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Economic Restructuring Committee Plans Fact-Finding River Trip

The Ellijay Economic Restructuring Committee (ERC), a branch of the city’s Downtown Development Authority (DDA) met on Tuesday, May 15th, to discuss committee leadership, committee goals, and a Committee fact-finding river trip.At the beginning of the meeting, DDA board member Jeff Riblet explained that DDA board members become the chair of different committees associated with the DDA. Riblet himself had been selected to be the chair of the ERC by the DDA board at a DDA meeting earlier in the year. The ERC itself will work along with the DDA to make sure all of the city’s economic goals are met.

Members of the ERC include: Bill Pierce, member of the ERC for the last year and of Coldwell Banker Real Estate year, John Christian, also a member of the ERC for the last year and of Apple Mountain Playhouse, Danny Wilson, of Boones Arts & Antiques, Greg Altman, owner of LLC Altman Consulting and Founder of Submerge Our Sewers, Richard Haydale, a former Mississippi City Planner and investment banker, Michael Grant, a member of the Better Hometown Program, Pam Fox, of Marshall Insurance Agency, and Carrie Gilbert, a marketing specialist and co-owner of Gilbert and Shepherd Group.

Each person involved with the ERC is a member of the committee because they have an interest in the community and can bring expertise in areas such as in real estate, planning, or marketing.

“We got a very important task in front of us,”

Riblet said.

“With all of the experience and everything that we have to offer in this room, we have a great opportunity to nail this thing down and make the city of Ellijay everything I think we can envision it can be. We have a true diamond in the rough here.”

Some of the things the ERC has planned to help with the economic structure of the community is to build and publish a list of available commercial properties for potential entrepreneurs, develop a planning charette, and support responsible use of Gilmer County’s rivers and other natural resources. Above all, the most important thing the ERC plans to do is recruit and anchor attraction to the city of Ellijay.

FYN had already learned earlier this year that the city had plans to do a planning charette, which is a community based event organized to plan for upcoming projects in the area. However, Mona Lowe, Manager of Ellijay’s Better Hometown Program said in the ERC meeting on Tuesday, that first the ERC has plans to organize a separate event to fund the charette.

The most recent venture the ERC has planned is a fact-finding river trip to discover how they can improve Gilmer County’s river system. Greg Altman, an ERC member and Founder of Submerge Our Sewers spoke of the trip.

“We have sewer pipes that cross our rivers in Ellijay,”

Altman said.

“Two years ago when I was running for politics…I was at an Ellijay City Council meeting and they estimated three and a half million dollars to bury three sewer pipes that cross our rivers,”

Altman explained.

Altman continued, saying, that the city council said they were not going to cover the sewers because they didn’t have the money. Altman added that after he heard this he started a non-profit organization with fellow board members Paige Green, President of the Chamber of Commerce, and Steven Jones, an expert on rivers and stream reclamation.