Local government and business leaders participated in a strategic planning workshop on Monday to discuss priorities to help foster community and economic development for Greene County and its municipalities.

Workshop participants are revising Greene County's five-year strategic plan, part of the process needed to attain certification in Tennessee's Three-Star Program. The five-year plan was adopted in 2005.

The workshop, held in the Comfort Inn conference room, was facilitated by Matt Garland, a Tennessee economic development specialist for 10 counties in northeast Tennessee, including Greene County.

Those who attended included Greeneville Mayor Darrell Bryan, Greene County Mayor Alan Broyles, Greene County Partnership President Randy Harrell, GCP Chairman Dru Miller and General Morgan Inn Marketing Director Julia Beach.

Fourteen people attended the workshop, including Garland.

The Greeneville Sun did not attend the workshop but later interviewed several of the participants.

Those interviewed were Garland, GCP President Randy Harrell, and Dana Wilds, the GCP's economic development project manager.

Attaining Three-Star status each year assures that Greene County and the municipalities in it continue to be eligible for state grant funds offered through the Three-Star Program of the Department of Economic and Community Development.

Garland said after the workshop that participants tried "to put together five top priorities, (which) change from year to year. We try to realize challenges ahead and ... get goals aligned within the community for economic and community development."

Five areas were discussed, he said: economic development, planning and infrastructure, community development, leadership development, and education and workforce.

"Breakout" sessions were held in which workshop participants joined one of five subgroups that addressed a specific subject area.

Each group in turn picked five goals before coming back together as the one, larger group.

Twenty-five goals were voted on by all participants and reduced to nine tentative goals that will be revisited later.

The nine goals were to:

* identify land for an industrial park;

* implement county building codes;

* provide incentives for small businesses in the city and county;

* open and maintain a dialogue with specialized job skills training centers;

* begin an accredited youth leadership program;

* stress the importance of education in the workplace;

* support the celebration this year of the bicentennial of President Andrew Johnson's birth;

* continue development of Civil War trails, which are expected to attract visitors;

* support the Rediscover Greeneville project;

"I think it was a really productive meeting," Wilds said in an interview.

Wilds said followup contacts, possibly by e-mail, would outline "action steps" to take from September 2008 to August 2009 to reach the top goals/priorities.

Greene County has attained Three-Star status for 22 consecutive years.

Last year, the Three-Star Program was active in 86 counties and represented 348 Tennessee cities.