Two Important Oconee Area Meetings last week...

Things are happening in the Oconee Area; two great presentations last week in Greensboro and again in Eatonton, have helped set the tone for the future here. The first was the Town Hall Meeting(s) offered by St. Joseph's Hospital. As many of you know, St. Joe's has purchased the local Certificate of Need for Greene County, and bought the Greensboro based Minnie Boswell Memorial Hospital. Their plans are to build a larger state-of-the-art regional hospital in Greene Co, now to be located near the entrance to Del Webb at hwy 44 and Carey Station Rd. St. Joseph's, a "top 50 US hospital" will bring medical care to our area that we could not have imagined.

The actual size of the hospital physical facility will depend upon the interests of those in the surrounding counties of Putnam and Morgan. St. Joseph's has invited both of these county hospital authorities to join in to the regional hospital concept for the Lake Oconee tri-county area. Of course, the legal entities which operate the much smaller Putnam and Morgan medical facilities will have the final word. Lets hope, for all of our families sakes, that the final decision, expected within a month....is to GO FOR IT !!!!

The second, and intriguing presentation recently, was a detailed study of the Impact of New Home Construction in the Lake area, given by Dr. Elliot Eisenberg, Senior Economist at the Nat'l Assoc. of Homebuilders. The study concentrated on the value of new homes to the local economies of Greene and Putnam, particularly of the "ripple effect". The numbers presented were staggering! Of equal interest to many, were the costs associated with bringing over 500 new homes into our neighborhoods just during '07 alone. If you would like to see the numbers, you can shoot me an email...I'll send you a link to the study.

We've certainly come a long way, especially since those days of 20 yrs ago when we would advertise the Oconee Area in the media as "GA's Best Kept Real Estate Secret!". Well folks, we've been found!!! O. Jim