Development Authority of Walton County

10/19/2026

On Friday, we celebrated the groundbreaking of SANO Handtrucks new facility being built off of Cherry Hill Road and Hwy 78.

Sano, the maker of electric handtrucks that climb stairs with ease, will be building a 27,000 square-foot facility that will allow them to expand their operations and hopefully manufacture key components in-house in the near future.

Welcome to Monroe!

10/14/2026

Wixxel is back.
This past year, Jami Cash took Wixxel from an idea to the classroom — and now he's returning to Harmony Elementary, reaching Kindergarten and First Grade.

Career awareness doesn't have to wait for middle school.

Start early, spark curiosity, and let big dreams start small.

🚨WIXXEL IS REPORTING BACK FOR DUTY! 🚨

Wixxel is headed BACK to Harmony Elementary School, and this time he’s taking on Kindergarten and First Grade! 📚✨

Who says career exploration has to wait until middle or high school? NOT WIXXEL! 💥

He’s bringing career awareness to the elementary space, introducing the youngest learners to a world of possibilities, sparking curiosity, and helping little minds DREAM BIG! 🌎💡

Because it’s NEVER too early to discover what you can become! 🚀

Big Dreams Start Small… and Wixxel is on a mission to prove it! 🎯

10/02/2026

It’s always a pleasure to visit one of our established employers!

Today, our team visited the Goodyear plant in Social Circle, and it’s easy to see why this operation continues to be successful.

With approximately 150 employees and an average employee tenure of 10 years, this is a tight-knit, well-oiled team. Their emphasis on training, preventative maintenance, safety, and consistently meeting key performance goals was evident throughout our visit.

Thank you to the Goodyear team for your time, hospitality, and the opportunity to tour the facility.

We’re proud to have you as part of Walton County’s industry community!

09/29/2026

Great to see Walton County represented by Monroe Elementary Principal Dane Callahan and Dessa Morris on behalf of Monroe-Walton READS, a 2026 Georgia READS Community Award winner! 📚

Investing in literacy and education strengthens our community today and helps build a stronger Walton County for the future.

Walton County School District - GA

09/25/2026

🎮🚀 **Years in the making — and ARCADE is finally rolling!**

What started as a big idea is now a one-of-a-kind, hands-on career experience ready to introduce students across our region to careers and opportunities they may have never imagined.

The Development Authority is proud to have been part of ARCADE from its earliest days. A special thank you to **Carol Cofer and Susan Boatright**, who led the original team alongside **Ilka McConnell, Dessa Morris and Asher Dozier** — a group that dared to dream big and then got to work making it happen.

Along the way, **Ben McDaniel** gave ARCADE its name, while **Jami Cash played a major role in turning the concept into the experience students will see today** — developing the equipment list, graphic design and lesson plans for every station and helping bring the many pieces of ARCADE together.

So many ideas, conversations, partnerships and hours of work have gone into reaching this moment. We are incredibly proud to see this vision become reality and excited about what ARCADE can mean for students, employers and the future workforce of Walton County and our region.

**Now let’s get ARCADE out into our communities!** 💙

🎮 ARCADE COMMUNITY SHOWCASE at the Walton County Career Connections Expo— Our First Public Showing! 🚀
We’re excited to open the doors of the ARCADE — Advanced Rolling Career Awareness & Development Experience for its first public showcase across Northeast Georgia’s 12-county region on Wednesday, September 23rd.
ARCADE was created with one goal in mind: give students the opportunity to experience careers—not just hear about them.
Through hands-on, arcade-style career exploration, students can discover high-demand career pathways using interactive technology including:

🤖 Robotics & Automation
⚙️ Advanced Manufacturing
🔥 Virtual Welding
🚜 Heavy Equipment & Construction Simulation
🩺 Healthcare Career Exploration
🖨️ 3D Scanning, Design & Printing
💻 STEM & Technology Careers

This initiative has truly been built through regional collaboration.
A special thank you to Walton Works and the Development Authority of Walton County for their insight, ideas, collaboration, support, and guidance as we worked to turn the ARCADE concept into a career exploration experience that connects students with the opportunities available right here in our region.
We are also grateful for the support of Georgia Power and for the investment of the Southern Crescent Regional Commission (SCRC), whose grant funding is helping make this work possible.
Through the SCRC grant, WorkSource Northeast Georgia and the Northeast Georgia Regional Commision (NEGRC) will initially bring ARCADE career exploration experiences to middle school students in Clarke, Newton, and Walton counties.

Moving forward...

🌎 Northeast Georgia is a 12-county region, and we want ARCADE reaching students throughout all 12 counties.
With support from businesses, industries, educational partners, and community sponsors, we hope to expand ARCADE beyond the initial grant-funded communities and introduce even more students to the high-demand, high-opportunity careers available close to home.
The ARCADE Community Showcase is an opportunity for our community to step inside, try the experiences, meet the partners behind the project, and see firsthand how we are working together to build Northeast Georgia’s future workforce.
🎯 Explore careers. Discover possibilities. Build our regional talent pipeline.
We are proud to show Northeast Georgia what’s inside the ARCADE!

09/21/2026

More than 125 years of doing business in Walton County, Georgia.

We recently joined Power Evans, Region 5 Regional Project Manager with the Georgia Department of Economic Development, for a visit to Walton Press.

Vice President Wayne Henderson and Ryleigh Carlisle, Business Development, gave us a look inside the operation and shared how the company continues to evolve after more than a century in business.

Visits like this are about building relationships, understanding the needs of our existing industries, and making sure they know we’re here as a resource.

We’re proud to have Walton Press calling Walton County home.

09/17/2026

Big things are happening right here in Walton County—and they’re creating big opportunities for our community.

This month, 24 participants are getting to work in the first Construction Ready skilled trades training cohort supporting the Rivian Stanton Springs North project. Over the next four weeks, they’ll gain hands-on experience, earn industry-recognized credentials, and prepare to meet contractors who are hiring.

And it’s happening right here in Walton County.

This is an important part of economic development: creating opportunities close to home and making sure local residents have access to the training and skills needed to pursue them.

New investment gets a lot of attention, but this is the part we especially love to see—people gaining skills, opening doors to new careers, and preparing for opportunities being created in their own community.

We’ll be cheering on Cohort 1 as they work toward the Contractor Hiring Fair on October 6. There’s a lot happening in Walton County, and even more opportunity ahead!

09/09/2026

We were honored to kick off Georgia’s Workforce Conference Webinar Series today!

Dessa Morris and Jami Cash put on their referee shirts to present “Flipping the Workforce Script: Lessons from Our Biggest Fumbles (and How to Steal Our Best Ideas).”

Selected as one of last year’s standout sessions, the presentation shared honest lessons from Walton Works—what didn’t work, what we changed, and the strategies to strengthen connections among industry, education, and our workforce.

Thank you to the Georgia Workforce and Economic Resiliency Center at UGA Carl Vinson Institute of Government for inviting us back to share Walton Works' story!

09/09/2026

Save the Date! Our annual community grants program is now part of the Future is for Everyone Fund, Meta's $1 billion commitment to invest directly in the U.S. communities that host a Meta data center. Applications open on September 14 for schools, nonprofits, and community organizations that make this a great place to live and work.

When the call opens, you'll be able to apply for projects across four focus areas:
🤝 Community Enhancement: the shared spaces and services that bring people together, from parks, trails, and gathering places to connectivity and support for first responders like police, firefighters, and paramedics.

💲Economic Vitality: supporting the people and organizations that power local economies — helping workers gain the skills, certifications, and hands-on experience the modern economy rewards, and backing initiatives that create jobs and give a community its character.

🎓Education: programs, tools, and spaces that help learners of every age discover what they're capable of, from early literacy and the arts to hands-on science and technology, plus resources for the educators who make it happen.

🌳Sustainability: caring for the land, water, and wildlife that make this area home, including habitat restoration and conservation that connect people to the natural world.

Want to be ready? Mark your calendar and start thinking about the projects that matter most here. We'll share the application link and full details the day the call opens.

09/08/2026

📚 Strong communities are built through strong partnerships.

The Development Authority of Walton County was proud to be part of the community effort that brought more than 11,000 books home to Walton County through Lt. Governor Burt Jones' Book Drive.

We’re grateful to Georgia Reads for this tremendous investment in Georgia’s children and families, and especially thankful for our local partners who helped make it happen — including Walton County Government, Walton County Fire Rescue, City of Loganville - Government, Loganville Rotary Club, Monroe-Walton READS, and everyone who lent a hand.

Economic development is ultimately about creating a community where people and families can thrive. Investments in literacy and education help build the foundation for a strong community and a strong future workforce.

More than 11,000 books are now one step closer to Walton County readers — and we’re proud to have played a part in bringing them home. ❤️📚