GILLSVILLE — Economic growth is a great thing, but it also has its challenges. That's what Hall County's municipal leaders learned at their quarterly Joint Municipal Association (JMA) meeting Monday night.
Greater Hall Chamber of Commerce executives, Tim Evans, the Vice President of Economic Development, and Shelley Davis, the Vice President for Existing Industry, addressed the group of elected officials, telling them that growth has returned to the county.
Evans pointed to the 1.2 million square-feet of commercial and industrial construction underway in the county, specifically mentioning the new Kubota plant in the Gateway Industrial Center and the new Northlake Square shopping center on Dawsonville Highway that will house Academy Sports, Hobby Lobby and Chipotle, among others.
"In previous years, we've had a lot of jobs, a lot of investment, but we haven't always had that level of growth," said Evans. "Those [projects] are creating jobs on the front end with construction, but in the long term...that's about 1,400 new jobs."
While some of the growth is coming from new business, most has been generated by existing industry in the county. Davis said the greatest challenge for existing industry is finding qualified workers to fill the jobs that are being created.
"We did a survey of all of our industries and they all said 'we have an aging workforce' - that's not a surprise," said Davis. "In fact, one of them said 'we're having 20-percent of our work force retire in the next five years.'"
Davis said the Chamber has been working closely with both the Hall County and Gainesville City school systems on a work-based learning program. She said they are specifically working to generate interest in the manufacturing sector, since 26-percent of Hall County's labor force works in manufacturing; they want to make sure those jobs can remain filled in the future.
City officials from Clermont, Flowery Branch, Gainesville, Gillsville, Lula and Oakwood attended Monday's meeting at the Gillsville Community Center.
The next JMA meeting will be held October 26 in Clermont.
