The Fayette County Chamber of Commerce is proud to announce a new public information program known as “Yes We Are...” This program is intended to provide the Chamber's position on issues facing Fayette County. We feel it is vital that our 700 Chamber members and the business community have a choice in the issues facing Fayette County and its future.

The first issue the Chamber will be addressing is economic development. We feel that a strong economic development program will provide benefits to Fayette County citizens for years to come. Economic development is a process of diversifying our local economy. It does not mean development in general nor at any cost. In fact, economic development is best served by a strong local land use plan and strict zoning code.

The Fayette County Development Authority has done a tremendous job of attracting clean, high tech industries to our community and should be allowed to continue that mission. The Chamber was encouraged by the recent five to zero vote by the Fayette County Board of Commissioners in support of the Development Authority's mission. This type of support is critical in our efforts to attract quality business to our community. It is also very important to the Development Authority's ability to attract a new executive director.

The Chamber of Commerce can think of no other governmental entity that returns so much to Fayette County citizens for the relatively small amount of tax dollar investment than the Development Authority. Economic development provides jobs for local citizens, much needed tax dollars for our schools and local services, tax relief for home owners and new opportunity for local businesses.

The Fayette County Chamber of Commerce is solidly in support of economic development in Fayette County. Our hope is that our local decision makers will continue in their support of this critical issue.

Michael Whiteside, Chair
Board of Directors
Fayette County Chamber of Commerce

[Whiteside is CEO of Coweta-Fayette Electric Membership Cooperative in Newnan.

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