April 2017 | Business View Magazine

72 73 Griffin, Georgia Growing together G riffin, Georgia was named for General Lewis Lawrence Griffin, first president of the Monroe Railroad, and was incorporated as a city on Christmas Eve, 1843. It is the county seat of Spalding County, part of the Atlanta metropol- itan area, and has a population of approximately 24,000. After speaking with Griffin City Manager, Kenny Smith, Plan- ning & Development Director, Toussaint Kirk, and Griffin Housing Authority Executive Director, Bob Dull, a collective sense of pride, ongoing accomplishment and excitement for the future of this growing community was abundantly clear. “We’ve got a lot going on,” says Smith, “like building a new air- port.We have a very old municipal airport with a 3700-ft. runway, and the city is built up around it.We’re going to the outskirts of town and building a business-jet-friendly airport with a 5,000-ft runway. The Griffin, Georgia