Community aims for tourist dollars

SUMMERVILLE — The $115,000 grant from the Appalachian Regional Commission that kickstarted Chattooga County’s drive to purchase Paradise Garden fits with the agency’s mission to encourage community and economic development in isolated and needy areas. The county, one of Georgia’s poorest, would appear to be a poster child for need.

Unemployment in Chattooga — population 26,000 — was pushing 20 percent in the darkest days of the recession in 2008 and was at 18 percent when sole county commissioner Jason Winters took office a year later. Now, it’s down to 10.5 percent.

But even with things looking up, Winters said, he knows the county’s economy demands diversification to ensure a brighter future. That’s why he’s hopeful that Paradise Garden’s revival will boost heritage tourism in Chattooga, where two textile mills comprise the biggest industry, employing 2,600.

“This is just a very exciting project for our community,” Winters said. “There probably are some folks in the community who say, ‘Why do this?’ but a lot more people see the advantages.”

As evidence, he pointed out that the city and foundation raised $43,000 toward the purchase of the property and related expenses in just a month from 100 donors who gave from $5 to $5,000.

Tying Paradise Garden to economic development simply adds up, Winters is convinced. “Something that folks relate to,” he said, “is something that’s good for business.”