CELINA-A new committee, made up of business and community leaders, is tackling a broad spectrum of job-related matters here—work they hope will, in turn, help improve a wide array of economic development issues facing Clay County.
The group meets the second Wednesday of each month here at the Clay County Chamber of Commerce at 10 a.m. Nearly 20 interested people attended last week’s monthly meeting, where the committee elected Bobby Reed of Appalachian Bioscience president and Carol Abney of Abney CPA vice-president.
Chamber of Commerce director Kevin Donaldson chaired the meeting—where the recently launched alternate sentencing program, other available job-related programs, developing media/public communications, a survey to identify available jobs, a jobs clearinghouse program, and the absence of local childcare, among many other topics, were discussed.
“This is a very active group, and a lot of action and initiatives have already happened as a result of its work,” said Donaldson. “We now have a president and vice-president to further guide the group, and we look forward to Bobby Reed and Carol Abney leading the committee to even more positive things.”
Other committee members and attendees included Mitch and Renee Gray of Appalachian Bioscience, county commissioner Winton Young, city mayor Joey Rich, Cumberland River Hospital CAO Patricia Strong, UCHRA county coordinator Sandra Grace, historic courthouse curator Thomas Watson, 3-Star director Doug Young, Vol State Livingston director Michael Powell, Belinda Westmoreland of the UCHRA Star Program, Tonya Spears of UCHRA, Celina Health and Rehab administrator Rebecca Tandy, Becky Hull of Tennessee Tech University, county mayor Dale Reagan, Jon Keaton of WVFB-101.5, and Dale Hollow HORIZON editor Thomas Weaver.
See a future HORIZON for more details from the newly-formed workforce development committee’s recent meeting.