Hogansville officially bought in Monday night to the next step of Georgia Tech’s two-year study of the area.

City Council voted unanimously to join a joint executive planning commission with Troup County, LaGrange and West Point and voted to contribute up to $5,000 to fund the job of director for a countywide Center for Strategic Planning.

“I applaud you,” said Joy Wilkins, a planning specialist with Georgia Tech, who has been working with Troup County and all its municipalities for the last two years.

The action comes as the next step in the process of implementing the two-year study; Wilkins said one of the findings was a need for countywide planning. As part of the joint planning commission, Hogansville will appoint Mayor Jimmy Jackson and one other to-be-named member to the committee. The joint planning group will mean the city’s individual planning board will disband but, like the city board, the joint group only will make recommendations to the county and municipalities. It still will be up to City Council to make a final decision based on the recommendation.

“This will go a long way to bringing together our planning efforts,” said City Manager Bill Stankiewicz, who said he strongly recommended council join the countywide group.

A countywide Center for Strategic Planning still is in the works. Current plans call for its director to be funded with the same formula used for the special-purpose, local-option sales tax, with LaGrange and Troup County paying 45 percent each and Hogansville and West Point paying 5 percent each.

Wilkins said a director would head up planning efforts but also work on one of the county’s major goals, workforce development, through a Web site and other efforts.

“There needs to be a neutral party to continue the day to day operations,” Wilkins said.

West Point Mayor Drew Ferguson IV said his city has decided at this point to be ex-officio members and not contribute financially.

Jennifer Shrader may be reached at jshrader@ lagrangenews.com or at (706) 884-7311, Ext. 236.