Many who know me know that I am very active in supporting Economic Development in Athens, GA. It has been my pleasure to serve on the Athens Economic Development Board during the last year with many well seasoned and highly educated business and community leaders. NBAF is only one of dozens of projects that we evaluate and support in order to bring more business and jobs to Athens. However, NBAF has drawn the most attention, positive and negative. I have been involved in all of the public meetings during the last year, and during the most recent public meeting, I actually had the opportunity to speak on behalf of AED and DHS. Below is a copy of my public comment on record.
"My name is Stephanie Sharp. I live in Athens, I work in Athens, and my children go to school about 5 miles from the site of the proposed project at Athens Montessori. I own a small local web development firm, Plexus, that employs 10 people in Athens. In the spirit of full disclosure, I am also a board member on the Athens Economic Development Foundation.
I come here tonight to speak about the special interests that are being served by our support of this project. We do not support this project because we are pro-government or pro-military or anti-environment. We are simply pro-business and want to see Athens take full benefit of the knowledge that is being developed through our educational institutions. This opportunity came to us because of our scientific community and our economic development leaders, and because of the "special interests" this community has.
Special interest in more jobs for the Athens Area
Many of the opponents have argued that the highest paying jobs will be given to transplants while Athenians will be left with the lower paying jobs. The truth of the matter is that those people will live in and among us, and will spend their money at local businesses, buy real estate in our area, and contribute to the tax base in our area. Overtime, these positions will inevitably transition to more locally grown professionals. Even if only 50 jobs go to Athenians at an average salary of 40-50k a year with federal benefits, that is a great benefit to 50 people who now might work in underpaid positions or be unemployed.
Special interest in expanding our scientific knowledge and our ability to attract businesses that will enable us to keep more of the graduates from all of the post-secondary institutions we are fortunate to have in Athens.
Whether NBAF is built here or not, our primary Special interest should be in making sure that Athens isn’t overlooked as a possible location for other business and industry because we need the jobs and the income. When a potential business contacts the Department of Economic Development looking for a suitable location we don’t want Athens to be at the bottom of the list because "economic development" is a dirty word in these parts.
During my tenure on the Economic Development Board, these are the only special interests I have been introduced to, and I support each and every one of them."
