At our meeting on April 22nd, Rotarian Jim Smith introduced our speaker, Steve Justice, director of aeronautic research for the Georgia Innovation Center. Mr. Justice was promoting the UAV, Unmanned Aerial Vehicle, of the Drone program, proposed for the Gilmer County airport.Mr. Justice provided our Rotarians and visitors with many statistics about the aerospace industry in Georgia but failed to provide our group with any benefits of the program for Gilmer County. As Director of Public Relations for our club, I stayed after the meeting for a question and answer session with Mr. Justice. I specifically asked Mr. Justice what benefits would accrue to the County by implementing the proposed program. Unfortunately, Mr. Justice was unable to provide a satisfactory answer to my question.

Also after the meeting, I spoke with JC Sanford, County Commission Chairman. Although the citizens comments about the program seemed to be overwhelmingly against, as evidenced by a stack of e-mails that the Commissioner brought to the meeting, he still seemed to be in favor of the Unmanned Aerial Vehicle proposal.

Article provided by Jack Nunn, Director of Public Relations, Gilmer Rotary Club.