James May-June 2023 web - Flipbook - Page 47
IATION PLANNING
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is important to companies that might want to relocate
here and we are proving we have that,” Wray said.
Fort Gordon, home to the U.S. Army Signal Corps,
has always been a great asset to the region. And, in
recent years, the Army post has expanded to include
National Security Agency headquarters and the Army’s
Cyber Command.
After the state decided to place the GBI’s Cyber
Center of Excellence and Training facility in Augusta,
Wray says things really took off. The blossoming of the
cyber industry prompted Augusta University to offer
training programs of its own. “I think it is safe to say
that Augusta has now become the cyber security capital of the nation, it is all now located here,” he says.
Now, the abandoned mills are being turned into
information technology centers or upscale apartments.
And the beat goes on. For example, Arbis, a copper
recycling company headquartered in Germany, has
broken ground on a massive smelting plant that Wray
says will be operational by September. At first, environmental groups, such as Savannah Riverkeeper, protested having the plant located in Augusta over pollution
concerns until it was proven that the smelting operation
releases almost zero by-products into the air.
Perhaps the biggest recent change to happen in
Augusta has happened in the political scene.
“I think the advent of The Augusta Press was a
game-changer here. Everyone had gotten so used to
reading USA Today wrapped in a local package with
hardly any local stories, that when The Augusta Press
came out and began exposing what was going on behind the scenes in government, the voters got furious,”
says John Clarke, former commissioner and now political columnist for The Augusta Press.
Needless to say, when Davis tried to mandate people to wear masks even in the outdoors, he was largely
ignored by a public who had read stories about how the
mayor had used taxpayer dollars to fly in actresses who
played strippers on television to film videos teaching
“women and girls how to move.”
Furthermore, when Davis, Sheriff Richard
Roundtree and other department heads refused to
hand over documents covered by the Open Records
Act, The Augusta Press sued, earning the digital
newspaper the Freedom of Information Award by the
Georgia Press Association.
J O H N S O N WI N A G AM E -C H AN G E R
Armed with information, angry voters went to the
polls with blood in their eyes. The heir apparent to
Davis, former Tax Commissioner Steven Kendrick, was
swept away in the tidal wave of Johnson voters. Voters
also returned to office two former commissioners with
solid track records, Wayne Guilfoyle and Alvin Mason.
“I’m a businessman, not a politician, that’s the way
I ran my campaign. I told people what they needed to
continued
From planning runways, highways, or greenways to designing, surveying,
or managing construction projects – we’ve got your back. It’s why our
clients are our top priority – because communities aren’t shaped just
by projects, but by people. It’s why we’re committed to being
approachable, accessible, and responsive. It’s why as your needs
change, challenges arise, or timelines get shortened, we’re your first
phone call. We believe in engineering the extra mile. It’s what we do.
continued on page 60
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