Economic impact study on Georgia-Pacific Cedar Springs closure paints bleak picture for Early County

Published in The Albany Herald on July 23, 2025

By Lucille Lannigan

Community members from Early County and surrounding counties came out to a town hall meeting, discussing the economic impact of the recent Georgia-Pacific Cedar Springs Mill closure. Staff Photo: Lucille Lannigan

BLAKELY – Early County’s Development Authority hosted an economic outlook town hall, Tuesday, presenting the expected financial impact of the Georgia-Pacific Cedar Springs plant closure.

Community members from the tri-state area saw a grim picture of economic damage across Georgia, Alabama and Florida. Georgia-Pacific announced May 14 that most positions at the mill would be eliminated by Aug. 1 as the site plans to permanently close this year. This will strip away about 535 jobs and a prospective $6.5 million from tax revenue in Early County, according to an analysis completed by David Bridges, former president at Abraham Baldwin Agricultural College and a rural Georgia advocate.

“It’s going to be devastating,” Bridges said. “It’s going to have ripple effects way further out in the state than you can imagine.”

Early County’s financial position has historically been much better than its surrounding counties, with sales tax returns of about $5 million annually, compared to an average of $2 million from surrounding counties.

“A lot of that is due to Georgia-Pacific and the retail value and movement in the retail economy that comes from that,” Bridges said. “Unless you can figure out how to redevelop and produce jobs and produce sales tax and retail associated with employment people living here and whatever, it’s not a pretty picture. But from a revenue standpoint, Early County is going to become a lot more like its neighbors.”

When looking at property taxes, Bridges said the county is looking at “conservatively replacing the equivalent of two-to-three mills.

Bridges’ analysis, using historical data from Georgia-Pacific, county finances and the aid of experts from Georgia State University and the University of Georgia, showed that nearly all areas of Early County will be affected by the plant’s closure: retail, schools, health care, banking, etc.

“It’s going to affect every retail business in Early County,” Bridges said. “Since 1962, wood has been coming from all over southwest Georgia and southeast Alabama. Truck drivers were eating, GP was buying goods and services, fuel, meals, whatever. It’s going to impact everybody.”

Blakely, the Early County seat, will lose about $200,000 in revenue from G-P buying natural gas.

Bridges said the school system will experience a loss of revenue as well as most likely see enrollment go down as families are forced to move. He predicted an additional 206 jobs to be lost as the county, and that the city of Blakely and the school district will have to lay off workers because of income loss.

Local hospitals or medical centers also will see an impact.

“Everybody who worked out there had good insurance, and now they’re going to have lesser insurance or no insurance,” Bridges said. “Any hospital CEO you talk to … will tell you that if they could have only privately insured … they would because if there’s any money, that’s where it is. You’re taking 535 insured patients out of the mix.”

He said the timber industry is already seeing a chain reaction as far north as LaGrange. Loggers will now be forced to move their wood a farther distance and most likely see less revenue because of it.

“I had a logger from LaGrange call me and tell me that it has killed his market,” Bridges said. “Now, the abundant supply of wood from down here … has cut the price.”

Bridges said Georgia-Pacific’s Cedar Springs mill closure was in the making for the last five years – with Hurricane Michael accelerating the process. U.S. paper and paperboard capacity declined by 1.6% in 2023, to 79.7 million tons. That compares to an average decline of 0.9% per year since 2014, according to the American Forest & Paper Association.

“The plant was largely depreciated,” he said. “Some of the investments that would have needed to have been made to keep it going have not been made over recent years. It would take an enormous amount of money to put that mill in compliance.”

William Cleveland, a retired Cedar Springs mill worker who has relatives that worked at the mill up until the end of July, said some workers started to sense the closure when repairs were no longer being made on some pieces of equipment.

Bridges said because of this depreciation, it is unlikely that a new paper producer will move into the mill.

Dave Atkins, chairman of the Blakely Downtown Development Authority, said the county has to diversify its revenue streams.

“We can’t let anybody else own us again, like the mill,” he said. “We’ve got assets … all the resources … the river that hasn’t been capitalized on in a long time.”

He said he believes Early County can come out of this situation stronger than before.

Early County Commission Chairman Hank Jester pointed to White Oak Pastures, a Bluffton family farm that has diversified its operations beyond traditional beef production, incorporating regenerative practices, retail products and agritourism. These operations have brought national attention to the area.

“We’ve got to think outside the box,” Jester said. “We’ve got to try to extract things that we have not thought about before.”

Jester said in the meantime city and county leaders are doing their due diligence to go through the budget process and make “very, very tough choices.”

Early County Commissioner Jeffery Haynes said he is seeking aid at the federal level for Early County. However, he said the county has suffered through economic challenges before, pointing to Hurricane Michael and the COVID-19 pandemic.

“Those studies also showed a dire situation, and we bounced back from both of those,” Haynes said. “So I understand everybody wants to hang their heads, but I realize that this is something we have overcome before, and that we just stick together.”

State Rep. Gerald Greene, R-Cuthbert, and Sen. Freddie Powell Sims, D-Dawson, were in attendance at the town hall meeting. The two have pledged to seek state help as Early County navigates the closure. Sims encouraged others to approach the Capitol about the county’s needs.

“I would hope that we can make a compelling case to the governor that we need some help in the short-term because if we don’t move pretty quickly, it’s going to be harder to move forward,” Bridges said. “With respect to the closure of GP, this community needs to move forward and not just move on. Move on, means give up and quit. You can’t give up and quit.”

Published in The Albany Herald on July 23, 2025.