The Oconee County Industrial Development Authority (IDA) has decided to hold a strategic session to consider what role it can play now that Gateway Technology and Business Park on the edge of Bogart is completed and that the county has transferred development responsibility to the Oconee Chamber of Commerce.
The IDA decided at its May 9 called meeting to hold a future strategic session after approving a $100,000 budget for Fiscal Year 2026 that reflects little expected activity on the part of the Authority.
The approved budget includes only $17,100 that is uncommitted and available for spending.
The IDA also has a $5.2 million Fund Balance resulting from the sale of the Post Office and of the Gateway properties, fees from bond issuances, and interest revenue.
After getting a report on that Fund Balance from Oconee County Finance Director Melissa Braswell, IDA Member Rick Waller suggested that the Authority might start meeting more often as it has in the past to talk about development.
“I'd like to see us try to meet on somewhat of a regular basis to discuss what we can do for economic development,” Waller said. “That's what we're supposed to be doing.”
“Our primary role is a financing arm,” Oconee Chamber of Commerce President Courtney Bernardi, also a member of the Authority, said. “That's what the IDA is.”
At the suggestion of Board of Commissioners Chair John Daniell, who also is an IDA member, the group agreed on what Daniell called “maybe more of a strategic planning meeting” in June or July to talk about the future of the IDA.
Nature Of IDA
The Oconee County Industrial Development Authority is listed in the Georgia Constitution, with Daniell as Commission Chair, Bernardi as Chamber President, Brian Brodrick, as mayor of Watkinsville, and Janet Jones, as mayor of Bogart, designated as members.
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| Bernardi, Waller, Toole (L-R) Braswell With Budget At Right 5/9/2025 |
The Board of Commissioners appoints two citizen members. Waller is one of those two, and Authority Chair Brock Toole is the other. Toole independently is an elected member of the Oconee County Board of Education.
Waller served as chair of the Authority from 2011 until March of 2023, when Toole was elected as chair. At its meeting on Feb. 7, the Authority elected Toole as Chair, Daniell as Vice Chair, and Bernardi as Secretary for the current year.
The Authority played key roles in arranging for Caterpillar and Costco to come to Oconee County, and it owns the land on which Costco sits. It also financed the construction of Parkway Boulevard and built and owned the Post Office Building until it sold it to Postal Realty for $1.6 million in 2023.
When the state was building SR 316 in 1995 and 1996, the county purchased roughly 110 acres with the plan to turn it over to the state for an interchange between McNutt Creek Road and Dials Mill Road.
When the county learned that the state was not interested in the property, it turned the acreage over to the Industrial Development Authority for what has become Gateway Technology and Business Park.
Over the years, and particularly when Waller was Authority Chair, efforts to find buyers for the land in Gateway dominated IDA meetings.
Nature Of Meetings
“No more Gateway,” Toole said at the meeting at the county Administrative Building on May 9. “We know that.”
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| Bernardi, Waller, Toole (L-R) 5/9/2025 |
County Attorney Daniel Haygood said that two small parcels lie south of SR 316 to which there is no road access, and “we probably need to approach the adjoining owners on some of that. And just say, what can we work out?”
The Authority sold the last major parcel north of SR 316 to Industrial Property Management in June of last year for $1.9 million and donated a small parcel south of SR 316 on McNutt Creek Road to the state of Georgia in February for Department of Driver Services and Georgia Patrol facilities.
Waller said at the May 8 meeting that “We used to meet on a regular basis, and some of those meetings were a waste of time, but some of them were where we shared some thoughts on what we might be able to do.”
“We did have some fruitful conversations of various ideas on economic development,” Waller continued. “So I think, since that's what our charge is, you know, economic development, catalyst you might say, then I think maybe it'd be good to approach the subject and see what everybody's thoughts are.”
“I personally like it,” Toole said. “Everybody will have good opinions.”
Daniell suggested the strategic planning meeting, but he said the IDA should “not necessarily start setting up a meeting every other month. Let’s pick a date when everybody can get together and throw things on the wall and see what’s happening.”
“I think it's a good idea to meet,” Bernardi said, “kind of throw some things out, just see where everybody's thoughts are.”
Under Commission Chair Melvin Davis, the county hired an economic development director who met regularly with the Industrial Development Authority.
In 2019, the county signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the Chamber that pays the Chamber $100,000 annually to handle the county’s efforts at economic development. The Board renewed that Agreement for the current year in July of last year.
That $100,000 does not flow through the Industrial Development Authority but is paid directly from the county’s General Fund, Braswell said in a personal conversation at the county Administrative Building on May 12.
Budget Items
The Fiscal Year 2026 Budget that Braswell presented to the Authority on May 9 listed two sources of revenue, $75,000 in interest revenue from the proceeds of the Costco bonds, and $25,000 that Presbyterian Village pays the Authority annually as a fee for handling bond issuance for its construction.
The budget lists four expenditures.
The $75,000 in revenue has to be spent on debt service for the Costco bonds.
The budget lists $1,000 for Chamber membership and services, $6,900 for property and liability insurance, and the $17,100 in uncommitted spending.
The Authority holds $19.1 million in assets, but $12.6 million of that is held in reserve for payment of the Costco bonds, another $1.3 million is required to be held, also as part of the Costco Bond issuance, and $40,000 is interest income from the Costco bonds and also is restricted.
An additional $78,300 is designated for beautification of Experiment Station Road once the construction now underway is completed.
That leaves the $5.2 million that is available for spending.
At its meeting last October, the Authority agreed to hold one annual meeting at the first of the year and then other meetings as needed.
The meeting on Feb. 7, attended only by Bernardi, Toole, Daniell, County Attorney Haygood, and County Clerk Holly Stephenson, had only the elections of officers on the agenda and lasted less than a minute.
Video
The video below is of the entire meeting on May 9.
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