COVINGTON, Ga. — As Newton County is, again, witnessing a historic rate of growth, an organization formed more than 20 years ago is making a return to help facilitate planning and communication efforts.

Newton County Tomorrow, a nonprofit collaborative formed at the turn of the century, is scheduled to host a stakeholder meeting Thursday, May 26, from 3-6 p.m. inside the Newton County College and Career Academy.

The organization was created around 2003 when the county was growing at an exponential rate and the need for community leaders to work and plan together was “obvious,” Newton County Tomorrow Chairman Jerry Roseberry recalled.

 At the time, Newton was considered one of the fastest growing counties in the nation. 

Local leaders, led by the Arnold Fund, initiated Newton County Tomorrow and the Center for Community Planning and Preservation, Roseberry said. The Center has since become a neutral meeting place for local governments, authorities, agencies and other interested individuals and groups to “work collaboratively to improve the realm of government” and also improve the quality of life countywide.

Over the years, the efforts of Newton County Tomorrow have been nationally recognized by the Orton Foundation, which selected Covington, Oxford and Newton County as “one of five communities in the United States it honored for collaborative work,” and by the American Planners Association, which named Newton County Tomorrow its national award winner for planning by a small community. 

In April 2022, the University of Georgia’s Archway Foundation announced Newton County Tomorrow was selected as one of four cohorts for UGA’s new Connected Resilient Community program. The program will help cities and communities “tap into the resources and expertise at UGA to address local challenges and become more attractive to economic development.”

In an application to be part of the Connected Resilient Community program, Newton County Chamber President Debbie Harper, who also serves on the Newton County Tomorrow Board of Directors, wrote, “Our community is at a crossroads of growth, which is really already here. We have done a good job of being out in front of the growth, but there is a feeling of getting run over if we don’t come together as one to move forward. Our identity as rural vs. metro needs defining. We feel we have the right players at the table, we just need facilitation and direction to drill down to our most challenging issues, identify solutions and initiatives to be able to move forward as a connected and resilient community.”

Roseberry, who is a former mayor of Oxford, said UGA Archway Partnership officials would be on hand for the Thursday, May 26, stakeholder meeting to discuss the program.

Thursday’s meeting will mark Newton County Tomorrow’s return into the public eye after a nearly four-year hiatus. The board’s last significant action took place then to help facilitate the stakeholder portion of a comprehensive transportation plan for the county in 2017, as well as build support for the 2017 SPLOST and the 2018 E-SPLOST.

“It was important that it be done,” Roseberry told The News of Newton County Tomorrow’s return. “We’ve enlarged the board and compiled it with good people … It’s important to have a neutral place where government leaders can come together to meet, study, plan and act on behalf of the entire community.”

Newton County Tomorrow’s Board of Directors consists 20 members — 10 people who serve on the executive committee, including the county chairman and all five city mayors, and 10 people who serve as “at-large members.”

The executive committee meets regularly once per month, and the entire board meets as a whole every other month.