Take Me To Post Comment Form As more than four dozen business, civic and political leaders from Effingham County left the shores of St. Simons Island and the stately The King and Prince resort, there was a sense of comity and purpose among the attendees of the Effingham Chamber of Commerce’s annual community retreat.
But all this momentum often can’t overcome the force of inertia. That makes incumbent upon those who took part in the retreat to emulate Sisyphus and keep pushing the rock, lest it roll back upon them.
In a day and a half, there were a lot of ideas explored, discussed and dissected. Yes, it’s a very nice place and the food, so they tell me, was very good (I wolfed down an Extra Value No. 2 at the McDonald’s about 10 miles from the house on my way down to the Golden Isles on Thursday night, then topped it off the next day with a mix of a Willie Burger and a fried pork chop sandwich at Willie’s Wee Nee Wagon.)
Aside from the updates from the county’s General Assembly delegation and five-minute presentations from each entity on building development in the county, there was a great deal of time spent on industrial development, commercial development and tourism and downtown developments and Main Street improvements. There was even a trip to St. Marys in Camden County for a look at the downtown there.
Friday morning, the retreatgoers were asked for their input. Among the ideas and priorities floated — along with assigning timelines and who should be responsible for carrying out those objectives — were:
• Lobby for regional transportation tax
• Educate voters on purpose and benefit and need for support of a sales tax
• Host an expo spotlighting local industry
• Ensure a Web presence that provides visibility to multiple organizations
• Support the IDA in recruitment efforts
• Help the IDA to inform the public of economic impacts of new industry
There were also ideas on how to help foster growth in the retail sector, including:
• Springfield downtown revitalization
• Community events to tie to retail
• Beautification of transportation corridors
• Make Ebenezer Landing a tourism draw with ties to retailers
In promoting Effingham to retail prospects, some of the goals discussed were developing a site database, identifying suitable prospects and establishing a retail task force that would put together an information package and assess retail needs.
There was also talk of how to increase tourism and tourists to the county. A cross country track at Blandford Elementary was among the targets. Also, promoting the community’s annual events, such as Old Effingham Days and the coming Oktoberfest, along with new happenings — the idea of bringing back the river raft race was floated — were given much thought.