On Sunday afternoon, the Bryan County Republican Party hosted a “State of the City, County, and School Board" address at Fort McAllister’s Community Shelter.
The hour-long meeting featured various elected officials and representatives from the City of Pembroke, Richmond Hill, Bryan County, and the Bryan County School System.
Jordan Given, chairman of the Bryan County Republican Party, says that the organization plans to hold more of these types of community events in Bryan County more often for folks who are interested.
“Late last year, we put out a study to see what our voters and individuals in Bryan County wanted to engage in,” said Given.
“And the overall topic was [that] they wanted to have more input with their elected officials and see what’s going on in the county.”
Each presenter had about 10 minutes to give an overview of what is going on with their respective organizations.
Karen Krupp and Derrick Smith, members of the Bryan County School Board, went first to discuss happenings in the school system, most notably the future Richmond Hill High School campus set to open in fall 2025.
“It will be the sixth-largest high school in the state of Georgia,” said Smith.
The pair also touched on the upcoming operations center in north Bryan, as well as the new Bryan County High School in 2028, a future Lanier Elementary School in 2029, and a new Bryan County Middle School in 2030.
Johnnie Miller, Pembroke Mayor Pro-Tem, went up in place of Mayor Tiffany Zeigler, who could not attend due to surgery, Miller said.
Using a PowerPoint presentation created by Zeigler, Miller covered Pembroke’s aims for the future, which largely boil down to balancing economic growth in north Bryan with meeting the needs of Pembroke’s residents, many of whom are wary of all the changes associated with said growth.
“We’ve had more people at our City Council meetings than ever before,” said Miller.
“Growth is coming, whether you want it or not," Miller continued. “We might be dead and gone, but it’s going to be here.”
Richmond Hill Mayor Russ Carpenter went next, giving a brief summary of past events in the city, including the ribbon-cutting of Carrington Town Center, a senior citizen living complex, and the opening of St. Joseph’s/Candler’s new healthcare facility in the Heartwood neighborhood.
Carpenter also mentioned the upcoming openings of two food chains–Zaxby’s at Belfast Keller Road and Chipotle to the left of Richmond Hill’s Autozone.
“We’ve been trying to create a downtown in Richmond Hill for many years”, Carpenter continued. “We’re not blessed like Pembroke to have a downtown area, so just to go get something where people can get pedestrian use of shopping [stores] and get people out.”
Lastly, Sterling Creek Park will be opening up its lake to swimmers on May 4th this spring, Carpenter added.
Carter Infinger, Bryan County Commission Chairman, closed the ‘State of the County” address with some quick updates on the Metaplant, although Infinger noted that Hyundai isn’t the only news in town.
“Hyundai is the big thing, but don’t let it overshadow other things that are going on in our community,” said Infinger.
In addition to employment from Hyundai, other companies that came into Bryan County include WebstaurantStore, Norma Precision, Komar Brands, Hyundai Mobis, Kiss Cosmetics, and LG Energy, for a combined total of 11,580 new jobs and $8.82 billion in capital investment.
Infinger also drew a contrast between Bryan County’s shrewd planning for Hyundai versus Rivian’s setback in north Georgia, with the rival automaker recently postponing its plans for its $5 billion electric vehicle manufacturing plant east of Atlanta.
“We were out front [with Hyundai] in being very proactive and got it to where it needed to be,” Infinger said.