MADISON, Ga. – In its Tuesday afternoon meeting, the Joint Development Authority of Jasper, Morgan, Newton and Walton Counties unanimously approved the re-election of all of its officers. 

Alan Verner, of Morgan County, will continue to serve as chairman, while Kevin Little, of Walton County, will serve as vice chairman, Steve Jordan, of Jasper County, will serve as treasurer and Marcello Banes, of Newton County, will serve as secretary. 

During its February meeting, a Board Operations and Structure was presented by Shane Short, executive director of the Development Authority of Walton County. During that meeting the authority voted to table to structure so members had time to review the proposal. It was tabled once more Tuesday, as authority members scheduled a work session for April to further discuss appointments to the suggested committees. 

Short also introduced the proposal of hiring a part-time administrator to relieve serve as the point of contact for the authority.

“Following the last JDA meeting, the four of us economic development professionals met to talk about the structure,” he said. “We like adding the new structure. What we had a concern with was … we were a little concerned with somebody keeping all of it together moving forward.

“We just felt that if you had one cohesive person funneling all of that, that communication might be better. It might just help smooth over some of the issued that have been happening over time that we hear you complain about.”

Short said the Development Authority of Walton County has an administrator and he believes it might be the “missing link” of the JDA. 

The JDA’s next meeting is scheduled for 3 p.m. April 23 at the Jasper County Economic Development Office, at 149 Maple St., Monticello, GA 31064. The work session will start two hours prior to that.