Ronnie Cobb

The economy may be slow, but people are still in a hurry and fast food is on the menu.

In the Deep South of Catoosa County, mixing fast food with fried chicken seems a good enough bet for Bojangles to plan a new store in Fort Oglethorpe.

“Don Jones usually does a business model before he opens a store, so he must be sure it’s going to be successful,” Fort Oglethorpe Mayor Ronnie Cobb said. “It will bring jobs, and it’s going to help our sales tax base, which is a little bit off.”

East Ridge businessman Mr. Jones, who was out of town Wednesday, will open his seventh Bojangles store with the site on Battlefield Parkway.

Construction on the Fort Oglethorpe store is scheduled to start this month.

“(Mr. Jones told me) it takes about 80 days to get one out of the ground,” Mr. Cobb said.

Seeing Bojangles open up during a downturned economy is a positive sign, and helps in efforts to bring other businesses to the city, Mr. Cobb said.

There are a couple of possibilities in the works, he said, but nothing that he would confirm at this time.

“The big thing is that it encourages other businesses to come to Fort Oglethorpe,” he said.