It was a year ago, March 12, 2020 when Chattooga County residents were hit with the reality of the COVID-19 pandemic.  The official start of the COVID-19 pandemic may be hard to pinpoint, but March 12th was when Georgia began to take measures to control the virus.  Businesses were closed and people were being told to shelter-in-place and local government authorities were scrambling to come up with protocol to deal with the pandemic.

Then-Commissioner Jason Winters had just announced his plans to seek a fourth term but was sidelined from campaigning because of the coronavirus pandemic.  The commissioner began releasing daily briefings on what the county government was doing to prevent the spread of the virus.

Some of the headlines from WZQZ in March of last year included announcements about restaurants and other businesses closing their doors.  That left a lasting economic impact on the county, the state and the nation.  As businesses closed, news came that public events were being canceled.  Summerville Main Street had to cancel all of their spring, summer and fall events in 2020.  Later in the summer, the Chattooga County Agricultural Fair announced that the fair would not be held.

Fast-forward one year to March 2021:  There is a new commissioner in Chattooga County and events are being scheduled once again.  Earlier this week it was announced that the City of Summerville would again host the annual “Celebrate Independence” event on July 4th weekend and the Chattooga County Agricultural Fair has set the date for this year’s county fair.

It remains to be seen what the lasting impact of a year of lock-downs and closed businesses will be, but for now, it appears that Georgia’s – and Chattooga County’s economies, are recovering.