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Worth County EDA hires new chief

• Worth County fired its former economic development director in January.

Susan McCord

SYLVESTER — Worth County has reached over into Tift to hire a new Executive Director for its Economic Development Authority.

The Worth County EDA decided to hire Greg Sellars, the current Economic Development Coordinator for the Tifton-Tift County Chamber of Commerce. He begins work in Worth County on Aug. 4, Sellars confirmed Tuesday.

After two years in economic development in Tift, Sellars comes to Worth “to bring jobs and industry to Worth County,” he said, “and help foster responsible growth.”

Prior to joining the chamber, the Chamblee native since moving to south Georgia in 1993 has worked with Lamar Advertising in Albany, a realty firm, the roofing company smartroof.com and Ameris Bank in Tifton, he said.

“We feel like we’ve finally found someone with some credentials and some experience,” said Dan Nesbit, chairman of the EDA board. “This fellow came in with some experience. It’s a very tough position to fill.”

The EDA advertised the position on the Georgia Economic Developers Association Web site and in a local newspaper, and interviewed three of six applicants, Nesbit said.

“He’s already working in the Tifton area in the same type of job,” Nesbit said. “He knows the EDA game. You have to know how to work the EDA. There’s a lot involved as far as grants, tax credits, and he’s on board with that. He’s familiar with all that, and I think he’s a people person.”

Nesbit was one of four new members appointed to the seven-member board in late 2007 whose first action together was to vote to fire former Executive Director Alex McCoy.

With the support of previous board members, McCoy led an effort to purchase and develop an industrial tract through a bond issue and an increase in the EDA’s tax levy. The Worth County Commission later refused to adopt the tax increase, and the effort floundered. McCoy is now employed in economic development in northeast Florida.

“We had to hire someone because I’m retired,” Nesbit said. “I’m chairman of the board, but I’m nonpaid and I’ve been working five days a week. We cannot afford to let the people of Worth County down. We need a professional in the area to do that.”

Nesbit said the board, whose members include former chairman Roy Sumner, Hal Carter, Donnie Ford, Mike Garvey, Morris Bryant and Joe Gaines, is interested in purchasing property for a new industrial park, since the EDA’s existing holdings are largely occupied.

But with all but one member, Hal Carter, serving a first term on the board, the membership has taken some time to get up to speed on what an EDA should do, he said.

“In the last couple of months, I think we’ve made good progress,” he said.

Nesbit would not elaborate on the other candidates the EDA had interviewed or how much Sellars would be paid.

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