By Kay S. Pedrotti
If dedication to growing this area, plus a winning personality that draws people to her, are factors in whether Emily Quinn Johns is successful with her new post as chamber of commerce president and CEO -- she’s in the right place.
The 34-year-old is still learning the area, she says, but every day brings something that piques her interest. Johns believes the key to growth is community cooperation, “and Barnesville seems to have a lot of that.” She will be meeting regularly with small downtown businesses and larger companies here to find out what the chamber can do to help them.
Emily Quinn Johns
We have to turn our focus into our community if we're to thrive!
There is nothing more annoying that driving to town to find a business closed even though their sign states the hours. Also, it makes for a bad taste in a person's mouth when you wait for an extended period of time for your food and it isn't even cooked properly.
Responsibility lies in both sets of hands, the owner and consumer.
Why destroy what we have, less is more. Use the money you pay the chamber of commerce, and a "CEO" to beautify Barnesville, and to make more parks, bike trails, for children, as well as adults. If people need jobs, drive under an hour to your job. Keep Barnesville Small.
I pay the high end of the tax scale to.
We don't need a Chamber of Commerce CEO to have a beautiful town. Barnesville is a beautiful town, if people would put litter in a trash can, instead of tossing it out their vehicle window. We do our part picking up trash every other week the length of our road, and if you don't the County will mow over top of it and make 4 times the amout of trash, instead of having Convicts pick it up first, or enforcing litter laws.
I respect your your right to have a business, as i hope you respect my right to keep Barnesville small. I would shop locally more if the merchants didn't charge 3x as much.
I guarantee you have Chinese products in your store, your house, etc......I guarantee I save $20,000 a year between buying over the internet, and Walmart. No taxes on the internet, and Lord knows we are over taxed as it is. We are retired and love small Barnesville, who wants to be Griffin, or McDonough, and deal with there crime and traffic, the can have it. As far as I'm concerned, Miss Johns can go back to Griffin.
Can you imagine not having a local plumber, or grocery, or hardware store. Can you imagine having to drive to Griffin or Forsyth for everything you need?
Your tire goes bad, and you have to try to locate a tire 20 miles from here?
I may pay a bit more for some things, but these are neighbors and friends who are providing for their own families and we all depend on each other.
That being said, I will be giving my local plumber a call today.....and he will buy the supplies for my repair job from the local hardware store.
And my money stays right here in the community.
Main street will roll up and disappear. Seen it happen many times in many cities. Like the old saying goes, be careful what you wish for.