Long-time Calhoun bank executive Donna McEntyre said Greater Community Bank of Calhoun, a subsidiary of Greater Rome Bank, will open at first as a loan production office serving Calhoun and Gordon County.
“As the year progresses — probably by the end of the year — we will be a full service bank,” said McEntyre, now senior vice president of Greater Rome Bank. She will be in charge of the new Calhoun branch.
David Lance of Calhoun is president and chief executive officer of Greater Rome Bank.
“Greater Rome Bank is a stable and solid bank, and we saw an opportunity to take advantage of some of the current turmoil in the banking industry and expand into Gordon County,” Lance said. “We see some opportunities for growth in Gordon County, and Greater Rome Bank has the resources to take advantage of those opportunities.”
“Donna has been in banking in Calhoun for 10 or 12 years, and I spent most of my life in banking in Calhoun, and we have been overwhelmed by the response we have gotten to our plans,” he said. “We think Greater Community Bank of Calhoun will be a very successful venture.”
“Rome has been very welcoming to me, but I am looking forward to getting back to Calhoun,” McEntyre said.
McEntyre said this is the third bank renovation she has worked on. When she was at North Georgia National Bank, she helped turn the former downtown Hardee’s restaurant and a former retail building on Red Bud Road into branch offices.
“When I went to Greater Rome Bank, I reserved the right take on this renovation,” she said.
McEntyre said she expects to have four or five people working at the new bank when it opens in May and has already received more than 100 resumes.
“This project is a good thing that is going on in a bad economy,” McEntyre said. “We are in the initial stages of setting up interviews.”
Marketing plans for the new bank branch are still going on, she said. The first step was coming up with a name that reflects a local connection. A marketing firm is currently designing the new bank logo.
“We wanted a name that shows we are part of this community,” she said. “We have a strong parent company in Greater Rome Bank, but our new name — Greater Community Bank of Calhoun — indicates to our future customers that we will be focused on Calhoun and Gordon County.”
Also, I have to agree with what bank365 said about the NGNB locations in this town...Why does Calhoun need more than 1 branch of each bank? I was born in a very large city and we had many banks but they only had 1 location each. Calhoun is about 1/5th the size of my hometown and NGNB has 3 locations and 1 useless driveup ATM location..............GEEZ!