Gadsden County Business Journal 2020

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SPONSORED REPORT

P

reviously … We’ve been following the journey of a Pensacola-based engineering firm as they’re getting started on EOS® (the Entrepreneurial Operating System)*. The company’s leaders (John, Ray, Roberto and Sarah) were concerned that the team wasn’t working well together. They also had people and process issues which ultimately led to low profits.

During their first full EOS® session day (Focus Day™) with Ryan Giles, the team built their first accountability chart, weekly scorecard, set quarterly goals and established a weekly meeting time. During the second full session day (Vision Building Day 1), the team started working on their business plan. Unlike long, complicated business planning, the EOS® planning method walks teams through answering eight questions (these eight questions are called the Vision/ Traction Organizer™ … or V/TO™ for short).

VISION BUILDING — DAY 2

About a month after their first Vision Building Day™, the team met with Giles again … this time to finish their vision.

The day began with a quick recap from their previous sessions. Sarah had been tasked with wordsmithing the company’s Core Values, and she presented her work.

After Giles answered a few questions, the team was ready to finish their V/TO™ by answering the final four questions:

1. What is your 3-Year Picture™? If you’re

familiar with goal-setting, you’ve probably heard that writing a goal down makes you 60% more likely to achieve it. Did you know that writing it down AND visualizing it even further increases your likelihood of success? That’s the point behind the 3-Year Picture™. Once the leadership team is clear on our 3-year goals and can SEE them, we can begin sharing with the rest of the company. Once the entire company aligns with the 3-Year Picture, we WILL hit it! Our 3-Year Picture starts with the due date (in this case, the date was set to December 31, 2022). The due date was followed by a revenue and profit goal for 2022. The team then decided to add a few metrics to help them track their progress. (Roberto wanted to measure the number of clients, and John suggested average profit per employee.) The team finished their 3-Year Picture by brainstorming what the

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company would look like in 3 years if they were hitting all of their goals. Some of these bullet points included: winning best place to work in Pensacola, opening a second location, decreasing our response time on new bids to 5 days and starting a 401K program.

2. What is your 1-Year Plan™? Like the 3-Year

Picture, the next section answered is the 1-Year Plan. The team started with the due date (December 31, 2020). They then set revenue and profit goals followed by how many clients they would need and the profit per employee goal.

They then brainstormed the three-to-five goals for the year that would help them achieve the numbers above (revenue, profit, clients, etc…). Giles then spent time with the team to make each goal SMART (specific, measurable, attainable, relevant and timely) to remove all ambiguity and give them the best chance of success.

3. What are your Rocks™? In EOS, Rocks are 90-day goals. You may remember that the team set Rocks in their first session (Focus Day). These Rocks were now due, so they spent time discussing each goal and deciding if it was complete. Since this was the first quarter that the team had set quarterly goals, they discussed lessons learned and how to increase the completion percentage (the team had successfully completed 66% of their Rocks). Ray, who had not completed his Rock, said he underestimated the time it would take. Giles then discussed the second most important job of any leader (predicting), and Ray agreed to use his calendar to time-block for the next 90 days. He would also be more realistic when reporting on his Rock at each weekly meeting.

After a successful post-mortem on the old Rocks, the team used their new 1-year goals to set strategic Rocks for the next 90 days. They assigned an owner to each Rock and spent time making each Rock SMART. Giles reminded the team that at least 80% of Rocks must be achieved each quarter, and that this measurement could be used to determine if an Integrator was doing the job well.

Everyone committed to his or her new Rock, and the team took a break.

SPONSORED REPORT

4. What are your Issues? For the last question on the team’s V/TO™, Giles explained that they were doing a great job each week by solving issues in their meetings. However, the team had noticed that some of their issues didn’t seem to be urgent. These long-term issues live on the V/TO. This is a great place to brainstorm long-term plans and ideas without bogging down the weekly meetings. After this epiphany, the team was able to move almost 30% of their weekly issues to the long-term list (and keep their weekly meetings focused on more short-term items).

Though the day was long, the team gave it their highest scores yet. Seeing the puzzle pieces all fit together gave John satisfaction, while Susan liked the strategic method for setting Rocks (using our 3-Year Picture to set great 1-Year Goals and using these goals to set great quarterly Rocks). Giles ended the day by assigning homework and reminding the team that 80% Rock completion was expected at the next meeting (in about 90 days). At the next meeting, the first Quarterly Session, the team would look back on the past 90 days, plan the upcoming quarter, set new Rocks, and learn another EOS® tool. They would also plan the EOS® rollout to the rest of their company. *EOS® is a system, a framework, for helping business leaders get what they want from their businesses. For this reason, EOS® can help you achieve your business goals, regardless of what they are. Giles offers a free 90-minute workshop that explains EOS® and allows leaders to find out if it’s right for them.

TRACTIONSTRONG.COM | (504) 500-1640 RYAN@TRACTIONSTRONG.COM 850 Business Magazine

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Gadsden County Business Journal S P E C IA L R EPO R T

People and Product Gadsden County embarks on inclusive approaches to economic development

By Steve Bornhoft

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he Gadsden County Development Council has undertaken a strategic planning process that represents an evolution in its approach to providing a better future for the county’s residents.

That is, the council is not going it alone.

In August of last year, the council coordinated two planningprocess kickoff sessions, one with educators and representatives of industry and the other with community-based partners in the areas of health and human services.

Ronnie Bryant, a certified economic developer and the principal at RLB, LLC, facilitated the conversations, held pursuant to the theme of “Opportunity for All: Strategies for Inclusive Economic Development.” In his work, Bryant strives to link discussions of innovation, change and economic development with cultural inclusion and diversity.

Beth Cicchetti, the executive director of the Gadsden County Development Council, said the sessions helped determine the level of interest among community stakeholders in economic development. She was pleased with the buy-in that resulted from the outreach effort.

“For five years,” Cicchetti said, “we have focused on developing marketable product along Interstate 10 and other arteries in our strategic intermodal system including U.S. 27, U.S. 90 and the Florida Gulf & Atlantic Railroad, and over near the Apalachicola Northern Railroad, which runs up into Chattahoochee.

“But in order to better serve expanding businesses or the new ones that we attract such as Trulieve, Four Star Freightliner and Hoover Treated Wood Products, we are going to need a real focus on attracting, retaining and developing talent.”

Trulieve cultivates, prepares and sells medical marijuana.

Four Star Freightliner services large trucks. Hoover commenced operations in Gadsden County near Havana in April 2019 and now runs with two shifts.

Cicchetti said a key to the talent procurement process is oneon-one meetings with employers designed to provide an understanding of their human resource needs so that instruction and

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curriculum at public K-12 schools, charter schools and vocational-technical schools, community colleges and universities can be developed accordingly.

“We have businesses that are here and are going to be in our market for a long time to come, and new businesses will be arriving,” Cicchetti said. “They have needs for employees in transportation, manufacturing and distribution. It’s up to us to provide the workforce to meet those needs. And, it’s important for parents in the area to know what the employment opportunities will be for their children in Gadsden County.”

Willie Simmons, the head football coach at Florida A&M University and a native of Gadsden County, has championed the inclusive planning effort, and local government officials echoed Cicchetti’s remarks.

“We want the barber, the hairdresser, the grocery owner and everyone to know what the plans are for Gadsden County,” said County Commissioner Brenda Hold.

Gretna City Commissioner Gary Ross Jr. said he saw the kickoff meetings as an opportunity for a cross-section of the community from millennials to seniors to come together “to benefit the whole spectrum of residents in our county.”

Added Gretna City Manager Antonio Jefferson, “The strategies that came out of this meeting of the minds will result in action items that we can assign to our community partners, our Beth Cicchetti, executive elected officials and anyone who director of the Gadsden wants to see the change that we County Development Council need in Gadsden County.”

Above, Four Star Freightliner Edward Dixon, a former operates a truck service center in Midway.

Gadsden County commissioner,

PHOTOS BY SAIGE ROBERTS (CICCHETTI AND FOUR STAR FREIGHTLINER) AND COURTESTY OF INDIVIDUALS

said, “What we are doing now is Gadsden County’s future.

It’s tomorrow today, here right now. If we do this well, we aren’t going to have to worry that our kids are going to grow up and leave Gadsden County.”

In January, the Governor’s Office announced grant awards to the City of Quincy and Gadsden County from the state’s Rural Infrastructure Fund, which is administered by the Department of Economic Opportunity.

Quincy received $297,800 to complete a feasibility study and an environmental survey needed to finalize a plan for attracting new business to the Joe Adams Commerce Park. In addition, the funding will help further the city’s “Opportunity for All” strategic economic development plan, encompassing a holistic approach to economic development planning and workforce development for new and existing businesses.

The county received $20,000 to complete a road inventory project for prioritizing needed improvements to public, unpaved roads and bridges.

Regarding economic development planning, Cicchetti said, “There is a process that we want to take the community through. Educators and service providers like the United Way and the Capital Area Community Action agency and other community-based partners need to understand our world, and we need to understand theirs. Collectively, we need to have a picture of the demographics we are serving, and we need to work together to have an impact on the generational poverty that occurs in our area.”

Cicchetti was pleased by the participation in the kickoff meetings by classroom teachers from private schools, including the Robert F. Munroe Day School in Quincy, charter schools and traditional public schools.

“They are the folks with their boots on the ground,” Cicchetti said. “We need to understand what is being taught.”

Cicchetti said she expects the conversations with businesses that will be part of the planning process to enable the development council to better understand their operations and supply chains and to supply leads for filling up the county’s industrial parks.

For Cicchetti, the impact of Hurricane Michael on Gadsden County’s food cluster provides an example of the need for a holistic approach to economic development and recovery. The Cal-Maine Foods egg-producing facility in Quincy was among the storm’s casualties.

“Cal-Maine had been part of our business landscape for decades,” Cicchetti said. “The Florida-Georgia Workforce Alliance is working with the 60 employees who are losing their jobs due to the closure, and we are looking at the possibilities of repurposing buildings there.”

One possibility: the industrial hemp industry, which is expected to become a significant agricultural product in Florida over coming years.

“We want to identify and showcase buildings that could be used for storage of industrial hemp after it is harvested,” Cicchetti said. “Gadsden County has the potential to become a player in both the cultivation and processing of hemp, but it will take a team effort for us to get there.”

Gadsden County Development Council Officers Antonio Jefferson, Chairman Antonio Jefferson has served as city manager in Gretna since August 2006. In that role, he has created the city’s first economic development plan; secured more than $10 million in grants for construction and renovation of recreational, water, wastewater and transportation facilities; led the city in annexing 2,800 acres, updating its comprehensive plan and rewriting its land development code; and secured 30 acres for facilities to include a city civic and agricultural center. His background includes service to the U.S. Army Reserves and the U.S. Marine Corps, and in law enforcement. He was a sergeant with the Leon County Sheriff’s Office and was police chief in Gretna. He holds a bachelor’s degree in public administration from Barry University and a master’s degree in business administration from the University of Phoenix.

Jim McShane, Immediate Past Chairman Jim McShane is the chief executive officer at CareerSource Capital Region and has an extensive background in sales, management, interior design, workforce development and economic development. He was president of a family business in Munster, Indiana, and served as an elected official for four years. He has earned a reputation for systems thinking and a collaborative approach. He serves on the U.S. Conference of Mayors Workforce Development Council nationally and has chaired the Big Bend Continuum of Care Council. He is entering his 19th year in workforce development.

Under his innovative leadership, CareerSource Capital Region has become a valued asset in training career seekers and meeting the talent needs of businesses.

Blake Flowers, Chairman Elect Blake Flowers joined Talquin Electric Cooperative in 2016 as its director of member services. He provides leadership in areas including member services, information services, key account management, energy services, communications and community outreach. Prior to joining Talquin, Flowers spent more than 10 years at Georgia Power Company, working in departments including land acquisition, procurement, financial management, supply chain operations and sales.

He earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees in business administration from Georgia Southern University.

Stella Murray, Treasurer For 23 years, Stella Murray has worked in the banking industry. Today, she is branch manager at Centennial Bank’s Quincy location. She began her career at Capital City Bank where she worked as a teller, head teller and customer service representative and moved to Premier Bank where she worked as a CSR and assistant branch manager prior to its acquisition by Centennial Bank. She is a graduate of James A. Shanks High School in Quincy and completed coursework at Tallahassee Community College. She is married to Eddie Murray, and has three children and three grandchildren.

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Gadsden County Business Journal S P E C IA L R EPO R T

Interstate Cooperation Workforce centers in Georgia, Florida jointly strive to meet employers’ needs

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hen a significant employer in Gadsden County — say an egg producer — closes up shop, economic development interests are likely to assess the buildings and other assets it leaves behind with an eye toward the possible repurposing of them for use by another business.

But what of the employees who lose their jobs due to the closure? To whom can they turn?

Gadsden County, along with Leon and Wakulla counties, falls within an area served by CareerSource Capital Region, whose mission is to unite job seekers with employers. Effective with an agreement signed in 2016, its capacity to conduct job searches was greatly expanded — and that just might prove helpful to workers displaced by the shutting down of the Cal-Maine Foods egg plant in Quincy.

That agreement established the Florida-Georgia Workforce Alliance by uniting as partners two workforce boards in Florida — CareerSource Capital Region and CareerSource North Florida — with two in Georgia, WorkSource Southwest Georgia and WorkSource Southern Georgia.

“Every day, you have people commuting between Gadsden County and Bainbridge, Georgia, and between

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Tallahassee and Thomasville to go to work,” said Jim McShane, CEO at CareerSource Capital Region. “So, when you are looking at labor markets, you have to keep in mind that people don’t view a state line as a barrier to accepting a job.”

McShane noted that lines on maps notwithstanding, the two-state region’s media market is the same, “which is helpful, because it kind of unifies the area.”

Two years ago, workforce boards in Jacksonville and Savannah, Georgia, joined in the agreement in the interest of fostering interstate cooperation along the Atlantic coast.

The agreement followed by a year the enactment of the federal Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act whose reauthorization McShane and his board members are petitioning for this year.

WIOA was heralded as landmark legislation designed to strengthen and improve the nation's public workforce system and help get Americans, including youth and those with significant barriers to employment, into high-quality jobs and careers, while helping employers hire and retain skilled workers.

The parties to the 2016 agreement commissioned a study by a Michiganbased consultant EPSi, which recommended that the workforce boards focus on four growing components of local

economies: health care; advanced manufacturing, which McShane sees as one of Gadsden County’s strengths; information technologies; and transportation/ distribution/logistics.

In a meeting held late last year, McShane said, the boards established committees that will explore “ways that we can leverage what we bring to the table and help each other out without adding to our costs.”

McShane, noting funding cuts sustained by the boards last year, said, “We are always trying to do more with less, but we are about at that tipping point where if there is not some reinvestment by the Congress in our system, our capacity is really going to be injured.”

Even at that, McShane sounded an optimistic note.

“Regardless,” he said, “our economic development partners are at the table, and our training and education providers are also at the table.”

Gadsden County and CareerSource Capital Region are closely aligned.

Beth Cicchetti, the executive director of the Gadsden County Development Council, is the immediate past chair of the CareerSource Capital Region board and McShane is a board member and past chair at the Gadsden County Development Council.

The Gadsden Career Center logged

PHOTOS BY MATT BURKE / ROWLAND PUBLISHING FILE PHOTO AND COURTESY OF CAREER SOURCE CAPITAL REGION

By Steve Bornhoft

7,927 visits during the program year that ran from July 1, 2018, to June 30, 2019.

Over that period, CareerSource Capital Region conducted 35 recruitment events and seven hiring fairs attended by 1,832 people and posted 3,880 job openings.

“People think of us as helping the unemployed and the hard to employ, and that’s true,” McShane said. “But we also help Ph.D.s and master’s degree people and everything in between. Our goal is to provide the business community with the talent that they are looking for, and the talent that walks into our career centers every day. That’s our inventory, so to speak.”

And if that talent is a concert pianist?

“We may not have a job for him or her in our service area, but there may be a need for one in Valdosta or Jacksonville,” McShane said.

McShane said that workforce boards are hopeful about getting legislatures in Florida and Georgia to agree to a new aspect of cooperation related to training.

“Maybe there is an employer in

Gadsden County whose employees could use training available at Thomas University in Thomasville,” McShane said. “We would like to be able to pay for that training out of state as long as the provider is on a Georgia board’s Employer Training Provider List and we can demonstrate a need for the training in our region.”

Beyond that, McShane is a big believer in early childhood education as a foundation for talent development. Studies have established that third-graders not reading at the third-grade level are four times less likely to graduate high school on time and may never catch up with their peers.

Statewide in Florida, 58% of thirdgraders are reading at the third grade level, according to Florida Scorecard data published by the Florida Chamber of Commerce. In Gadsden County, that figure is 37%.

“Communities everywhere need to be investing at the front end,” McShane said.

Applied Fiber manufactures heavy duty cable in Havana

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Gadsden County Business Journal S P E C IA L R EPO R T

Hemp is on the Way Crop of many uses is expected to assist struggling timber farmers

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armers whose lives are tied to trees are hurting in the Sunshine State.

In Central Florida, a pathogen that originated in China is devastating the citrus industry. The bacterium huang long bing prevents fruit from ripening or may cause ripening fruit to fall to the ground prematurely.

A few hours north and west of the state’s orange groves, timber growers took a big hit in October 2018. The penultimate cause may have been global warming — who knows? — but the immediate cause was winds that blew too darn hard.

Timber farmers and citrus growers, then, are united in a quest to find a replacement crop that doesn’t require years to mature. Hemp, some believe, may be an answer.

State Sen. George Gainer (R-Panama City) is optimistic about hemp, which interests him from two perspectives: He is the vice chairman of the Senate Committee on Agriculture, and he represents a district that was molested

by Michael.

“I think it’s got all kinda possibilities,” said Gainer, quickly adding, “What I like about it is that it doesn’t really have an addiction danger to it.”

The Senate Agriculture Committee, Gainer said, has taken in several presentations on hemp, and he has grown convinced that a hemp industry could flourish in Florida.

“We’re tryin’ to get this thing hurried up, so that they can at least get a test crop planted in the spring,” Gainer said in December.

He noted that Kentucky got a head start on hemp production due in part to the influence of Mitch McConnell, the majority leader in the U.S. Senate. In Kentucky, the issue was not green oranges or fallen trees, but a disappearing tobacco industry.

“We’re going to make an official request to Sen. McConnell to do what he can to give Florida the same green light,” Gainer said.

Gainer noted that FAMU has been engaged in hemp research for years and has a test farm in Gadsden County for that

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purpose. He said the presence of that farm may affect the location of a hemp receiving or production facility.

Robert Presnell is the city manager in Chattahoochee and was county administrator in Gadsden County when it landed the Trulieve medical marijuana production facility. Three plant nursery owners, including two in Gadsden County, combined to bring about that project, he said. Presnell was instrumental in getting the approval process fast tracked.

“The medical marijuana business has been a tremendous boost for us,” said Presnell, who estimated that it employs 1,000 Gadsden County residents.

State Agriculture Commissioner Nikki Fried has predicted that hemp could become a $20 billion to $30 billion a year industry in Florida.

“It's going to be something that is going to replace all of our Styrofoam, our plastics, our paper,” Fried has said. “Hemp is going to be what I call an industrial revolution in our state and across the country, and it's all biodegradable.”

“Any time you have that much money on the table, things get very competitive,” Presnell said. “Growing hemp will only be successful in areas reasonably close to receiving facilities. I could grow 40 acres of it here in Gadsden County, but if I have to take it to Atlanta, that’s not a very viable option.”

Presnell can relate to farmers who lost timber crops to Michael. He grows “trees and cows” on a farm a couple of miles east of Chattahoochee.

“I was lucky,” he said. “I cut my trees and replanted a few years ago, so I had a lot of young, limber trees in rotation.

Timing is everything.”

Presnell likes a suggestion made by Beth Cicchetti, executive director of the Gadsden County Development Council.

Cicchetti is hopeful that Cal-Maine’s egg-producing facilities in Quincy, shuttered after Hurricane Michael, might be converted to hemp industry use.

PHOTOS BY SAIGE ROBERTS (HEM)P) AND COURTESY OF TAYLOR BIEHL

By Steve Bornhoft

“If that could happen, Gadsden County might become a hemp industry hub for a multi-county region,” Presnell said.

Taylor Biehl is a co-founder and the vice president of the Florida Hemp Association, based in Tallahassee.

Taylor Biehl, co-founder He said that, in Florida, the and the vice president of Florida Hemp Association Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services (FDACS) will regulate the hemp industry and has been responsible for developing rules regarding hemp for approval by the federal government.

“The rules have been finalized and they have made it through a challenge period,” Biehl said in December.

Still being worked on was a concern on the part of the federal government that the hemp crop in Florida might run “too hot,” that is, it might exceed the federally imposed THC limit of 0.3 percent. Tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) is the psychoactive ingredient in cannabis; hemp and marijuana are classifications of cannabis.

Biehl relayed to 850 Magazine an update supplied by FDACS. In it, the department clarified that permits to engage in any aspect of the hemp business in Florida will not be limited, and the

industry will be horizontal in character. That is, a business may choose to participate in a single part of the hemp business, a few parts or all of them. In this regard, the hemp industry, as proposed, differs from the vertically integrated medical marijuana industry.

Also, according to FDACS: A rule governing the use of hemp extract in animal feed was set to become effective Jan. 1.

A rule to allow university research pilot projects to certify seeds under Florida law was due to be filed for final adoption in January.

FDACS’s proposed cultivation rule was being revised to align it with U.S. Department of Agriculture rules.

FDACS was recommending to USDA sampling and testing methodologies designed to lower the incidence of “hot plants” and subsequent requirements to destroy crops.

FDACS said that, consistent with Gainer’s wishes, it expected cultivation to occur in the first quarter of 2020.

“People are heavily focused on revitalizing the timber industry, and we have received many, many calls from timber farmers,” Biehl said.

Citrus growers and entrepreneurs, too, are ringing the Florida Hemp Association’s phones.

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Gadsden County Business Journal S P E C IA L R EPO R T

Transportation Hub Project at Gretna exchange will be important feature of logistics zone

By Steve Bornhoft

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chances for priority funding for projects within its boundaries, and it is intended to stimulate greater use of the Port of Port St. Joe and to revitalize the Apalachicola Northern Railway line that connects Port St. Joe and Chattahoochee. The FLZ will link port, airport, rail and highway systems to help increase the flow of freight and increase economic development in the region.

Strategically, Jefferson said, the Highway 12 site “made a lot of sense. We have a willing seller, the interstate and a railroad are at close proximity to the site and water and sewer are already present at the northwest and northeast corners of the exchange.”

Other exchanges in Gadsden County, Jefferson pointed out, were less suitable as a candidate for an intermodal distribution center, either given hurdles to development or because, in the case of the Midway exchange, it is already nearing build-out.

Jefferson said the extension of utilities to the Highway 12 site will make some 2,000 adjoining acres, most of them within the city of Gretna, developable.

He said he hopes the feasibility study will be completed no later than the first part of the fourth quarter of this year and that construction of a lift station to serve the south side of the exchange will begin prior to year’s end.

Additional rounds of state and federal funding will be more easily secured once the feasibility hurdle is cleared.

And, Jefferson said, the City of Gretna will work with Gadsden County and the neighboring Town of Greensboro to assemble a funding package for the project’s build-out.

“We get a lot of inquiries about the site, but the challenging question from interested parties always has been, ‘How long will it take you to deliver the infrastructure?’ Jefferson said. “We’re getting a lot closer to being able to give people a good answer the that question. We’re excited.

“I believe we will have tenants in place by 2021 or 2022 and, conservatively, the project will bring about 300 permanent jobs.”

PHOTOS BY SAIGE ROBERTS

G

retna City Manager Antonio Jefferson looks out upon 600 acres at the Highway 12/Interstate 10 exchange in Gadsden County and sees 300 jobs.

The Gadsden County Development Council holds a purchase option on the acreage, and the City of Gretna has been awarded almost $300,000 in state funds with which to complete a feasibility study at the site.

That work, Jefferson said, will include an environmental assessment, the delineation of developable property and design work related to roadways, sewer and water. It will be reviewed by the state Department of Economic Opportunity and agencies including the Department of Environmental Protection and the Northwest Florida Water Management District.

Jefferson envisions that the site will become an intermodal distribution center and a key component within the Gulf to Gadsden Freight Logistics Zone (FLZ), which extends from the Port of Port St. Joe to the I-10 corridor.

The FLZ project was made possible by a community planning technical assistance grant from the Department of Economic Opportunity to Gulf County, and it encompasses all or parts of Gulf, Franklin, Liberty and Gadsden counties.

An FLZ designation increases the

POWERS OUR REGIONAL ECONOMY! $558.8m in regional economic impact* 852 direct and indirect jobs for the community* $134.7m in local tax revenue* *Based on data from 2013-2017

Talquin Electric Cooperative has provided reliable utility service in Gadsden, Leon, Liberty and Wakulla counties for nearly 80 years, including electric, water and wastewater services. Talquin is committed to supporting local economic development through various partnerships in the region.

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Gadsden County Business Journal S P E C IA L R EPO R T

Mural in Havana created by Sarah Painter and Cosby Hayes

Downtown Resuscitation Main Street organizations are working to breathe life into communities’ centers

By Steve Bornhoft

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enny O’Connell tells a story about a gentleman from Los Angeles who, sight unseen, purchased a building in Quincy’s historic downtown and visited the property for the first time in December.

He was impressed, so much so that he likened Quincy to Napa Valley in its early days.

“He said he’d like to park a DeLorean (like those featured in “Back to the Future” movies) in front of his building and get a picture of it and our courthouse,” O’Connell said. “He told me, ‘You don’t know what you’ve got here.’ ” Well, O’Connell, for one, sees great potential in Quincy. In November of last year, she became the first full-time director in the history of the city’s Main Street program. In so doing, she filled a job that had been vacant for almost a year.

“Five years from now, it will be an entirely different ballgame in Quincy,” O’Connell said. “There are opportunities for people to buy a building here, lease it and later turn around and sell it at a big profit. If I didn’t believe in this place passionately, I wouldn’t be in my job.”

Like Main Street programs elsewhere,

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the Quincy initiative’s budget comprises, roughly in thirds, private donations, grants and support from local government — at least for now.

At this writing, O’Connell said, the city is considering withdrawing its support for Main Street and taking ownership of events such as Quincyfest and Porchfest that the nonprofit has conducted in the past with the city’s financial assistance.

Regardless, O’Connell said, “I’m happy. If we don’t get funding from the city, we will go forward. It just means that our schedule will change and our events won’t be as big and showy.”

Those more modest events include Food Truck Fridays.

Generally, O’Connell said, she is striving to provide activities that will lead people to visit Quincy’s nine-block historic district and to get downtown buildings occupied, ideally with attractive shops and restaurants.

“We are trying to match owners with renters who are good fits,” O’Connell said. “We are working with code enforcement to ensure that buildings are being taken care of.

“I believe that when you have a thriving

downtown that is active with places to eat and shop, money will spread through the whole county. Downtown is the heart and the veins run out from there. And, when downtown does well, that will make the development of businesses outside the city’s core more feasible.”

Penny O'Connell, executive director of Quincy Main Street

PHOTOS BY SAIGE ROBERTS

O’Connell said people from around the country own buildings in Quincy’s historic district and conceded that absentee owners are not always the city’s best friends, especially when they are content to sit on properties and wait for their value to increase when they come to be surrounded by the activities of others.

She is optimistic, however, that her lessor-lessee matchmaking activity and “the consistency of someone actively working full time downtown is going to make a difference.”

She takes nothing away from the restaurants and accommodations businesses already situated downtown — Odells restaurant, Damfino’s Café, the White Squirrel Inn, the McFarlin House bed and breakfast and the Allison House Inn. “They’re great,” she said. “We just need more options. I’ve met people staying at our inns in Quincy who were having dinner at Rutabaga’s in Chattahoochee 30 miles away.”

Dean Mitchell, an artist with a national reputation who grew up in poverty in Quincy, would seem to have done as McConnell would have him do.

Mitchell, who is black, acquired a building on the “African American side of the square” downtown, restored it and made it the home of the Marie Brooks Gallery, named for his grandmother.

In that way, Mitchell was a pioneer, a role that he is familiar with. He committed to life as an artist long before African American art was recognized as a genre.

For as many as 20 years, he attended art shows where he was the only black person present.

Mitchell has held shows of his work at the Gadsden Art Center, shows that were well attended, but that support has not thus far extended to his business on the square.

Mitchell lives in Tampa but visits his hometown and family there six to eight times a year.

“People complain about folks from small towns who do well that they never come back,” Mitchell said. “I wanted to go back and be part of the renaissance that they were trying to bring about in Quincy. And, I’m trying to hang on to my gallery, but I am looking at possibly moving it to Tampa.”

Mitchell believes that people may see

Artist Dean Mitchell is hopeful that his Marie Brooks Gallery in Quincy will come to enjoy greater local support.

his business as taking away from the Art Center. Some have accused him of gentrification.

“But I came back to try to benefit everybody by creating something that would bring people to town,” Mitchell said. “I came back to remind people that you can emerge from poverty if you choose a path and work hard.

“But, as anybody knows, no matter what you’re are selling, be it automobiles or hamburgers, you need the local community to support you.”

Still, Mitchell remains hopeful that he will be able to stabilize the gallery, begin to more heavily promote it, hire an employee and then maybe buy another building and open a restaurant.

“I sold an expensive piece to a library in Brookhaven, Mississippi,” Mitchell said. He later visited the city of some 12,000 people.

“It is booming in the middle of nowhere,” he said. “They renovate a warehouse in Brookhaven, and it is occupied right away. The same thing could happen here. We’re right next door to the state capital.”

RALLYING AROUND THE BANK Tony Lombardo retired in 1999 at the age of 57 as a vice president from BellSouth, where he served as a

regulatory liaison with the state Public Service Commission.

Eighteen years later, he went back to work as the executive director of Havana Main Street. He has been in that job since August 2017, when the nonprofit was chartered.

While he lives in Tallahassee, Lombardo, along with his daughter, has owned a store in Havana for 27 years.

For most of its existence, it sold international craft items. Following the Great Recession, when business dropped off by half, it evolved to become a seller of furniture, home accessories and jewelry.

Two years ago, he opened a second business, a coffee shop.

“Downtown is built on the fortunes of the merchants, be they good or bad,” Lombardo said. “When they lost their disposable income, the economy plummeted. I was approached three years ago by people who asked me if I would help revitalize downtown. When I got the job, I thought it was a lark and I would be able to turn things around in a year, but it has become a very, very big undertaking.”

Havana Main Street relies on membership revenue, municipal support and grants. In 2019, it received a state historic preservation grant of $50,000 that will be used to complete a survey of 250 850 Business Magazine

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Havana State Bank building

As of January, $48,000 had been raised, enough to replace the building’s roof and arrest its deterioration due to the elements.

“The building was the only bank in town for over 100 years, so it played a big part in the lives of a lot of people,” Lombardo said.

“Among families with history in Havana, no one wants to see it torn down.”

Havana Main Street has four standing committees — Design, Promotion and Events, Economic Revitalization and Organization — per an organizational template established by the national Main Street organization. All are active.

In 2019, Havana Main Street absorbed a 35-year-old merchant’s association and, with it, events the that group had conducted. As a result, Main Street’s event list is long and includes activities ranging from a Pinewood Derby to an AirStream Rally and a Quilt Show to a Pumpkin Fest.

The AirStream Rally, which overtakes the streets of downtown, is scheduled this year for March 26–29. A popular open house, which affords the public an opportunity to inspect interiors of the trailers, will take place on Saturday, March 28, from 1 to 5 p.m.

Havana Main Street priorities, Lombardo said, include making the Main Street (Highway 27) entrance to downtown more inviting and attractive and giving downtown a facelift with the addition of murals, decorative signage, façade improvements and restoration of the bank building.

In addition, Havana Main Street plans to enhance its marketing outreach through social media, television and other media outlets.

“Downtown Havana will never fulfill its potential unless we convince the greater Havana community to fully embrace their downtown,” Lombardo said. “Somehow, over the years, we have lost the sense of pride and proprietorship the community once had for their downtown. We are channeling much of our effort to rebuild a partnership with the community, its businesses and the town’s government.”

PARK REDEVELOPMENT In Chattahoochee, said Robert Presnell, the Main Street program and the city

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Tony Lombardo, executive director of Havana Main Street, with his daughter Terri Paul

collaborated in securing a National Park Service planning grant, resulting in a blueprint for redevelopment of a cityowned RV park on the Apalachicola River.

Presnell, formerly Gadsden County manager, was coaxed out of retirement following Hurricane Michael and, as city manager, is working to help rehabilitate Chattahoochee.

He was highly complimentary of Park Service personnel from Atlanta who conducted public meetings, notified stakeholders, prepared maps and arrived at a park redevelopment plan.

The city has now applied to the state for funds to cover engineering costs related to the project.

Presnell said that the city will be receiving from the state 140 acres that are contiguous to the park and will provide enough room for the installation of bicycle trails.

Federal New Market Tax Credit funds totaling $2.6 million, Presnell said, will be used for park construction and to acquire and fix up dilapidated buildings and install sidewalks and other amenities downtown.

Presnell credited Chattahoochee Main Street and its director, Pam Medley, with conducting foot traffic-generating events, including a Christmas in the Park celebration, a Business Recognition Day and Final Friday activities featuring food vendors and bands.

PHOTOS BY SAIGE ROBERTS (HAVANA STATE BANK) AND PHIL SEARS (LOMBARDO)

structures that are at least 50 years old.

Down the road, Lombardo and others hope Havana will be established as a National Historic District. That designation, or “brand,” as Lombardo called it, would serve as a tourist draw and open avenues for additional grants.

Perhaps the most prominent historic structure in town is the Havana State Bank building, constructed in 1906 at Havana’s main intersection — 7th Avenue and Main Street. Havana Main Street acquired the building after an anonymous donor supplied the organization with enough money to buy it, and Main Street is now conducting a capital campaign aimed at raising enough money to thoroughly restore the structure.