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The Bainbridge Downtown Development Authority gathered last Thursday morning for their monthly meeting. There were several items on the morning’s agenda, including the proposal of a “Downtown Dollars” e-gift card program, a planned QR-code-based digital brochure platform, as the upcoming River South festival.

One of the main focuses of the meeting was an updated downtown market assessment study. The assessment found a $38.8 million retail surplus in the city’s primary retail trade area, and also looked at market leakage to other areas. The leakage report showed that market areas experiencing leakage include furniture and home furnishing stores; clothing and accessory stores; sports/hobby/book/music stores; and food and drink services. “For example, food services and drinking places, it’s showing a leakage of nearly $6.8 million being leaked out of our community,” DDA director Amanda Glover said. “Clothing and accessory stores is about $10.5 million.”

The report also showed that, of working Decatur residents, 6,388 leave to work elsewhere, while 3,487 workers in Decatur come from outside the county. “So 4,723 workers both live and work in Decatur County, but that’s looking at the labor force, not population numbers,” Glover said. The report also listed such statistics as population demographics and median household income in both Bainbridge and Decatur County.

The next DDA meeting is scheduled for Thursday, September 15.