LONG-RANGE PLAN• What: Crafting a 35- to 50-year regional growth plan was included in the Chattanooga Area Chamber of Commerce’s latest economic development strategy: “Chattanooga Can Do: Building Tomorrow Today.”• Cost: About $3 million — $500,000 each from Chattanooga and Hamilton County, $1 million from local businesses, $1 million from philanthropic groups• Footprint by county: Tennessee — Hamilton, Bradley, Polk, McMinn, Meigs, Rhea, Bledsoe, Sequatchie, Marion; Georgia — Dade, Walker, Catoosa, Whitfield, Murray; Alabama — DeKalb, JacksonFIND OUT MOREInformation about the regional growth plan is available on the Web at www.ourgrowthplan.com
Scottsboro, Ala., Mayor Melton Potter says if Chattanooga’s economy is the heart of the tri-state region, then his city and others encircling the Scenic City are its veins and arteries.
“They drive this heartbeat,” said Potter.
But while the jobless rate ratchets down in Hamilton and its neighboring North Georgia bedroom communities, high unemployment lingers for others in the region.
And as the 16-county area gets ready to craft a first-ever 40-year growth plan, officials will have to grapple with counties emerging from the recession at far differing paces.