The Buzz of Northwest Georgia:
>10 reasons we're bullish about Northwest Georgia in 2009:
-From the opening of Tellus to changes at Berry and Shorter to a few 'what ifs' in the breeze, we're seeing signs of good things to come in 2009.
>Three-Dot Buzz: Local feel to gubernatorial campaign; social media buzzing
>Hometown 2009: What's ahead and a quick review of 2008
Weather Center / Brought to you by Roman Court
-This morning: Thunderstorms possible as a front passes through. Click Radar
-Today: 90 percent chance of showers. High near 62.
-Tonight: Partly cloudy, with a low around 40.
-Monday: Sunny, with a high near 62. North wind around 5 mph.
-For additional updates, please click WeatherCenter
'Rome, Ga, Facebook Directory' at almost 500 members
-The popular social media network has a booming group of users in Rome/Floyd County as well as others who maintain strong ties to our community. Hometown Headlines has created a Rome directory group open to all.
>Add your name and face by clicking Rome, Ga., Facebook Directory
>New: The Rome, Ga., Facebook Business Directory: Add your business's Facebook address to the list> Business
Norman Arey's Sports Roundtable / brought to you by Riverside Toyota
-Bowl No-Nos No. 2: Rough season-enders for Tech, UGA? No, no . . . For more, click Arey
Sports update
-Atlanta Braves tweak some minor league assignments> Sports
Downtown Headlines
-New year gets off to a rockin' start--starting Wednesday night> Downtown
10 reasons we're bullish about Northwest Georgia in 2009
You don't need another dime-store recap of the state of our economy. It is rough out there and the first quarter could be the most challenging of all. But in looking at all of 2009, we remain bullish on Northwest Georgia. Here are 10 reasons why:
1. The opening of Tellus/Northwest Georgia's Science Museum: The folks behind Booth Western Art Museum open the region's newest 120,000-square-foot museum on Jan. 12. This is both a "destination" attraction to draw new visitors and a must-see for area students, a definitive win-win. Click Tellus
2. Berry Crossing. Why get so excited about another shopping center? Not only will it bring 37,000 square feet of new retail and restaurants to a booming part of town, it also is being built with a generous nod to the architecture of Berry College. We hope this is the first sign of the Martha Berry Corridor we've been hearing about. Look for Berry Crossing (CVS as the anchor) to open this spring> BC
3. Berry's twin residence halls opening in August.
Berry is committed to expanding its student population and the twin residence halls under way behind Hermann Hall --coupled with the year-old Cage Center--are excellent commitments to just that. Both new and existing students fuel a huge part of our region's economy. The more, the merrier. Click Berry
4. Shorter's change to university status; new nursing school
By June 1, 2010, Shorter will be a university, not a college. The move is designed to broaden the scope of what Shorter offers to new and potential students (click). Also on the way: Shorter's emerging nursing school is taking up residence at Riverbend Center, adding to the continuing diversity of the retail/medical strip on the East Rome side of the Etowah River. Look for aggressive work on both these initiatives in 2009. Click Shorter
5. Cartersville's new civic center: Voters easily approved a $20 million SPLOST package for a new civic center that will rise across from -- and augment -- the booming Cartersville campus of Georgia Highlands College. Some of the preliminary work is still coming together but watch for progress--and soon. And keep an eye on GHC's planned growth there, too. A clone of the first building is on the way.
6. Northwest Georgia's medical community: We can't remember the last time there was no major medical expansion/new office under way in Floyd, Bartow, Gordon, Polk or Chattooga counties. Sign of the times? Hardly. One of the safest industries in town is medical. Our guess: We'll certainly see updates on new growth, and soon, and most likely in the form of the proposed cancer center between West Third Street and Floyd Medical Center.
7. The arrival of Rome City Market. Why the hoopla? It's not so much the long-delayed project but the message it sends and visitors it will generate. The market is supposed to open in January after more than two years of delay. A bistro, wines, flowers, Riverside Gourmet's new home and more are due. Handled properly, this could be a critically needed destination business for downtown.
8. Town Green/new parking deck: We admit to being skeptics of putting a parking garage along valuable riverfront property but we'll also hold judgment until we see the final Town Green plan in action. Both projects should stimulate traffic in downtown Rome, especially in surrounding neighborhoods and not just along Broad. Forget West Third for now; there are some real opportunities for areas facing Tribune Street in months ahead.
9. Some sort of a confederation of entrepreneurs. We expect to witness a gathering of new business types who see opportunity even while others witness another pillaging of their 401ks. There is investment money available in Northwest Georgia and an abundance of ideas. Properly channeled, these entrepreneurs could help lead us out of the recession of 2008-09. We're certain these new frontier business men and women will quickly move out of the shadow of Rome's normal operating structure--and even supercede it. The old guard mentality is another casualty of the recession.
10. The official first Publix/Target rumor of 2009: Now that we've given Doug 
and Tony something to talk about this morning at WRGA, let's get to the facts: There aren't any--that we've seen, at least. But ongoing work at TLRS (the latest reported site) -- Mathis Builders Hardware & Supply, the cement factory behind it, etc.-- has the Publix rumor mill fired up again. Officially, the Lakeland, Fla.-based chain confirms new stores only in Pauding County and Carters Grove in Cartersville.
Add a reason: Let us know your reasons for being upbeat about Northwest Georgia in 2009. Send them via e-mail (click); we'll post throughout the week.
Three-Dot Buzz . . . :
Campaign 2010 off and running: Look for a familiar Rome name to be active in
Democrat David Poythress' gubernatorial campaign. Additional details will be out
after the first of the year as the campaign gets under way with a series
of meetings and appearances. Click Poythress . . .
Consider it the social media campaign: The Poythress staff isn't wasting time in getting Web sites and social media pages going. Already, the candidate's Facebook page has 84 friends (and a few local faces as well). Also included, weekly updates from Poythress, including a call for Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich to resign.We also found on Facebook these candidate-specific pages:
>Draft Casey Cagle for Governor (94 members)
>John Oxendine for Georgia's governor (242 members)
>Draft David Shafer for lieutenant governor (368 friends, including a few locals) . . .
New player on the Web: Belatedly, the AJC last week profiled Erick Erickson's Redstate.com site and the national role it championed in 2008 (click story). There's another player making some news and popping up on 2010 Web sites already. The name is catchy: A Donkey and An Elephant Walk Into A Bar. The site is a good referral spot to blogs, Web sites and other things political. We like "fantasy ballots."
. . .
Hometown Headlines 2009: What's ahead
We start our sixth fiscal year today and we do so with a healthy dose of thank yous.
Every single category we track, from "visits" and "hits" to the business side, have been record-setting. That's especially important given the rise in others interested in your visiting their respective sites. The continuing economic struggles of our region and our nation have been factors as well.
We remain extremely confident in Northwest Georgia as we expand in 2009. We're dabbling in social media (Facebook, for example) and are very pleased with the success of our blog companion sites to Hometown Headlines and Bartow Headlines.
We're also extremely grateful to our broadcast partners, WBHF 1450 AM in Cartersville as well as our recent hook-ups with Talk Radio 1410 AM WLAQ and 95.7 FM The Ridge. We have high hopes here in 2009 as well.
You'll see us refine our news posts this year. Our success has been built on providing information others have yet to post and we'll be doing much more of that this year. To do so, we're moving away from what we call "cut and paste journalism" or better put, the daily race to see which site can post which press release the fastest. We'll post a sentence or two and then link you to the company, business or whatever Web site for more. Our time and resources need to be focused on other areas while providing links to key community information.
In 2008, we added more voices to our Web sites in addition to some ongoing favorites. They included:
-Norman Arey's Sports Roundtable: Norman is our region's most experienced sports essayist. He's a former AJC sports and news writer as well as a columnist in addition to being a frequent contributor to national sports publications and a former Heisman voter. The audio of his commentaries can be heard on WRGA.
-Dixon & Clemons: Democrat Graham Dixon and Republican Adam Clemons parlayed their popular column from the late Druck Report into a monthly (and more) series of essays on national politics and what they meant to Northwest Georgia. We're plotting their 2009 chronicles right now.
-J.C. Smith's Small Business Reports: J.C. retired this year from the Small Business Development Center in Gainesville. He joined Hometown Headlines in early 2004 and was a constant weekly contributor. We're hoping to recycle some of his wisdom this year to benefit local entrepreneurs.
-Bryan Mullins' Mullinsmania.com: Bryan was a huge contributor to the first edition of Rome Unscene and spun Mullinsmania.com into Northwest Georgia's premiere entertainment choice. Bryan's weekly entries on downtownheadlines.com are fan favorites and we have some expansion ideas.
-John McClellan's High School Football picks: We've been a fan of John's radio broadcasts for years and we were thrilled when he agreed to put his analysis in writing last fall. The Football Report became an instant hit and we hope to do it again in 2009.
-Freelance writers Natalie Simms and Tricia Steele expanded our reporting options in 2008 and you'll be seeing more from each in 2009. Their reports on local health and business trends have been especially well received. They provide the in depth content that most media is abandoning these days. We believe a balance is needed, with both quick hit updates and "long-form" stories.
We have several enhancements planned for the early part of 2009 so please stay with Hometown Headlines as we begin our sixth year of service as Northwest Georgia's maverick media.
We've proven that media can be quite successful without the normal crutches of cops, courts, government agendas or the original form of government bailouts: taxpayer-funded legal ads. Why these aren't exclusively online and free for all baffles us; we certainly endorse local efforts to change that.
Again, our thanks for a great 2008. We promise a better local media experience in 2009.
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