Progress. It’s something I’ve been thinking about quite a bit lately. It’s also something that people throughout our community have been thinking about as well. The sad fact is that our community has stagnated in recent years from an economic standpoint. While I wouldn’t go so far as to say that we are in a depression, it is becoming increasingly difficult to find well-paying jobs in Coffee County.
At one time, we enjoyed a thriving, robust economy. We were recruiting new businesses and industries, and our existing industries were booming. Then the mobile home industry tanked and took with it a number of ancillary businesses. The recession of 2008 also took a toll. While we have recovered to a degree, we aren’t where we were a decade or more ago.
I have always thought that job creation was one of the greatest roles of government. Our leaders should create an atmosphere in which their constituents can prosper. The way to accomplish that by giving people an opportunity to work, to make a good living, to support their families. People who work own property, they pay taxes, they buy cars, they have disposable income. Their money fuels the economy. A thriving job market leads to thriving communities.
In Coffee County, we need more jobs. We need more opportunity. We need our young people to graduate from school – at whatever level they choose to attend – and stay in Douglas. That used to be the case but more and more, our youth are leaving the county because of the difficulty in finding employment.
This is apparently something that’s been on the collective mind of our city commissioners. At a recent city commission meeting, commissioners and city manager Terrell Jacobs discussed this very topic. It came about when Jacobs mentioned a conference that would provide communities with insight on bringing retail businesses to their towns and counties. For the most part, our job creation has been focused on industry instead of retail. But retail offers its own unique benefits and advantages to a community.
We have watched our neighbors, in particular Tifton and Waycross, experience a retail boom of sorts. Tifton, with its interstate, is a different animal. But Waycross – we’ve always been in competition with the Ware County community. They are our neighbors, they’re of a similar size with a similar demographic, yet they always seem to be one step ahead of us when it comes to business and industry.
In the last year or so, Waycross has seen a number of new stores and restaurants come to town. Right now, there’s a Cracker Barrel under construction on U.S. 1. A new shopping center is going up next to it. Several other stores have recently opened in Waycross as well, including a Hobby Lobby.
Why is Waycross getting these new businesses but we aren’t?
While I don’t know all the answers to this question, I do know one: Population. The population of Coffee County is greater than the population of Ware County. However, Waycross’s population is larger than the population of Douglas. During the aforementioned city commission meeting, one commissioner – I can’t remember who it was – asked Jacobs a question regarding the population of a community and its effect on bringing retail businesses to a town. Jacobs explained that one of the primary factors was the population of the city in which a business was looking to locate. “So the population of the county doesn’t matter?” asked the commissioner. Stated Jacobs: “That’s right, the county population doesn’t matter.”
According to the most recent population statistics, Coffee County has more people than Ware County – 42,356 to 36,312. The population of Waycross, however, beats Douglas’s population 14,725 to 11,589. That’s a big reason why Waycross has been able to attract more retail than Douglas.
Ways exist to increase the population of Douglas, which would go a long way in reviving the local economy. Like any worthwhile project, it won’t be easy, there will be tremendous obstacles to overcome, it will require cooperation, and it’s going to take progressive and forward-thinking leadership.
What needs to happen is the city limits need to be expanded. If we annexed more property into the city, we would annex more people. It’s a quick and effective way to boost the city’s population. It’s also difficult, controversial, and, in some ways, very painful. While annexation is a local issue, it requires our state representatives and senator to introduce local legislation in the General Assembly to begin the process. Without their support, annexation will never happen.
Annexation is nothing new to Douglas. Many years ago, when the late Derward Buchan was mayor, our legislative delegation was supposed to introduce annexation to the General Assembly. It never happened. They backed down and, to my knowledge, it’s never been brought up again.
Annexation is controversial because it would almost certainly affect the outcome of city elections. It could also affect county elections as well. The county is, according to census figures, 68 percent white and 26 percent black. The city, meanwhile, is 48 percent white and 45 percent black. Annexation would likely result in bringing more white voters into what have been traditionally black voting districts. Depending on how our leaders would go about expanding the city limits, black voting districts could become white districts. Whether or not that would be the case wouldn’t be known until a plan was in place; however, the mere thought of that happening has been enough of an issue to keep annexation at bay.
And that brings me to my point. The city commissioners were very interested in exploring the idea of bringing more retail business to Douglas. But were they interested enough to possibly sacrifice some of their influence for an issue that would strengthen the entire community?
That’s only one of several obstacles annexation faces. The other is the fact that many people – white, black, and Hispanic – do not want to live inside the city. City utilities, taxes, etc., are all potential problems for many county residents. Plenty of people refuse to live inside the city because they believe their household expenses would balloon to an unaffordable level.
The challenge, therefore, is twofold: First, our city and county elected officials (as well as our state legislators) must agree that annexation is a good idea, even though it could result in officials potentially losing their positions; and second, some county residents must be willing to live in the city if they happen to live in an area that would be annexed.
To facilitate annexation, our leaders must be able to bring everyone to the table and convince them that the proposed plan is a good one. In order for that to happen, our leaders must be compassionate, creative, and willing to compromise. They must also be willing to potentially sacrifice their own positions for something that will impact the entire community for the better.
I don’t know if annexation is even a possibility for our community. I don’t know how our local leaders feel about it. Likewise, I don’t know where our state officials stand on annexation. But I do know this: Annexation is the best option for reviving our economy. If it’s not being actively discussed, it should be. Otherwise, it’s only going to get increasingly more difficult to make a living in Douglas and Coffee County.