Our opinion: February 10, 2011

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February 9, 2011

Anonymous The Americus Times-Recorder The Times-Recorder Wed Feb 09, 2011, 08:24 PM EST

AMERICUS — Show support for the new motorsports facility

The big news about a huge motorsports complex coming to fruition in Sumter County is a big topic of conversation.

As well it should be.

George and Jackie Bryce believed in Americus and Sumter County 30 years ago when they decided to locate Star Racing Inc. here. It has meant jobs and a healthy injection into the tax base ever since.

Now the Bryces are dreaming even bigger. They want to build a $12 million motorsports complex here across the road from South Georgia Technical College.

The facility is anticipated to attract an estimated $75 million a year to the community and to create more than 200 full-time and part-time jobs over five years.

The first challenge for this project was the rezoning issue. The Sumter County Board of Planning and Zoning last week approved rezoning the 449 acres owned by the Americus-Sumter County Payroll Development Authority (PDA) from residential to commercial. The Sumter County Board of Commissioners has the last word on these rezoning requests and showed its support in Tuesday’s work session by voting unanimously for the rezoning.

We hope the next step in the process, finalizing the land acquisition contract with the PDA, goes as smoothly as this initial one. Following this step, the facility planning can finally get underway. This project will require significant cooperation and support from the Americus-Sumter County community and its citizens.

This type of economic boost is exactly the type of stimulus our local economy needs to increase the flow of outside dollars and tourism in the area. A project of this size has the potential to bring in hundreds of thousands of visitors to the Americus area each year. We encourage all community members to show their support for this significant step in recovery for our local economy.

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