What was billed as a strategic planning meeting by the Oconee County Industrial Development Authority (IDA) early this month turned into a wide-ranging, nearly 70-minute long discussion of the aspirations of city and county officials.
Watkinsville Mayor Brian Brodrick focused on community connectiveness in many of his comments, but he also said the city sees challenges and opportunities in redevelopment of the city’s Industrial Park.
Oconee County Commission Chair John Daniell said the primary focus on the county is on infrastructure development, including water, sewer, and roadway upgrades.
Courtney Bernardi, President of the Oconee Chamber of Commerce, said development attention should begin to shift away from SR 316 to other major highways in the county–SR 15, U.S. 441, and U.S. 78.
In the end, there was a consensus that a major unexploited opportunity for the county is sports tourism, and they agreed to reconvene in early October to continue discussions about that option.
Daniell had suggested the planning meeting in May in response to IDA member Rick Waller, who said the group should come up with ways to spend the $5.2 million it is holding in reserve to promote development in the county.
None of the ideas discussed involved use of that money, at least not at this stage.
Session Format
The Aug. 1 meeting of the IDA began will a budget amendment to reflect bond fees from the sale of bonds for Presbyterian Homes and interest from the reserve funds for the Costco bonds.
The result is a budget of $88,550 for the IDA, Melissa Braswell, County Finance Director reported.
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.
IDA Chair Brock Toole then said he was hoping for a “roundtable style, creative” discussion “of the things that we want to do, or should do, or can do, or can't do” with the reserve funds.
“Our job is not necessarily to spend the money,” Daniell responded. "I just don't want anybody to feel a lot of pressure: There's $5 million there. It's got to be spent.”
“One project, just getting sewer lines somewhere, would gobble that up if something where to pop up” that need sewer, Daniell said.
The Aug. 1 meeting took place in the North High Shoals Room of the County Administrative Building.
More On Board Role
Courtney Bernardi, President of the Chamber of Commerce, said “our job as an Industrial Development Authority is really a financing arm for when projects do come.”
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| Bernardi 8/1/2025 |
The Chamber, under agreement with the county, handles economic development for the county.
In the past, a request for IDA funds came for road construction, she said.
“It ended up, we didn't have to do this,” she said, “but we could have paid.”
“So I think it's just to remember that's really what the role of this Industrial Development Authority is. It's not to create plans for the county or the city. We are not in that. That's not our role.”
“What we would want to do is understand what the priorities are of the county and the city when they come to economic development. And we're a supplemental arm to help them get where they want to be.”
The Oconee County Industrial Development Authority is created 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. Jones missed the Aug. 1 meeting.
The Board of Commissioners appoints two citizen members. Waller is one of those two, and Toole is the other. Toole independently is an elected member of the Oconee County Board of Education.
Mayor Speaks First
“It is not about spending the money,” Brodrick said. “It is about investing the money. It's what's the wisest use of those funds, in terms of an investment that returns jobs, additional funds, additional resources.”
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| Brodrick, Toole, Daniell, Bernardi (L-R) 8/1/2025 |
“I'd say the things that we're looking for in the city revolve largely around community connection--parks and green space.”
“But the one that hangs around is, we have an industrial park that I think needs to be re-imagined and rethought,” he said. “I think there's high potential for it.”
“I think the bigger context of the world that we're about to go in is AI,” he said. “And so a lot of these sort of entry level professional jobs are going to have to be re-imagined or go away.”
“Where I think that leaves us is there's jobs where relationships and high level thinking is important,” Brodrick said. “And also jobs, where you use your hands and you build things, are going to be really important.”
“I feel like we've really leaned into professional jobs and small scale professional environments, and that's been important,” he said.
Now the city needs to have a plan for what to do with the Industrial Park, he said, particularly given that IMI Industrial Services Group, currently in the Watkinsville Industrial Park, is moving to the Gateway Business Technology and Business Park on the edge of Bogart.
“So I've got five or six buildings that are going to be empty,” he said. “So what happens out there is really important to us.”
Bernardi Responds
“I think for so long we have always focused on (SR) 316 solely,” Bernardi said.
“The county is bigger than just (SR) 316. That is an incredibly important access to the rest of the state and others and beyond.”
“But there are others that are equally as important,” she said. “So I think (SR) 15 maybe is something we haven't talked about a lot. (U.S.) 441 is another corridor that we haven't really spent a whole lot of time talking about recently, and (U.S.) 78 as well.”
“So I think we've got to think broader now than just (SR) 316. And I think that will kind of allow for us to, as a community entirely, see it from a more--a grander scale than just that one thoroughfare that we've kind of been focused on.”
Daniell Came Next
“We’re about creating jobs, building wealth, and having people that'll participate in the community,” Daniell said.
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| Toole (L), Daniell 8/1/2025 |
“Do we have the perfect person or industry that we're going after?” he asked. “I don't think we have that figured out yet.”
“But we're in a position,” he said, “where we can be very choosy right now because some of the stuff that's happening from even the early two thousands is just now coming, moving dirt, and going vertical on some stuff that was rezoned there,” he said.
“So it's being picky,” he said.
“The big thing is data centers now,” he said. “In the past we couldn't have ever envisioned doing that just because of the water usage. But you talk about a property tax generator, those things are doing it.”
“Columbia County's fixing to do a huge one where they're going to basically be able to do away with property taxes on homestead property,” he said. “And now they have different technology for cooling where the water usage is not more than flushing the toilet.”
“Then you got no services” that the county needs to provide,” he said, “but then you got a big massive building with generators around.”
“So it's, you know, what's the right one?” he asked.
More From Bernardi, Daniell
Bernardi said much of the industrial growth in the state is focused on the auto industry, with the Hyundai Motor Group Metaplant America near Savannah, the Kia West Point Assembly Plant, and the planned Rivian plant near Social Circle.
The state is “really trying to understand the auto industry,” she said. “The south is still very new to that. It's always been kind of a north kind of thing. They've run that world for so long, and so now we're in it, and they're trying to figure that out.”
“The port (of Savanah) is doing extremely well right now,” she said. “Even though the tariffs have kind of hurt certain industries, it hasn't hurt it completely.”
“So it's all these things happening in our state,” she said. “And so I think it gives us a really great time to watch and see what's happening and really figure out what’s the best thing for our community.”
In response to a question from Waller, Daniell said “Were focused on infrastructure right now, trying to get the sewer plant finished up. We're expanding water supply and then roadway projects now creating safer intersections. So that's where our focus is.”
Sports Tourism
“We've got people in the county right now that are traveling all over the place with the kids that are growing up” for sports, Waller said. “That's going to continue. Just the different families.”
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| Toole, Daniell, Bernardi, Waller 8/1/2025 |
“That would be something if we could generate revenue that way, which I think we can,” he said, “in regards to restaurants, motels, people not living here but coming here spending money.”
“That’s what you want,” Toole said. “You want people coming here spending money, before they go back to the house.”
Daniell said the planned Dawson Park on Rocky Branch Road will provide the facilities to attract sports travel revenue and the county is working with a company to explore those possibilities.
“The University of Georgia happens to be in our backyard,” Bernardi said. “So for sports tourism, there's really no better draw than having a sports university like the University of Georgia in your backyard.”
She said Thomas Preserve in Watkinsville also is a draw.
“If our strategy is really to lean into opportunities that welcome visitors, but improve the quality of life of our own citizens,” Brodrick said, “that’s pretty compelling, because what we're saying is we're not going to sacrifice the quality of life for Oconee County residents to bring in new industry.”
“But when something new aligns with the quality of life that people here say they want,” he said. “Let's pursue things like that. It doesn't have to be just sports and rec.”
Alternative To Industrial Development
“But I think it's probably true to what most of our citizens would want,” Brodrick said, “which is, don't sell us down the river to go get 500 jobs for this next thing.”
Bernardi said the goal should be to create sports tourism and the facilities it generates “that involves not just our student athletes or our young kids. It is adults, it's seniors, it's everybody.”
“What I love--Courtney--about where you're going is it's active lifestyles essentially,” Brodrick said. “It creates a healthier community. What we're trying to do in Watkinsville is leverage that to get people off of digital devices and outside interacting with each other.”
“If we do it in a way that respects the natural beauty and the history of our community, and we're thoughtful about how we plan that, it could be pretty amazing and a pretty great differentiator.”
“We're really not dying to go spend a bunch of money to bring big industry in this county,” Brodrick said. “That's not what our residents are telling us they're wanting.”
“Our residents would appreciate us thinking differently and thinking creatively about it,” he said.
Video
The video below is of the entire meeting on Aug. 1 of the Industrial Development Authority.
Discussion of the strategic plans begins at 3:19 in the video.
The discussion took numerous turns, but Brodrick spoke first, at 6:40.
Bernardi followed at 14:12 in the video.
Daniell made his initial comments at 16:16 in the video.
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| Bernardi 8/1/2025 |
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| Brodrick, Toole, Daniell, Bernardi (L-R) 8/1/2025 |
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| Toole (L), Daniell 8/1/2025 |
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| Toole, Daniell, Bernardi, Waller 8/1/2025 |
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