Southwest Georgia Farm Credit will hold a community open house on Thursday, November 5, from 2 to 5 p.m., at their new office building at 305 Colquitt Highway. Guests are invited to meet Farm Credit staff, tour the new building and enjoy some refreshments.

"It has taken us a few months to feel totally settled in," said Richard Monson, President of Southwest Georgia Farm Credit.  "Now that we have things in place, we wanted to invite our members, as well as local residents, to see our building and have a chance to meet our staff."

The Association's employees began planning their move over four years ago. They purchased the property, then started to work with a local architect, Leon Lynn of Jinright, Ryan, & Lynn from Thomasville, and general contractor, Southern Triad Construction. In February, the Association's Bainbridge staff made the move into the new offices. Where once they worked out of three different buildings, now credit, accounting and operations, administration and branch staff are all together under the same roof.

"It's provided us with an opportunity to gain some cost efficiency, but more importantly, we are finding that our departments are interacting more, and we're definitely seeing the benefits of that," Monson said.

Southwest Georgia Farm Credit is a customer-owned agricultural lender serving 21 counties. The Association provides loans to farmers, agri-businesses, and those who want to live, work or play in the country. The Association is part of the Farm Credit System, which provides more than $90 billion in loans to more than a half million borrowers.

For more information, call 229-493-0149.