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Banks County Chamber CVB chairman Paul Patel passed the gavel to incoming chairman Mary Greenwood at the annual dinner Thursday evening at Funopolis at Banks Crossing.

“I’m excited to be taking over this position,” Greenwood said.

Patel spoke on some of the activity during the past year, including the passage of Sunday alcohol sales.

“It’s all about tourism,” he said of the Sunday sales passing.

Patel also spoke on economic development, stating: “We’ve had a lot of new businesses looking at the county.”

Brad Day, chamber/CVB economic developer, spoke on the accomplishments of the organization over the past two years under Patel’s leadership, including the Leadership Banks program, Georgia Partnership in Education grant, Business After Hours, formation of economic development committee, attending Georgia Chamber of Commerce functions, participation in the Farm Tour and Ag Awards, creation of a visit center video promoting the county, a new tourism brochure, adding an interactive chat function on the website, attaining state-wide chamber accreditation and creation of the community 1-800 number.

“We’re pleased to celebrate all of these accomplishments,” he said.

New plans for the year include recognizing a Business of the Month. Fitness of Commerce was named the April Business of the Month. Other projects planned include a newsletter and an event in October.

The dinner included a meal catered by Kay Hardy, music by Laura Bryant and door prizes donated by area businesses.

2015 chamber/CVB board members were also recognized, including: Paul Patel, Todd Hubbard, Mary Greenwood, Howard Ledford, Judy McClure, Sallie Hensley, Kim Ledford, Carol Ayers, Mark Valentine, Slade Jarrett, Jeff Lewallen, Lynn Warren, Charles Turk and Brent Edwards.

BY ANGELA GARY

It’s hard to believe that it’s been 30 years since I started this job. In 1985, I was a very quiet, very shy teenager who had an interest in working in the newspaper field. I called my hometown newspaper and asked the editor if she had a job opening. She told me to come in and do some filing and inventory and, 30 years later, I’m still working for the company.

In those early days, I did lots of things at The Jackson Herald, including proofreading, typing, clerical duties and putting up the Christmas decorations. In the three decades since then, I’ve worked at all six of the newspapers the company owns at one time or another. I once did a recipe column feature and covered meetings for The Commerce News. I covered the board of education meeting in Danielsville for The Madison County Journal for a while. I’ve covered board of commission meetings in Winder for The Barrow Journal and I continue to edit The Braselton News, as well as occasionally covering events in West Jackson.

My main duties these days are serving as editor of The Banks County News and associate editor of The Jackson Herald. I cover county government in both counties, as well as several city councils. I edit most everything that goes in both papers, as well as writing a column, overseeing page layout and many other things each week. In my 30 years with the company, I figure I have covered almost 3,000 meetings and written thousands of other features and news stories [Full Story »]