New Member Approved for DDA

After the resignation of its former Chairman, the Downtown Development Authority has recently been appointed a new member in Mark Luchauer.

The Ellijay City Council approved his appointment in April’s meeting and Luchauer says he plans on immediately working to get the DDA to a better organization to accomplish their goal of revitalizing the downtown area in all the forms that takes.

On his appointment, Luchauer said, “I’ve been here for a couple years in Ellijay, and just saw that there is a lot of potential growth in Downtown Ellijay.” He went on to add, “If you play a role in these different authorities and groups, you can actually do something.”

Having previous experience with most of the Authority’s members through attending meetings and business association, Luchauer expects an easy transition saying he already has great relationships with everyone there. He also stated, “Almost everybody on the Board has the DDA training now, including myself. So now that we’ve had that training, we’re very focused on what the role and the responsibility is of the DDA and what it is not supposed to be doing. I think now that we have that clear focus… we’re going to start getting stuff done.”

Mark Luchauer started a business ten years ago called Have Fun Teaching and also helped start another business downtown, Abby’s Ice Cream & Frozen Yogurt, and is currently a General Manager there. He says after sitting behind a computer those ten years, he started getting into our community and feel in love with working with people again. Now, he sees the DDA as a “way to do something for the community without getting paid for it.”