Around Town: Surge in 'Dollar Stores' Means Big Bucks in Northwest Georgia.

Just after 8 a.m. Wednesday, construction crews were gathering off of Ga. 101 about a half mile south of the Floyd/Polk county line.

A large, cleared lot off the southwest corner of the highway and the intersection with Dean Road showed the first signs of development, a building that will bring another Dollar General to the area.

It was a cool morning, with a surprising 59 degrees in mid August. But the project itself was part of a sizzling series of growth plans for “dollar stores” in Northwest Georgia.

Earlier this summer, a DG Market — the upsized (more food) version of Dollar General — opened at 3433 Kingston Highway near the Rock Store.

A second market opened in recent weeks across from Coosa High School at 5 Turner Bend Road SW, featuring “an expanded selection of fresh meats, fruits and vegetables” in addition to the inventory of traditional stores, per a media release. The building permit listed the construction cost at $1.16 million.

The competition isn’t letting up, either. Dollar Tree has been given a permit to build a $600,000 store at 4400 Martha Berry Blvd.

And we’ve seen plenty of others in recent years. Much of this growth is occurring in more rural parts of our area with no signs of slowing down.

So what’s next? “At this time, Dollar General does not have any additional DG Market projects in Rome or Floyd County but we continue to evaluate opportunities to add future locations,” the company wrote in reply to our question.

Business sources here say otherwise.

Sun setting on summer baseball

One homestand left for Rome and then the playoffs: Well, that was fast. The final homestand of the regular season for the Rome Emperors begins Tuesday at AdventHealth Stadium vs. Greensboro (7 p.m. first pitch).

Rome’s regular season ends on the road vs. Hickory and then the South Atlantic League championships begin Sept. 10. As Rome won the southern division’s first-half crown, the final two games of the best-of-three opening series will be played here (7 p.m. Sept. 12 and 13, the latter if needed).

The winner from the southern division advances to the championship series beginning Sept. 15 vs. the northern champ.

It has been a tough second half for Rome on the field and in the stands. During the last homestand vs. Asheville, rain was an issue, including last Friday night’s deluge.

Box scores from last week show tickets sold ranged from 582 on Aug. 14 to 2,383 on Saturday. Rome’s season opener on April 5 drew 2,669 fans. The stadium holds 5,105.

More to consider: Rome drew nearly 250,000 ticket sales in the inaugural 2003 season (69 home games). In 2023, 62 home games saw 95,120 tickets sold.

Whatever the final count of the 2024 season is, we’ll take it. We started the year hearing reports that the Rome team was headed to Columbus. That turned out to be another Braves’ affiliate, the Double-A Mississippi Braves, now due to arrive in there next April.

Popcorn & Politics

Vote counting and potential “chaos:” The trepidation surrounding election night increases as the State Election Board has ordered new steps that could delay the vote count Nov. 5.

Among the critics: The bipartisan Democracy Defense Project whose members include former governors Nathan Deal (Republican) and Roy Barnes (Democrat); former U.S. Sen. Saxby Chambliss (Republican) and past Atlanta mayor Shirley Franklin (Democrat).

The project’s statement to Capitol Beat News Service: “Making substantive changes to the way votes are counted and certified without legislative action will undoubtedly foster chaos and undermine the confidence that Georgians have in the democratic process. Integrity and foresight must supersede partisanship and haste in the weeks ahead.”

Also this week, we heard from some of the county election supervisors, including Floyd’s, with concerns about all the zig-zagging just as the Nov. 5 voting process begins.

Said Floyd County Elections Director Akyn Beck in an interview with the newspaper on Thursday: “Changes in rules this close to Election Day delay preparation for the upcoming election event and do not allow for allocation of time or resources for the changes this late in the game.”

What to watch: How many more changes will be proposed by the General Assembly following the presidential election in November.

Calendar:

Monday: League of Women Voters of Rome-Floyd County meets at 6 p.m. at Rome First United Methodist Church.♦ The meeting is open to all.

First steps for an absentee ballot:♦ Those interested in voting by absentee ballot in the Nov. 5 general election can now request them from the elections office. Ballots won’t be mailed until/after Oct. 7. Sample ballots are not yet posted.

Sept. 5: Floyd County Republican Women♦ , The Palladium at the fairgrounds. 11:30 a.m. lunch ($17), noon meeting. Guest: Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene.

Peaks & Valleys

The highs and lows of Northwest Georgia

Peak to taking a hard look at downtown Rome’s hard liquor debate: While we oppose pausing new alcohol licenses in downtown Rome, we do support plans to better define what is and isn’t acceptable from those peddling libations in our city. It does appear to be a mess. City commissioners apparently want to better understand the “vision” for downtown Rome in particular. We envision something even bigger — a total rewrite of Rome’s beechwood-aged rules and regs on all alcohol sales.

Valley to the explosion of new liquor stores: We’re no teetotalers. But exactly how many more liquor stores do we need? Within a few months, we’ll have four stores maybe no more than two apart from the epicenter of Turner McCall and Hicks Drive. One is coming off a grand opening while another is on the way (former Fazoli’s). The third just added extra space while the fourth did a recent scrape-and-build. In a community where we count Mexican restaurants, tennis courts, car washes, vape retailers and ding-ding machines, who’s minding the (liquor) stores?