Country Crossings Resort Planned for Jackson County

Country Crossings Resort Planned for Jackson County

   Country Crossings, an entertainment resort and facility being developed by Ronnie Gillie that is being compared to the country music mecca of Branson, Mo., is being planned in Alabama just north of Florida’s Jackson County, along U.S. Highway 231.
   The site is several miles north of the Florida line on Highway 231, near Dothan in Houston County, Ala., and just 70 miles north of Panama City. Its nearly 400 acres will be filled with celebrity-themed restaurants, including George Jones’ Possum Holler, an 800-seat dinner theater restaurant that will display unique country music memorabilia.
   Communities across southern Alabama and the Florida Panhandle are expected to see economic ripple effects from the venue, which is eventually expected to provide 5,000 jobs.

   East Coast Ethanol, with headquarters in Live Oak, plans to build a $220 million ethanol production plant in Campbellton and hire from 45 to 50 people into jobs well above the average wage in Jackson County, paying about $30,000 a year.
   The plant is to be built on a 296-acre parcel known as Michael Lister Farms, which is currently under contract for sale for the project. The Jackson County Development Council is the entity under contract with the owner, but the property will eventually be sold to the company. East Coast Ethanol worked about a year to find and obtain the Jackson County property and plans to build three more sites in the southeastern United States.
   In the production process, corn is broken down from starch to sugar and then into ethanol. Three other byproducts are created in the process – wet and dry distilled grains and carbon dioxide.
   The company plans to capture some of the carbon dioxide for sale to soft drink companies or other such customers. The wet and dry grains will be sold to livestock producers as feed for their animals. The ethanol itself will be sent to mixing stations to be combined with gasoline in a 10-percent to 90-percent mix, and then will be shipped to fuel suppliers.

  Gov. Charlie Crist has appointed four new members of the Jackson County Hospital Corporation: Kathy A. Sloan, 55, of Marianna, vice president of Baxter’s Asphalt and Concrete Inc.;   Sarah M. Clemmons, 56, of Marianna, administrator with Chipola College;   Kathleen S. Evans, 55, of Marianna, branch manager with Regions Bank; and James F. Streetman, 53, of Marianna, real estate broker with Coldwell Banker .