb County. While this north metro county has seen job losses and business closures, it also has companies that are still expanding and public works projects…

Perimeter Area: On The Move

The road fronting Perimeter Mall is filled with traffic as throngs of pedestrians make the trek across the multilane street to dining and shopping. This intersection is a good indication of the change that has come to the busy Perimeter…

A New Mission

A few years ago if you asked Brunswick residents about the local college you’d likely get blank stares. They might have a vague idea there was a community college (or was it a trade school?) on Altama Avenue, but few…

Savannah: Going Greener

People in Savannah take their Irish seriously and green is always in style, whether it’s clothing or beer. A different kind of green was very much on the minds of the 100 or so mostly young folks who crowded into…

Bryan County: Banking On A Good Location

When it comes to attracting business and industry, Bryan County is taking a page from real estate. “It’s all about location, location, location,” declares County Commission Chairman Jimmy Burnsed. The county clearly is in the right place at the right…

Cobb County: Poised For Growth

In Cobb County, local leaders and developers are talking about what might have been, if not for the economic crisis that produced a nationwide collapse in the housing market. From the Cumberland Galleria in the south, to Marietta and even…

Rome/Floyd County: Back To It’s Roots

If you want to understand why Rome, Georgia, has become home to so many industries, look no further than the boardroom of Coosa Valley Technical College. On one wall a framed plaque commemorates four major manufacturers that the school helped…

Hart County: Town And Country

Even when you’re tucked away in the scenic hill country of Northeast Georgia amid verdant forests and crystal clear waters, you can’t ignore the rest of the world. Hart County has learned that lesson the hard way over the past…

Liberty County: A Healthy Mix

You’ll have to forgive the people of Liberty County for thinking they’re in the right place at the right time. When much of the rest of the nation is faced with the prospect of a slowing economy and a tumbling…

Columbus: Seismic Shift

From its vantage point on the Alabama border, Columbus sits on what some say is about to become one of the hottest spots in the state. It’s been a long time coming, but a flood of jobs, residents, and assorted…

Fannin County: A Brand New Economy

The shifting fortunes of North Georgia’s Fannin County are reflected in the narrow main street that cuts through the thriving town of Blue Ridge. Cars line both sides of the thoroughfare, with many bearing out of county and out-of-state license…

Macon/Bibb County: Changes Afoot

A few months ago, Macon City Councilman Richard Hutto spent a day driving around with a couple of Florida developers. The pair was looking at the area around the city’s Centreplex convention center for a new housing development site. The…

Franklin County: Fishing For Business

When banker Bruce Knighton looks south from Lavonia, he sees change coming up Interstate 85. In counties to the south, subdivisions and big box stores are spreading, changing what was once rural and isolated into something entirely new and different.…