Ken Paxton

Town hall meeting brings residents, others into the loop

By ANDREW MCGINN
a.mcginn@beeherald.com

Peg Raney was introduced Monday evening at a town hall meeting as the new program director of Jefferson Matters: Main Street.

Raney played a visible role in bringing a casino to Jefferson last year as a member of the Grow Greene County Gaming Corp., the nonprofit that now will decide how to distribute the estimated $1.2 million each year in gaming revenue from Wild Rose Jefferson to community projects.

Beginning May 5, she’ll bring her skillset to the Main Street office — a part-time position — as the downtown preservation group looks to build on the success of last week’s two-day Empty Building Tour, which attracted 73 developers and others interested in available downtown real estate.

Raney, who afterward Monday stressed a desire to work with the Jefferson city council, will continue to serve as secretary of Grow Greene County.

Monday’s town hall at the Greene County Community Center brought together a handful of local economic development insiders to provide updates on various projects taking shape throughout Jefferson.

“An informed community is going to be a lot more supportive than a community who gets surprised,” said Ken Paxton, executive director of the Greene County Development Corp., who masterminded the second event of its kind.

The first updates of the night were given on construction at Wild Rose Jefferson and the Greene County Medical Center.
“You can’t lose talking about the casino,” Paxton said.

At the hospital — which isn’t only expanding and remodeling, but working to replace McFarland Clinic with UnityPoint Clinic — CEO Carl Behne reported that UnityPoint will begin seeing patients at its new family clinic in mid to late May, when the first nurse practitioner starts work.

The clinic will likely employ two or three physicians total along with two or three nurse practitioners, according to Behne.

Behne hopes to bring a pediatrician on board as well.

“That’s a need in our community,” he said.

Guided public tours of the medical center’s $22.5 million building project will be given from 2 to 5 p.m. June 13 during Bell Tower Festival weekend. Behne expects construction to be complete in mid-July.

Less certain is the fate of the Greene County Chamber of Commerce Welcome Center at  the Thomas Jefferson Gardens.

Chamber President Omega Sang reported that $90,000 has so far been invested in remodeling the current onsite structure into a welcome center — but that $235,000 more is needed to finish it.

Fundraising has yet to resume.

Paxton himself talked Monday about the need for more available land close to the center of Jefferson.

The development corporation also is contacting landowners along U.S. Highway 30 near the casino seeking permission to promote their land as available for development.

Other topics Monday included housing — “There are no rental properties in Jefferson,” Paxton reported — and plans taking shape for this year’s Bell Tower Festival.

Another town hall meeting will be held in the fall.

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