One learns, for instance, that 998,887 tons of truck freight worth $3.4 billion came into the county while 1.2 million tons worth $2.7 billion left for places outside Georgia.
This is a business recruitment tool created at the state level and all counties are available. It might be wise not to rely on it for much else, however. Not only are none of the .pdf maps offered to download showing routes, etc. available as claimed but some of the supporting details are suspect if one is actually familiar with Floyd County, which most viewers/prospects likely will not be.
For example, in listing higher education available locally that supports/teaches “logistics” topics it leaves out Berry College as existing … but includes West Georgia. It says that the whole county has but a mere 250,000 square feet of warehousing/distribution and then names those locations with Lowe’s (1,400,000 square feet) atop the list even though not open yet.
It also shows all the county’s highways and rivers with the Coosa apparently ending at a lake (Weiss?) that is portrayed as entirely within Floyd.
Really? Perhaps Floyd needs to start shipping trainloads of proofreaders to Atlanta.
The blog post mentions Berry College as missing from Floyd County. The initial research conducted did not show that Berry College has a logistics program, certificate or degree and thus it was not included in this subset of educational offerings in the County. (We did uncover over 100 different logistics educational offerings statewide that we have not yet talked much about.)
Each Spotlight was custom built based on data and information received directly from the community, other state agencies (like the Department of Community Affairs and the Department of Labor) as well as public sources like Wikipedia (for links to road segment details) and the New Georgia Encyclopedia (for historical commentary) and SelectGeorgia.net (for available building spaces). We published what we believed to be a fairly comprehensive set of data. However, it is a living document and we continue to incorporate changes and make corrections as they are received. This level of detail and accuracy can really only come from those that know the community best, and the Spotlights are a brand new way to make that information available. So as we continue to find ways to showcase every County in Georgia and tell their stories, we need your help! Please do send us any and all comments, corrections and suggestions at http://www.georgialogistics.com/about-the-center/contact.aspx to make this tool better.
Page Siplon
Executive Director
Georgia Center of Innovation for Logistics