Greene County Development Corporation held its annual meeting virtually Wednesday night.

Due to COVID-19 concerns, the event couldn’t be held in person but GCDC was able to still host a number of speakers. The event started with GCDC President Sid Jones with opening remarks and introduced the 2020 officers, including Jones as president, Joel Williams as vice president, Jim Ober as treasurer, Rick Morain as secretary and Norm Fandel as past president. 

GCDC Executive Director Ken Paxton then went over the projects that were completed this year and those forecasted for next year. The projects that were completed this year include the new Greene County High School and Career Academy, 12 rental units with Rowland Construction, and four housing projects with Region XII Council of Governments. Projects for 2021 and 2022 include the Three Block Project with the completion of the middle school apartments and a new early learning center, construction of rental housing units in Scranton, the White House Apartment project in Jefferson and other housing projects in Greene County communities.

Paxton pointed out the partnerships that GCDC has in order to accomplish economic projects.

“Our businesses have held up extremely well. And because of that they’ve allowed for an environment and an economy that’s let GCDC have a very successful year. So my compliments to our businesses (for) how well they are running, and what they’ve been able to do to support our community. We’re also lucky that we have a community that coordinates and works together. From our young community leaders that have stepped forward to our city councils,to our (county) board of supervisors, (and) everybody has been consistently working on the same page.”

Then the featured speakers presented their various projects. Greene County Medical Center CEO Tracy Warner talked about the new Ever Green Ridge: A Continuum of Care Community that combines independent and assisted living with skilled nursing, as well as memory and long term care. Developer with Principal in Des Moines Nate Adams described the potential new apartments in the former Greene County Middle School and local developer Chris Deal talked about the new coworking company of Gravitate that will be located at 202 East State Street and renovating three apartments in the upper story of that building.