In today's T&G, JDA Executive Director David Keating reveals that early on in his tenure here, he was approached by an industry wanting to build a $100 million plant here. The problem was we did not have a shovel ready site for the 1 million-square-foot facitilty they needed to build.
David is now proposing that the JDA acquire an additional 325 acre site with I-95 frontage. The largest parcel left in the industrial park is just 30 acres.
As I've stated before, my opinion is that David is a straight shooting, competent, hard worker and the first JDA director we've had who actually earns his paycheck. Were I on the county commission, my inclination would be to work with him to see how we could accomplish this acquisition. SPLOST immediately comes to mind.
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Who owns the property that he wantst the County to acquire? That appears to be the real motivation. He needs to first produce SOMETHING in the form of jobs before we run off spending more money on what if....
Man, you people are the damnedest conspriacy nuts and class warriors.
Ibeleive the articvle mentioned a possible land swap with one of the Gross people - Bill, I think.
So what? If there is money to be made by the seller of the needed property, I would just as soon see someone in Camden make it.
So what if Gross profits a hundred thousand, but then some company builds a million square foot facility, hires several hundred people, and pumps a multi-million dollar payroll and scads of taxes into the community.
The questioin is whether or not we really need it and I beleive that we do.
Don't be penny wise and multi-ton foolish!
Why do elected officials have to play middleman or midwife to industrial/commercial development projects? How does this role fit into the free enterprise dogma of conservatives?
I have no objection to having public corporations engage in enterprise, but these public/private partnerships where the public pays the costs and the benefits flow into the private purse is a recipe for the transfer of the assets and resources of the many into the hands of the few.
For what purpose?
There is no evidence that self-interest is correlated with good business.
People have little faith that this County or the JDA can sell anything. The last thing the Commissioners and JDA built was the "White Elephant" building at the current so called "Industrial Park". It was pushed by one commissioner who had a friend out of Atlanta he wanted the county to borrow the money from. So they built the building and it took them, How many years? over 20, to move someone into that "White Elephant". So, when you hear about wanting to acquire land for another Industrial Park, you can't blame the people for asking the question, whos benefiting? It is almost always someone we would all expect. Someone related in some way to a Commissioner, maybe not blood relation but some kind of friend or favorite in some way. You can't really blame the people for the way they think about happenings in the County. They have been well taught over the years, expecially the ones who have lived here all their lives, or the ones like me who were transplanted here 30 years ago. Politics in Camden are like nothing I have ever seen before I moved here. It is certainly unique.
Regrading the latest Hannahism:
Whereas you, nbeing a card-carrying, lib re-distributionist, would rather see governement concentrate its resources and efforts on scheme to transfer the hard-earned wealth of the prodctive few into the hands of the non-productive, parasitic many.
I'm well aware of how Camden has been for the last 17 years I've ben here and I've learned fromn old-timers what is was like for decades before that.
My contention is that nearly all money poured into the JDA before the arrival of David Keating has been a total waste. However, David is the real deal. I believe what he is telling us. I believe we are on the verge of making some real progress in getting industry in here. I would hate to lose another big one for the lack of 325 more acres.
We could pay for that with SPLOST funds by the way.
Thats the same logic that was used when the BOE built the elaborate taj mahal in St. Marys. SPLOST/E-SPLOST will pay for it. Well who is responsible for mantaining it?
Do tell.....
How many years are we suppose to give Keating a pass, before we should begin to expect measured results?
For instance he has been in place now about two years, in that two years how many jobs has he produced for Camden County?
Now how much has it cost the taxpayers in this same amount of time to fund him/his dept. promoting the Camden Partnership agenda?
I believe he has been here less than 18 months.
Could you please articulate what you think the Camden Partnership Agenda is and just exactly how David Keating has been supporting it?
I keep pretty close tabs on what David is doing. He is doing a far better job for us than any JDA director we've had before. Be patient. It's coming. It will come faster if we give him the support he needs.
Jay Moreno said: He is doing a far better job for us than any JDA director we've had before.
But Jay..... That's not saying much at all!!!
I agree.
However, he had to start virtually from scratch. We did not even have a decent website after all this time. David has fixed that.
He has put in a lot of hours into marketing the old mill site.
He's got the Chamber, the Camden Partnership, the three cities, and the county all working in unison to bring in new business - a first!
He's involved in trying to expand the mission set of the base.
Now that we have a JDA director who is actually earning his paycheck, the last thing we want to do is cut his legs out from under him by refusing to consider his recommendation until he brings in a big one when what he is recommending is the sine-qua-non for landing the big one.
If you are going to fish, you have to buy bait.
Do you really believe he actually has a fish on the hook? He says in the article that a company approached him when he first came here about such a situation. That was a little over 18 months ago. All of a sudden he has this bright idea to purchase the land from Jack Gross to have just in case!! Come on Jay.....
Whilke you are clearly implying that Mr. Keating is a liar and I am a fool, I see no evidence for either.
Tell me this: what difference does it make who owns the desired parcel of land? Somebody has to own it. If the JDA buys it,they will buy it from someone. Why not Bill Gross?
As to why Mr. Keating has waitied until now to reveal the one that got away, it may well be that siad company is still looking and he can not divulge the name of the company without doing irreperable damage to our JDA's reputation for confidentiality in such matters.
Moreover, do you think it would have been very bright of him to announce at the end of his second week on the job, "Well, I can clearly se that we need to acquire at least another 300 acres if we are serious about attracting a major industry," even though he very likely knew it that early?
Are you aware that as the former buyer for all new store locations for Winn Dixie, Mr. Keating is very familiar with what his former counter-parts expect from a JDA director?
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