The Development Authority of Dawson County has announced RaceTrac Petroleum expects to begin building a gas station and convenience store on Ga. 400 within the next month.

Initial permits were issued last week for a facility at Ga. 400 South and Whitmire Road.

Charlie Auvermann, executive director of the authority, welcomed the news.

"I believe it will simply add a player to the competition ... that is serious about providing quality products at a very good price to its customers," Auvermann said.

"So the expectation is that the addition will be of benefit to Dawson County consumers."

David McKee, the county's planning and development director, noted the store's configuration could lead to a number of new jobs.

"It's a 6,000-square-foot prototype store," McKee said. "So it's certainly going to take some manpower to run it. It's a pretty big building."

According to McKee, plans call for 20 fueling bays.

"We're still finishing up some of the reviews, but the site work should be done this Thursday and then soon after that we'll finish up the building work," McKee said.

"But the process has been fairly straightforward, nothing out of the ordinary."

Officials with RaceTrac could not be reached for comment.

Auvermann, however, noted the company's commitment to the local market. It bought the site five years ago, prior to the economic slowdown.

"As I understand it ... they make a selection of where [new stores] could potentially go and if one of those presents a problem they usually move on down the list," Auvermann said.

"The fact that they didn't do that for the Dawson County site speaks to the value of our consumer base and our community."