Community forums are a chance to actively look ahead

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February 6, 2010

Anonymous The Union-Recorder Sat Feb 06, 2010, 08:00 AM EST

For many local residents, the recent job losses felt in manufacturing through the closure of big industries such as Rheem and Shaw and state hits in the form of reductions at Central State Hospital and the impending closure of Men’s and Bostick prisons after losses already at Rivers and Scott are all too familiar because they have hit so close to home.

Many have engaged themselves in personal conversations in which questions on where Baldwin County is headed have been asked and just what lies ahead for the local community’s future. But an upcoming forum, the first in a series, is designed to extend that conversation to the community at-large.

This is an opportunity to hear from local leaders on where Baldwin County presently stands and where it is going. It is not a time to harp on what has already been lost or muse on what should have or could have been. It is, however, a genuine opportunity to look and move forward by utilizing to the fullest the gifts that Baldwin County already possesses.

Few communities can lay claim to three institutions of higher learning — a technical college, the state’s only four-year liberal arts institution and a junior college. Few also carry with them the gifts of access to both a lake and river. The potential for growth along the forthcoming Fall Line Freeway, coupled with U.S. Highway 441 present great opportunities as well. Even fewer still possess the gift that Baldwin County’s new wireless system, the first in the state for a community this size. These are the gifts that stand to set Baldwin County apart in a means of differentiating itself from other communities that right now are reeling from similar job losses and economic setbacks. These are the gifts that have the potential to give Baldwin County distinction — but the community must capitalize on them to the fullest. The future for jobs and growth in Baldwin County is now and it will take leadership from all fronts to develop it. That’s why these coming forums are vitally important and why their focus must be on moving forward — not on looking back on what should have been.

The jobs landscape in Georgia and in many respects the United States at-large has changed. Reinvention, and how communities move forward to lay claim to new identities, is the new paradigm. We strongly urge members of the community to turn out to listen and take part in this exchange of ideas — from 5:30 to 7 p.m. March 15 in the Legislative Chambers at Georgia Military College.

The future of Baldwin County is now.

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