Clayton City Council Hears Forward Rabun Pitch

This article originally appeared in the July 16, 2020 edition of The Clayton Tribune and is reposted with permission from publisher Wayne Knuckles.

By Megan Broome
Staff Writer

CLAYTON— Clayton city council members heard a presentation about Forward Rabun from Rick Story, director of development for Rabun County, at Tuesday’s meeting.

“I just wanted to come today and give you an idea of what Forward Rabun is,” Story said.

Forward Rabun is an umbrella organization that consists of the Development Authority of Rabun County, the Rabun County Chamber of Commerce and Welcome Center and a tourism entity. It is a public-private partnership.

Juanita Shope, Chamber president, and Pam Thompson from Dillard development authority, were also present at the meeting.

“Personally, I think it’s working really well,” Story said about all the organizations being under one roof. “The synergy is tremendous. The energy is tremendous. And we love it.”

Story said he has been going to different cities to pitch partnering with them to funnel their hotel/motel tex to Forward Rabun for marketing and advertising.

Clayton Mayor Jordan Green noted at the meeting that the city has already approved this year’s budget and have already committed their hotel/motel tax for this budget.

Story said that Sky Valley has already partnered with Forward Rabun and sends them 100 percent of their hotel/motel tax while the city of Dillard will split their tax between Forward Rabun and Dillard’s downtown development entity.

Green noted however that he sees this as beneficial for the city and wanted council members to know about it for future discussion.

“This is one of the things have to look to in the future,” Green said.

Story said that he understood and that any way the city of Clayton and Forward Rabun could work together would be worthwhile.

In his pitch to council members, Story discussed how development is coming to the county and that the city of Clayton has a lot to offer. He said that it is growing but that it can be beneficial if it is marketed correctly.

“We can allow that growth to happen for us, instead of happen to us,” Story said.

He said that the Forward Rabun transition team consists of Juanita Shope, Rick Story, Pete Halter, Stephen Arbitter, Claude Dillard, Jim Wallis and Robert Pittman.

“We’re ready to start putting together a formal board,” Story said. He said that the plan is to have a 21-member community board where every city, the county and businesses are represented.

“We need to make it as representative as possible,” Story said.

He said that plan is to have one representative from each city, one from the Chamber of Commerce, the Superintendent of Schools, and five for the county-at-large.

Private sector businesses and organizations will have eight representatives collectively, Story explained.

He said that he understands that it sounds like a lot of people and that the board would meet quarterly to make it manageable.

“[We] don’t want to be exclusionary,” Story said when he was questioned about the large size of the board.

Story also said that the hope is to have a “mayor board,” where mayors from all the cities can come together to brainstorm collectively about ideas for the county and that Forward Rabun would facilitate this council.

Council member Woody Blalock questioned why this 21-person board was needed and said that he feels like the Chamber is adequate in achieving this goal.

“I guess I’m shocked we need a board for this,” Blalock said. He said that there would be a way to consult on these matters without creating another board because there are too many meetings already.

“It’s really more for coordination,” Story said, adding this way, more entities would be represented.

Story added that Forward Rabun has a greater chance of receiving grants since these different organizations are operating together.