Perry Chamber’s 16th Annual State of the Community Luncheon

The 16th Annual State of the Community Luncheon was held in the Houston County Board of Education Annex on Thursday afternoon. This yearly gathering typically draws about 175 attendees, according to Perry Chamber President Ellen Palmer. Due to ongoing restrictions set in place to decrease the spread of COVID-19, the 2020 assembly had to be scaled down.

“We did have to reduce our numbers by about half,” Palmer admitted, “but luckily, this space is pretty big. We have around 80 attendees that we could fit in while having everyone socially distance and be safe. Obviously, safety is very important to us, so we’re also encouraging masks.”

For those who were unable to obtain tickets as normal, the luncheon was recorded and also streamed through Facebook Live. Doing both would allow it to be watched in real time or to be viewed later for those who could not watch the live broadcasting.

This year’s panel included Perry Mayor Randall Walker, Houston County Board of Commissioners Chairman Tommy Stalnaker, Houston County Board of Education Superintendent Dr. Mark Scott, Houston County Development Authority Director Angie Gheesling and Colonel Brian Moore of Robins Air Force Base. The panel moderator was crowd favorite, Larry Walker.

The primary purpose of the annual luncheon is to keep citizens informed and updated about the goings on in key areas of the city of Perry and Houston County.

“It’s run through our Governmental Affairs Committee,” Palmer shared, “and the purpose of that committee is to make sure that we do have productive relationships and conversations and just that connection with our government leaders and our business communities.”

As a part of the nearly two-hour event, each member of the panel was presented with questions that would provide updates to the business community and business leaders. The answers to those questions gave attendees and online viewers the opportunity to hear a recap of the year as well as new initiatives coming up for next year.

In a question posed to Mayor Randall Walker regarding how the city of Perry planned to address future growth, Walker responded with, “Perry has had managed growth for the past 20 years. The population in 2000 was about 9,500. We’re at about 20,000 now; so over about 20 years, we’ve gained about 10,000 people.” The mayor went on to say, “Perry is the seventh fastest growing city in the state and the 110th fastest growing city in the nation. We’re going to see about 35,000 people [move] here over the next 10 years.”

Details shared by Walker revealed that most of that growth is going to be in an area referred to as the East Perry Utility District. Plans for the construction of a new sewer main system through there with a wastewater treatment plant are going on now to accommodate those houses out there. The mayor stated that they are working with the county to look at building thoroughfares throughout the city of Perry to accommodate the demand.

“Something we just finished last week is our new water treatment plant,” Walker further shared. “We just brought on a two-million-gallon water treatment plant at Tucker Road and that’s going to serve multiple generations in that new developed area. We’re very excited about this growth, and we think we’re well positioned to serve those new 11,000 homes that will be built out there.”

Colonel Brian Moore was asked to address Robins Air Force Base’s economic impact information and its effects on middle Georgia.

“When you have 24,000 people—17,000 Georgians—coming in and out of the base with 6,000 military uniforms, many who are Georgians as well; being able to come to a community that’s familiar with huge opportunities focused on airmen is just fantastic,” Moore started out saying. “On the economic impact front, it’s a partnership with the community and the region. It’s true that the base has a payroll of $1.5 billion,” he continued, “but in a $3.38 billion economic development impact over a year, you can see the partnerships in terms of workforce that that happens. So, $225 million worth of contracts to Houston County alone last year with about $600 million worth of contracts to Georgia, specifically. And when you think of all the other contracts and companies and the ability to partner with your businesses—the kind of stability that brings to the region and the kind of stability it brings for our airmen and their families—this is a huge integration effort.”

In a portion of what Chairman Stalnaker shared, he talked about the status of the capital projects Houston County is currently engaged in, particularly the state court and government building.

“The new courthouse or the state court has been in progress for a long time. We plan on breaking ground on December 17,” Stalnaker disclosed. “It will be a 45,000-square foot building. It will be a two-story building [that] will have two courtrooms and all the support staff will be in the floor level of that building. We’re anxiously ready to get started on that one. You’ll see ground broken shortly after December 17 and that building will be occupied, hopefully, by mid-year 2022. One of the things that’s amazing to building it is it’s a tunnel underground that will connect the building to the superior court building.”

Stalnaker also shared information regarding the construction of a new government building on Kings Chapel Road. “It’s a 20,000-square foot building and about $3.6 million. Those of you who have gone to the old courthouse to vote, you’ll have a different environment in voting, because there will be a huge multi-purpose room. There will be plenty of room to set up voting machines to go in there and vote. We’re looking forward to both of those projects.”

When Angie Gheesling spoke on the matter of the number one challenge on industry today, and how is the authority responding, she immediately began addressing COVID-19, but said that industry in Houston County had fared well.

“I’m very proud for how they have responded and protected their employees,” Gheesling complimented. “Believe it or not, they have continued to hire through this, and they are still hiring by large numbers. So that has not slowed us down as much as just thinking about the overall idea of recruiting in and retaining a quality workforce. That’s not so much an issue in Houston County, but we have to keep in mind that we’re in a regional employment hub, and we have to look to the other counties around us—who, by the way, are predicted to lose population in the next 10 years.”

Gheesling mentioned that in those next 10 years, Houston would be the only county that’s gaining population. Houston County is predicted to be number 10 in population by 2030. Gheesling said the county has to look out to these other communities and help to bring them along the way with cultivating a quality workforce to respond as well.

Rounding out the panel was Dr. Mark Scott, who, in one of his responses, spoke on how the pandemic the pandemic affected enrollment, academic performance, employee recruitment and retention, and the number of students attending school face-to-face.

“Enrollment has been an issue for all districts across the state of Georgia,” Scott acknowledged. “We have seen a dip in enrollment here in Houston County. We’re just under 30,000 students, and I reported last year that we had gone over 30,000. So, we did see about a 500-student drop. We started school this year with approximately 70% of our students in face-to-face instruction and 30% choosing digital learning. We’re now at a 75/25 split. November 12 through November 19 we have open enrollment, and it’s the last opportunity to come back face-to-face or change your learning option. We feel like a lot of our students will return to the classroom.”

Scott expressed some concern about whether the lower numbers would affect school funding, also sharing that the pandemic has caused some issues with employees. Finding substitute teachers and bus drivers is an area of struggle, but Scott was thankful that they were fully staffed with certified employees, which, he noted, was a plus.

Many of the county’s newly elected or re-elected officials attended this year’s luncheon, and the event was sponsored by AT&T, Parrish Construction Group and Synovus.

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