Business View Civil & Municipal - May 2023

124 CIVIL AND MUNICIPAL VOLUME 4, ISSUE 5 until the Andover facilities were rebuilt. “We have great buildings that can be redeveloped and utilized for many other purposes. Our community can quickly shift to a plan B, C, or D regarding redeveloped spaces. We don’t rest on our laurels. We redevelop, reuse, and innovate these spaces,” says Shaw. A partnership that the city is proud of is the Go Augusta. This is a combination of Augusta Main Street and Augusta Downtown organizations, and in what is believed to be a first, has taken over the Chamber of Commerce. Go Augusta is looking to apply the four-point strategy of the downtown area across the city. Described as an experiment, the results have spoken for themselves, with the organization getting even more volunteer participation than before. Getting this input, especially from local business owners, has meant the city can move forward. “I think our best relationship is to figure out how the city can step back and facilitate them, to make it easier for those champions and business interests,” says Shaw. Another organization the city works with is Augusta Progress Inc (API). API focuses on housing and larger industrial projects. Moving into the future, city planners are excited by all the planning in the pipeline, with some being worked on for over ten years, with arguably one of the most significant quality-of-life projects nearing completion, the Red Bud Rail Trail Project. But at the root of it all, the city’s management team has done all this work to ensure that Augusta is a family-friendly environment that offers the best quality of life and public spaces while preserving what they have. PREFERRED VENDOR/PARTNER n Cox Communications www.cox.com Cox Communications is committed to creating meaningful moments of human connection through broadband applications and services. The largest private telecom company in America, we proudly serve nearly seven million homes and businesses across 18 states. We’re dedicated to empowering others to build a better future and celebrate diverse products, people, suppliers, communities and the characteristics that makes each one unique. Cox Communications is the largest division of Cox Enterprises, a family- owned business founded in 1898 by Governor James M. Cox. n Butler Community College www.butlercc.edu n Go! Augusta www.goaugusta.org