A slew of local business people and city and county officials gathered at What’s the Scoop Café in Richmond Hill Tuesday morning to participate in a small business ideas session with U.S. Rep. Jack Kingston, R-Ga. 1st.
The session gave local business people the chance to voice their concerns about job creation, the economy, community banking, unemployment, taxes and more to Kingston, who provided an open ear to all questions.
Local business owner John Reynolds of RPI, a roofing company, said he thought the session was a great way to interact with Kingston about local issues.
“I think it’s great for our congressman to get the pulse of business owners in Bryan County,” Reynolds said. “It was very nice to have direct dialogue with him and tell him what our concerns are.”
This was the third of four small business sessions hosted by Kingston, who said he decided to have these sessions because small businesses are important to the economy, and because he is interested in hearing about specifics happening in communities like Richmond Hill.
“To hear from people about the importance of the (Belfast) interchange aand what’s going on locally is helpful,” Kingston said. “To get a lot of people talking about policy is helpful for everyone.”
Kingston added that through these sessions, he has heard a lot of businesses say they just want a basic infrastructure from the government in order to do their jobs.
“Businesses are saying just have a level playing field and we’ll do our things,” Kingston said. “If there are constantly changing rules, we can’t do what we want to do.”
More than 30 people attended the event, according to organizers.