At the 2025 State of the Community event, put on each year by the Newton County Chamber of Commerce,  county leaders delivered updates, shared visions and highlighted key initiatives across the community.

Leaders converged at Georgia Piedmont Technical College’s Newton Campus Conference Center on Wednesday, Sept. 10 for a communal lunch and networking before the program began.

Lanier Sims, who serves as the chamber’s immediate past chair as well as chair of the Government Affairs Committee, moderated a four-person panel consisting of Covington Mayor Fleeta Baggett, Porterdale Mayor Michael Patterson, Newton County Water and Sewerage Authority (NCWSA) Executive Director Mike Hopkins and Interim Newton County Chair Linda Hays.

Following a range of questions from Sims, some of the biggest topics discussed were infrastructure, collaboration and growth.

Infrastructure

All four of the panelists spoke at some point about enhanced infrastructure in the last year. 

Patterson highlighted recent sewer updates in the city of Porterdale.

“We have a new sewer project that has been completed, and so everybody is proud of that,” Patterson said. “Though you can’t see it above ground, it does make a difference day after day after day.”

Hopkins also spoke about advancements in the NCWSA, and Baggett touched on the same in the city of Covington.

“It’s funny that the first three people up here are talking about water and sewage,” Baggett said. “It affects us all every single day, and I’m happy to say that we have finished Floyd Street, and that’s been a major undertaking.” 

Floyd Street renovations have been underway for several months, and the city repaved the road, added a four-way stop, implemented raised medians and even installed a large speed bump that Baggett jokingly called “Floyd Mountain.”

Baggett also added that the city had continued work on Newton Drive.

“It’s imperative that we work on this infrastructure,” Baggett said. “And that’s one of the main things that we’ve done, is really push the infrastructure. And we’ve got more to come, and we’re getting it done.”

Similarly, Hays discussed road paving that has been prioritized throughout Newton County.

“Each year, I think we probably have our roads department to pave about 20 miles of roads, and that is extremely important,” Hays said.

The interim chair also echoed that these changes can go unnoticed by most, except the handful who were closest to the project. But the work benefits the whole community.

“This is probably something you wouldn't think about unless you are driving on a road and hit a pothole or you're complaining about roads and something that hasn't been done,” Hays said. “...Sometimes they don't get noticed, but we have a lot of departments that are doing a lot of good in serving citizens in so many ways that you probably don't even realize, and we hope you will in the future.”

Relationships

Another recurring topic throughout the session was unity and collaboration. 

The importance of this was emphasized, whether it be between local governments, between leaders and businesses, between citizens and their representatives and more.

“There’s no one sitting up here, or really in this room, that we don’t pick up the phone and call each other,” Baggett said. “We don’t have to set an appointment up, we don’t have to go through a system. We just pick up the phone and call each other.”

Patterson emphasized the importance of relationships in a community, discussing how the city recently closed a deal for a parking lot that had been a long-sought venture by rekindling a relationship with the lot’s owner.

“We understand that strong communities are built off of strong relationships,” Patterson said.

Patterson additionally stressed the need to support neighboring communities. He discussed Porterdale’s plan to throw support behind the city of Oxford as they petition the Georgia Department of Transportation (GDOT) to consider improving the overpass bridge over I-20.

“GDOT was wanting to only replace [the bridge] like it was, and it would be that same way for another 70 or 80 years,” Patterson said. “But we all know with the growth that we have, we need to be supportive of enlarging that bridge to have a trail going across that bridge as well, so that people or students can walk from Oxford over to Covington and vice versa. 

“And to do that, I don't want to just ask for support; I want to give the support. So we're going to be writing letters and helping show our support that we are coming together as a community, because when you do something in one city, it has a ripple effect on everything else around it.”

Growth

Development and growth was another discussion topic among the panelists. Each took a different perspective on it.

For one, a smaller community like Porterdale has open arms to new business. 

“We are working with the private and the public sector to make sure that they understand Porterdale welcomes new business,” Patterson said. “That we are a champion of new business and we want to help them grow and we will promote as much as we possibly can.”

But the Porterdale mayor stipulated that the city’s leaders are aware that such growth should be undertaken intentionally and with specificity,  

“But we also understand that we have to maintain accountability, we have to maintain structure and wise decision making,” Patterson said. “And in doing that, I believe that's what helps us be sustaining for the future. There's a lot of things that are about to begin taking place in Porterdale. We are on the cusp of this great growth, but we want to be wise in that growth. We want to make sure it's done the right way.”

However, Baggett sent a very different, albeit clear message regarding growth – specifically residential growth – in Covington: 

“We’re full,” Baggett said. “In all honesty, one of the needs that I see the most of is 55 and older.” 

Baggett spoke about housing needs and how, with today’s cost of living, affordable housing is not what many think it is. She pointed to this as another great need in the Covington community.

“I did not know that a family with $90,000 take-home pay is living under the poverty line in the state of Georgia,” Baggett said. “...And then you start hearing everybody fussing about affordable housing and section 8 housing and all that, and they don't realize we have so many people in our community that are doing mid-level and higher-level jobs that are working poor.”

Hopkins also touched on the importance of planning for development in advance, saying most projects take anywhere from 16 to 24 months in full. His comments were not directed at the positives or negatives of growth in Newton County; rather, he spoke about the NCWSA’s role in facilitating development.

His comments were doubly related to the importance of collaboration, as they stressed the need to bring the NCWSA to the table for the early conversations.

“The water and the sewer should not be the growth driver for our community,” Hopkins said. “Elected officials are the ones we believe should dictate where growth goes, but we need a little time — and a lot of money — to be able to get out there and do these things. And we feel like right now the situation we have with Covington, Oxford, Porterdale — we're along that growth corridor of I-20 and 278…And so some of that planning that has already taken place is paying off, but there's still a lot of places in Newton County that might need infrastructure.”

Ultimately, through meeting infrastructure needs, enhancing collaboration and planning for wise growth, the local leaders are hoping to continue to advance the state of the community.

“It takes people, like the mayor was saying, like Mike was saying, to work together to build towards a common good,” Hays said. “And that is to build a better Newton County.”