Albany Area Chamber of Commerce presents legislative agenda at Rise N Shine

ALBANY — The need for improved infrastructure and work force development highlight the most recent Albany Area Chamber of Commerce legislative agenda which was presented to state legislators and the public Thursday during the Chamber’s Legislative Affairs Rise N Shine Breakfast at Doublegate County Club.

With the state legislative session set to begin at the first of the year, the Chamber’s legislative affairs committee, with the help of area business and community leaders, laid out it’s annual wish list of Albany, Dougherty County and Southwest Georgia priorities it hopes members of the area legislative delegation will keep at the forefront of their minds while at the state capital for 40 days in 2016.

“The Chamber maintains a strong and healthy relationship with each member of our delegation,” said Albany Area interim President Barbara Rivera Holmes. “We’re partners in the effort to strengthen Albany and Southwest Georgia and to provide leadership to our region and it’s critical that our area have a voice at the capital and our delegation ensures that voice is heard. Each year at this time we present the legislative agenda, which represents issues or priorities that are of importance to our community and to our region.”

Topping the list of items the committee is hoping State Reps Gerald Greene, R-Cuthbert, Ed Rynders, R-Leesburg, Winifred Dukes, D-Albany, Darrell Ealum, D-Albany, and State Senator Freddie Powell Sims, D-Dawson will work toward in 2016 are improved infrastructure and increased workforce development.

“You will see that there are infrastructure improvements on there and you will see workforce development on there as well,” said Holmes, who presented the agenda on behalf of legislative affairs committee chair Cynthia George who could not attend the breakfast. “Those are two big issues for our community as we attracted industry, as we work with our existing industry to ensure that we have a solid community.”

In the area of infrastructure the agenda outlines three specific areas of concern including support of the consolidation and relocation of elements and units of the Georgia National Guard to Marine Corps Logistics Base (MCLB) Albany; support of funding for Surface Transportation Pavement Resurfacing for the city of Albany; and support for state funding for the renovation of the Northwest Branch of the Dougherty County Public Library.

In the area of work force development the agenda focuses on support for Phase II of the Carlton Construction Academy at Albany Technical College; support for funding allocation for the furniture, fixtures and equipment that will be needed at Albany State University’s new Fine Arts Building, and support for funding for a plant operations and public safety facility at Darton State College.

In presenting the legislative agenda Holmes explained that those items were the main focus and that the Chamber and its legislative affairs committee understands that priorities could change throughout the course of the legislative session and that because of the strong relationships the Chamber has with the members of the delegation, many issues will be dealt with as a team.

“Although we are presenting to you a formal agenda today it’s a working document,” said Holmes. “If there are priorities that come up during the session, we will vet them, we’ll evaluate them and we will proceed appropriately to make sure that we’re representing your interests and those of the community at large at the capital. Our agenda, as you see, is a piece of paper. It is not effective without the support of our legislators. We’re partners in the effort to strengthen Albany and Southwest Georgia.”

And while Holmes spoke to the partnership of the Chamber to the delegation as a whole, those members of the delegation that were present at the breakfast, including Greene, Rynders and Dukes, addressed the partnerships within the delegation that allow it to function as one unit for the benefit of Albany and the rest of Southwest Georgia.

“You can be thankful that you have a delegation that works together,” said Greene. “I could not ask for better individuals to work with. I feel like having Freddie Powell Sims, who sends her regrets this morning, and Winifred to work with, and Darrell Ealum to work with and then right across the area our own Ed Rynders. They are individuals who have a great deal of knowledge and resources to pull from. All of them bring to the table a great deal of information. And working together we are able to accomplish a great deal for Albany and Dougherty County and also the rest of the region, which is very important. Albany is the hub of our area and it’s very important that we reach out and try to help these other areas.”

Dukes also spoke about working together as a team and mentions a few key areas in which he feels the group needs to focus it’s energy this year, including safety, education and health care.

“We meet at this common intersection,” said Dukes. “Each year we have more commonality than differences and we are bonded by a flame that feeds a consuming desire to create within our community streets that are safe and clean, where all people have access to quality education and also to a healthcare system that is affordable, that is readily accessible and that is priced fairly. Those are many of the issues that we consider as we go to Atlanta on an annual basis.”

Local delegates Sims and Ealum were unable to attend the event, but Rynders, who is not technically part of the Dougherty County delegation, was present and also addressed the ability of that delegation, which he participates in, to work as a team.

“Our challenge is, and it is a challenge, is how do we all get on the same page and say, ‘you know what, how do we make southwest Georgia part of that growth?’” said Rynders. “How do we actually reach across and say, ‘what is our message, what can we say and really engage the decision-making in Atlanta?’

“I may not be a part of the delegation, I’m just the only one that went to school here, that was raised here. We actually thought before we got together, and Gerald and I talked about it, instead of having three members in Dougherty County we can actually make it four and have four voices up there talking about the things that are vital to us. And some of those things never make the press. I just want you to know that when we view this (legislative agenda), we’ll have our own internal meetings where we’ll view this wish list and we’ll make determinations and we’ll see the process work and we’ll do what’s in the best interest of not just Dougherty County but all of Southwest Georgia. We cannot survive if we do it with isolation view points.”