A summer youth program is in the works to encourage teens and young workers to get to work, said Carol Rayburn,

In speaking to the Northeast Georgia Regional Development Center (NEGRDC) Board of Directors in March, Rayburn said the stimulus dollars needed to be spent quickly, but efficiently and effectively.

"This summer, with stimulus infusion of dollars it really has made a huge difference," said Rayburn. "There is incentive and a big push from the U.S. Department of Labor level to operate a very large, stand alone, summer work program this summer. We are very excited about this opportunity," Rayburn said.

Some restrictions for workers are:

Have to be between the ages of 14-24

Income criteria: A family of four, earned income can not be more than $22,000 in annual income

If receiving TANF or Food Stamps, the child is eligible

Posters will be mailed out along with a two page information sheet to a variety of school systems, Boys and Girls Clubs, libraries and county managers. The phone lines will be open for interested applicants on April 1.

The Northeast Georgia Regional Development Center (NEGRDC) Board of Directors met on March 19 to discuss the audit and finance report, program of work report, workforce development and to give a stimulus update.

Dr. Warren Brown, director of the Applied Demography Program with The University of Georgia, gave a presentation on forecasted demographics in the separate regions in Northeast Georgia and Jackson, Jasper, Madison and Morgan counties gave accounts of how the individual counties are progressing and some, cleaning up after storms hit the area.

Many of the updates included delayed projects, financial struggles and budget and staff cuts; a sure sign of the economic times hitting not only one area, but most all counties in Georgia.

Members of the Audit and Finance Committee met and Frank Turner gave the crowd a positive update.

"We are getting some advance money already, some grants ... cash exceeds total liabilities by $727,000 so commission is in really good shape," he said.

Revenues exceeded expenses by $29,034.00 and the report was accepted unanimously by the board.

Charlie Crawford spoke in regards to the Board’s Program of Work.

"As mentioned we had a very involved session with three requests for technical assistance for the month, one was for the City of Auburn ... for development of a downtown sewer improvement. Based on the recommendation from the executive director, the committee recommends that the technical assistance requests for the month by added to the FY2009 Program of Work effective March 19, 2009," Crawford said.

The motion was made by Crawford and approved unanimously.

Jim Dove, executive director, spoke about the stimulus package.

"I heard ... the state will have about $10.8 million for the CBDG’s (Community Development Block Grant) ... and thank goodness those applications will not be based on demographics, as they have in the past which has always hurt our area ... but also they were relaxed in match requirements," Dove said. "The important thing is to have your construction, plans, designs, your engineering work done because BCA wants to fund projects that can be bid within 120 days," he said. "And also in this instance, they have promised to count not only the permanent jobs ... but also the construction jobs as well."

Governor Sonny Perdue’s recommendations included about $4.5 million in extra money for the Regional Development Center, that’s in addition to $1.6 million that RDC has received in the past.

"The money did go through the House Procreations Committee ... and should exit the House today and go to the Senate," said Dove.

The NEGRDC serves 12 counties and 54 municipal governments. The agency was developed in 1963 in order to focus on regional issues concerning local government and to be a resource for those governments in a variety of specialized areas including planning, development, grants, job training and economic development.

In other news, here are the county updates that were given at the meeting:

•Good financial standing

•Adding half a million dollars to fund balance for 2008

•Had 10 percent reduction in operating budgets in each department

•Has made personnel changes, reductions in planning and development area

•Building a new jail, deferring the opening until next year due to budget, staffing reasons

•Building a new fire training center, expected to be completed this year

•A couple of projects in progress to upgrade roads

•New administration, three of Five commissioners are new

•Looking to do a lot of things to get ahead of the financial curve with furloughs and budget cuts

•Doubled efforts in looking for grants, stimulus money

•Biggest need is road repairs, more than 50 miles of dirt roads

•Received grant money for street scape projects in Monticello

•Finishing upgrade to Water Department Facility

•Will be recipient of Vista funds through the Downtown Development Authority

•Cleaning up from two tornados that hit, causing considerable damage to housing, structure damages and trees

•Almost finished with amendments to zoning ordinance

•Still cleaning up from snow storms: trees and power outages. Power was out for four days, had more than 1,200 911 calls

•More than 2,000 were out of power for several days. There were 24,000 out of power to begin with and 22,000 were restored within one week

•Two major towers went down

•Chicken houses were affected

•Splost money, waiting to use it in hopes that it will build up

•Columbia Feed Mill, $20 million project

•Just finished water project

•Received a loan to put in water treatment plant

•Just finished a water tank, still needs to be painted

•Have new Aquatic Center going in, Eight lane pool and year-round structure

•DeKalb Tech collaboration and county space to be used for classes

•Work Force Readiness

•Public Safety Facility going in, EMS 911 and new jail. Hoping to save $5,000 on project. Will be ready to go in February

•Opening new park, green space to be open in three months that is a full block long

•Celebrating Bicentennial