Outlook section offers compelling look forward, back

ALBANY — In today’s paper, readers will find The Albany Herald’s annual Outlook special section.

Traditionally filled with the newspaper staff’s look at some of the key factors that impact all Southwest Georgians’ daily lives, as told to staff by the individuals in the community who make those things happen, this year’s Outlook section combines that traditional look forward with a look back … to the Jan. 2 and Jan. 22 storms that left such indelible marks on the community.

Herald reporters talked with the region’s leaders to find out what’s in store for the community in the immediate months ahead, but most Outlook stories are couched with experts’ thoughts on how the storms will impact that move forward.

Nonprofits, local industries, school and government officials, the Marine Corps Logistics Base, the health care and construction industries … all are topics of interest in this year’s section. There are even a couple of inside looks from frontline experts: a take on the local economy by Albany State University Assistant Professor Aaron Johnson and a look at the region’s tourism industry by Convention and Visitors Bureau Executive Director Rashelle Beasley, the latter appearing on today’s Perspectives page.

Starting with compelling Page 1 stories on the $200 million biomass plant on the Procter & Gamble campus that will soon go online and the harrowing — and often touching — stories of the nonprofit warriors who were some of the community’s unsung heroes in the aftermath of the January storms, Outlook 2017 takes you, the reader, inside some of the stories that make our community unique.