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Suwannee County Development Authority

The Suwannee County Development Authority is involved in economic development, as is the Council for Progress.  The focus of the Development Authority is two-fold. 

First, it develops industrial parks and manages the sales. It has already developed two industrial parks: the Gold Kist Boulevard park now sold out and East 90 Commerce Centre. That park began with a total of 39 lots and at this time only a few remain for purchase.  Most of the funding for the Development Authority comes from sales in its industrial parks. 

Second, the Development Authority oversees engineering and planning requirements for local businesses that are interested in expanding and for new businesses interested in making Suwannee County their home.  These requirements include aerial photography, boundary surveys, environmental inventories, soil mapping, soil surveys, topographic surveys, utility mapping, wetlands surveys and zoning studies.  Feasibility studies for some prospective businesses have to be done as a preliminary step before the company decides to locate here and before they even commit to purchasing land, so the cost of this work is paid for by the Development Authority. 

This year, the chairman of the Development Authority is Tim Alcorn.  Other members include Quinton Bell, Joe Flanagan, Clyde Flemming, Don Hale, John Koch, Gary Olive,  Greg Poucher, and Doug Udell, representing the Suwannee County Commissioners. These men are appointed by their county commissioner.  If you are interested in serving on this board, let your county commissioner know.

The Development Authority pays 50 percent of the Alliance president’s salary. Besides funding from the sale of lots in the industrial parks, the Development Authority receives $10,000 per year, through the state, from pari-mutuel taxes.  In addition, the Suwannee County Board of County Commissioners has set aside $30,000 for use by the Development Authority for engineering and planning requirements. 

As you see, the Development Authority works hand-in-hand with the Council for Progress to make sure that prospective companies are supplied with all the information they need to make an informed choice to expand or relocate.  Without organizations like the Development Authority and the Council for Progress, we could not offer all the facets of economic development to these businesses.

 It is important to understand that as folks move to our area it is essential to have the needed business infrastructure to support these new residents.   As the population increases, the requirement for services goes up.  New businesses and industry are essential to building our tax base and supporting services like water, solid waste management, fire and emergency response, law enforcement, library, parks and recreation, trash collection, landfill sites, road maintenance, and so on.  The other vital thing that new and expanding businesses bring is jobs.  With more jobs available, our young people will no longer have to leave the county to find work.       

We should pause here and take time to commend both our city and county officials.  Without the cooperation of the City of Live Oak, the City Councilmen, the County officials and the County Commissioners, we would not have made the progress that we have.  Whenever I go to any of these people with a question, request, or problem they welcome me and do their best to help.  Thank you all! City