Our column as published in
The Walton Tribune, Sunday Edition, September 14, 2008.

N E W S A R C H I V E
 

QGC takes to the road with their message

by Laura Templeton, Guest Columnist

 

The Walton Quality Growth Committee is going on the road!  That’s right—the QGC is coming soon to your town.

Every other month, the committee’s meetings will be moving out of the Walton County Courthouse in Monroe and into venues all over the county.  In order to better serve the county’s citizens, and to more actively pursue our "Seven Principles," we look forward to meeting with you in communities like Jersey, Walnut Grove, Youth, Bold Springs, Gratis, Good Hope, and Social Circle. 

The first of our town hall meetings will be held at 6:30pm, Tuesday, September 16, at the Between Community Center on New Hope Church Road.  Mayor Bill Sullivan and Between council members will be joining us, so expect some engaging dialogue on the real issues and pressing problems facing Walton County.

Members of the QGC have been working hard under the leadership of a new chairperson, Karen Paul, who took over the reins from past chairperson, Holli Bolander.

Thank you, Holli, for your years of service and your commitment to laying a firm foundation for the organization's ongoing development.

The QGC has recently launched a new website at www.wonderfulwalton.com. Check it out to learn more about quality growth issues facing the county, to read about the QGC’s mission and guiding principals, to sign up for our mailing list, or to consult the committee calendar. 

Be sure to check back frequently as the website is still under construction and will be evolving over the coming months.  Watch here, too, for more information on a county-wide Quality Growth Day tentatively scheduled for the Spring of 2009.

As the economy has slowed, so too has the growth in the county.  Rather than sit back and breathe a sigh of relief that for now the bulldozers are quiet, we need to get in high gear and use this unforeseen respite to educate ourselves on what quality growth can mean to Walton County.

The first guiding principal of the QGC is to “enlist feedback from Walton County's citizens and be citizen driven.”  We cannot be citizen-driven without citizen participation from all parts of the county, so please join us in Between—working together as an engaged community, we can make a difference.