Local leaders focus on growth and workforce

The Perry Chamber’s Governmental Affairs Committee held the 15th annual State of the Community Luncheon Thursday afternoon at the Houston County Board of Education Annex building.

The event gave community leaders, partners and officials a chance to discuss topics relevant to the Houston County/Warner Robins/Perry area.

The panel included Robins Air Force Base Commander of the 78th Air Base Wing Colonel Brian Moore, Houston County School Board Superintendent Dr. Mark Scott, Houston County Board of Commissioners Chairman Tommy Stalnaker, city of Perry Mayor Randall Walker and Executive Director of Houston County Development Authority Angie Gheesling. Former state legislator, and longtime attorney Larry Walker served as moderator.

Superintendent Scott was first approached about the growth of the school district.

“This school year we surpassed 30,000 students to which the actual number of students in our district is 30,221. With that we grew 451 students this year, which is a small elementary school,” said Scott. “We have over four million square foot space across the district and we are very fortunate to have a great staff and community that supports public education.”

Scott shared that the new primary school that is being built on Thompson Mill Road is coming along as well as the new gymnasiums for Northside High and Warner Robins High Schools. He also shared that the district’s new CCRPI (college and career ready performance index) increased by 6.5 points and that the high school graduation rate for Houston County School System is now 87.9%,

“In 2014, the graduation rate was 76.8%,” Scott said. “Within four years that has increased by 11.1 points, which is speaks a lot of our teachers and staff. We are fully committed to the success of our students. Also in 2014 the gap between our African American students and white students in graduation rate was 15.3%. Today it is now 1.08% that’s a 93% elimination rate. All five of our high schools are above the state and national graduation rate. And again it all is accredited to our great teachers and staff who truly care for our students.”

Perry Mayor Walker was then asked about the growth that the city of Perry is experiencing.

“One of the questions I get is, ‘How do you protect Perry as Perry?’ I guess it comes down to the fact of what people see as Perry. I think most people’s minds go to downtown,” said Walker. “This mayor and council are totally committed to protecting and preserving all of our neighborhoods throughout. If you look at the city of Perry, it encompasses about 27 square miles now. We want to protect the uniqueness of every neighborhood. When you look at our downtown area, it’s important that we work with our Main Street board as well as our community development group to ensure we protect the sense of place that we have developed in that downtown area. We have become a destination where people can come and have a good time. But we’re really going to focus on quality growth. We want to bring value to our citizens of the city with sustainable growth that we can support in the long term.”

Gheesling addressed the growth in Houston County as a whole as well as shared impacts of existing industry expansions from this year.

“The Georgia Chamber conducted a study that showed in 2030 there will be 60 counties that will lose population, and that Houston is one of two gaining population,” Gheesling said. “That study showed our population will increase by 23% in 2030. With that our focus is having a qualified workforce, and our expansions from our existing industries can speak to that. This year’s expansions total $345 million, which added 335 jobs. There’s also a commitment from one of the companies to add an additional $80 million within the next three years as well as 250 more jobs. Couple that with Robins Air Force Base’s 1,200 in 12 hiring campaign, which they completed in 10 months, is true success.”

The question presented to Chairman Stalnaker revolved around the growth and tax digest in Houston County. “There is a tremendous amount of growth throughout this county in all three cities, and a county as a whole is continuing to grow. We are very fortunate in that. The current tax digest is $3.8 billion and it’s increasing about $100 million per year, which a lot of people don’t understand why it’s not $200 to $300 million per year. You have to consider the properties going down in Bonaire. You have an equalizer when you have growth. You have some properties that are climbing in value and it’s taking from away the new growth as well. We are growing one and a quarter percent growth on a digest annually. We’re very pleased with the growth we have because there are so many communities around us that don’t have the growth we have.”

Col. Moore has now been in the role as the 78th Air Base Wing and Installation Commander at Robins Air Force Base for a little over 100 days now. Moore said during the first 100 days he has been in assessment mode and meeting all the different mission partners on and off base.

“The base is you and you are the base,” Moore said. “We have 17,000 civilians and 6,000 military, to which majority of the civilians are from the community. My focus is to understand all interests and priorities and to be an integrator role. We are better together and my team and I have come up with an acronym as a part of our focus, PRIDE – People Readiness Innovation Drive Excellence. I look forward now to really get to work and continue to build upon these great partnerships that have already been established.”