“If you’re not growing, you’re dying.”
That quote, attributed to numerous people, may not have been uttered by Hamilton County Mayor Jim Coppinger, but he may have thought it with the dwindling space the county had in its industrial parks.
But now that’s changed.
On Wednesday, Hamilton County commissioners approved the purchase of the 2,170-acre McDonald Farm near Sale Creek for around $16 million.
The farm, which has been in the hands of the same family for 200 years, is said to have a number of usable sites for industrial development and is on a railroad line. It is said to have all necessary utilities but sewer service, and officials said that can be contracted from the city of Dayton in adjoining Rhea County.