The past year saw progress on many fronts in Perry, and Mayor James Faircloth Jr. said he looks for 2016 to continue the trend.
According to Faircloth, an informal list of accomplishments for 2015 includes:
• City council adopted a strategic master plan for the downtown and connecting corridors. The plan provides goals, guidelines and benchmarks for the economic and aesthetic growth of the areas.
• Controlled truck routes through downtown.
• Improved walking areas in the city with sidewalk improvements on Commerce Street, Sam Nunn Boulevard and W.F. Ragin Drive.
• Adopted a policy concerning items in city right of way for mailboxes, signs, etc.
• City designated a “Classic Main Street Program” by the Georgia Department of Community Affairs.
• Established the Perry Public Arts Commission to develop support for public art displays and activities.
• Approved plan and site location for new canine housing facility.
• Began Perry branding process.
• Provided financial assistance to qualifying senior citizens for certain city fees.
• Appointed first Director of Leisure Services as part of city’s strategic plan
• Approved proceeding with planning for new city water supply well/treatment facilities.
• Approved city wayfinding direction plan for city sites.
• Added six part-time and two full time police officers.
• Annexed 18 acres into the city, issued 247 new single family house permits, issued two multi-family housing permits and eight new commercial structures.
Faircloth didn’t rank any particular one as being more significant than another, but touched upon most on his list.
Controlled truck routes through downtown
“We still have quite a few heavy trucks that come through downtown, and I guess the reality of it is we always will. However, the big trucks – because of their weight and size – do a fair amount of damage to the streets. I have mixed emotions about having so many state and federal routes that come through Perry. One of the options open to the city is to request that federal and state routes be routed around Perry. Using I-75, you can pretty much go all the way around Perry. One of the drawbacks to that is if we were to make that request, then 100 percent of the maintenance would fall upon the city of Perry. As it is now, the federal and state – mainly the state – Departments of Transportation have maintenance obligations and they do control the traffic signals on those routes. When you have state routes that come through the city, it’s a requirement that the state controls the traffic signals. If we were to take over the routes, at least the ones within the city limits, within the downtown area, we would then be in control of the traffic signals.”
Council adopted a strategic master plan for the downtown and connecting corridors.
“It is important. We have a strategic plan and a master plan, and they’re very similar. The master plan is more long term and when we plan things or have our goal-setting, specifically for the budget process, we make sure we have an eye on those plans as we look to the future so that the short term goals for that year’s fiscal budget aren’t in conflict or won’t have us doing something that’s going to have a negative effect on what those overall plans are so that we continue to fund the vision we have going forward.
“A project has to fit in. Every now and then we’ll have something that comes up that’s fairly costly that’s not in the plans. And typically what we will do is put that on a discussion list so that when we look at a review of those plans at that time we determine if this is something we need to include. That way, we’re not so easily distracted financially or otherwise.”
Improved walking areas in the city.
“There is a financial benefit to that, and though some say parking is nonexistent downtown, I wouldn’t say that. Parking is at a premium. But our overall plan is not to provide parking; our overall plan is to provide a downtown area that is conducive for walking and for people to be attracted to it. It’s one thing if we have the space to do it – which we don’t – but we do have an eye to that. One of the long-range goals is to grow the downtown area, to make it larger, and one way to do that is to incorporate parking.
“There are some things missing from downtown, such as a grocery store. We need some more amenities. We do have a coffee shop where you can get breakfast, but there is no where else to have breakfast until the new Perry Hotel opens up, and assuming it will have a restaurant, that will solve it. It would be nice to have some more specifically related retail and food shops. There is a long-range plan, or goal, to have a college extension of some sort here. That’s going against the trend nowadays with colleges and universities getting out of the bricks and mortar business and doing a lot more things online. So that’s nothing more than a pipe dream at this point. However, that doesn’t mean that we can’t think out of the box and try to develop some attraction that will cause people to want to live downtown. Of course if you had a college you would have students attending. For example, in a perfect world, if the old courthouse were a college facility, that would cause all the ancillary things that support college students, young and old, to start popping up around it – coffee shops, bookstores, Internet cafes. That’s just one of the ideas we have kicked around. But we do not want the big box stores downtown; that’s not the purpose for it; there are plenty of places for that in the periphery and we welcome those businesses. However, that’s why we take a keen eye for planning and zoning and make certain we have available space for commercial, industrial and large retail opportunities all over town.”
New canine housing facility.
“We are looking at a new dog park, and Kevin Dye is very committed to it, and that’s good to see. If we can make it work out, that would be good.”
Main Street designation
“It’s something we solicited and received. It’s a very good accomplishment. The state agency that covers this for the longest time would not grant Main Street designation. There are some very stringent rules we have to follow. It’s a good designation to have, it shows forward thinking and the tenacity of a city that wants to do things right and have programs in place that are going to protect the integrity of Main Street in the state.”
Director of Leisure Services
“That’s Mr. Dye. We used to have a recreation department and a director of recreation. The primary and total focus of that department was recreation for the city, and it’s very important. When the existing director of recreation left, we had an opportunity as a council to review that job description and we unanimously decided to take it to the next level. We didn’t have anybody on staff who was coordinating efforts at the Perry Arts Center for cultural things, and to me and the council that’s a key aspect of quality of life. We thought it was important enough to have it as a direct department head responsibility, and as such we modified the old director’s job description into a director of leisure services and included those type things. It’s more than bats and balls; it’s also programs for the very young, for the disabled which we didn’t have a concerted effort there until Mr. Dye came on. We have some senior citizen programs already, but we wanted to improve and expand that, not just at Rozar Park but all over the city. He is also over those programs at the Perry Arts Center.”
New city water supply well/treatment facilities
“We have upgraded the water treatment facility that’s out there on U.S. 341 across from the old Ford place. We currently have five wells that provide the water source for the city of Perry. One of those wells is located behind the old Jaycees building at the end of Main Street. Right down from it is an old water treatment plant at the corner of Main Street and Courtney Hodges Boulevard. That well is not producing much water at all. It’s going to cost a fairly significant amount of money to upgrade it for it to produce enough to matter. It’s part of the old infrastructure of the city. Our long-range plan is now short range and we have hired an engineering firm to locate for us the next logical and engineering practical spot to drill another main well and build another water treatment plant. We’re in that process now. They have identified some possible locations and I’m in the process of figuring out if we can get them or not. That’s going to be a several million dollars project, but it’s necessary. Once we bring that new well and water treatment plant on line, then we will decommission that well by the Jaycees building and water treatment plant. We will reclaim the water treatment plant and that will become park space. You might have heard talk about closing that portion of Main Street because we own the property adjacent to it and that would become one park. And we’re trying to create a pedestrian bridge over Big Indian Creek, which has some issues. But that’s in the long-range plan for the walking trails; I think it would be beneficial for the city, but it can cause residual effects on others.”
Approved city wayfinding direction plan for city sites
“This is one of the drawbacks to having so many state routes coming through your town – you don’t control the right-of-way, which means we can’t put wayfinding signs where we want them, and the DOT basically says you can’t have them. We just want stuff like “the hospital is this way,” “the downtown is this way,” the typical things you would see. That’s why we’re working very hard to get those wayfinding signs in places where we can put them. I think it’s very critical to move people through and around Perry, and we do a very poor job of that. And it’s not just because of the state routes coming through; it’s we’re making sure we make an emphasis to make it happen where we can. It’s like ‘I’ve been here so long I know where everything is,’ and that’s a problem. We do need wayfinding signs. People need to know were Walmart is, where the hospital is. They do need to know where the AgriCenter is, where are the eating establishments, and gas stations. It’s similar to the interstates telling you what’s at the coming exit. I don’t have the answers, but it’s one of the issues we’re working on.”
Annexed 18 acres into the city, issued 247 new single-family house permits, issued two multi-family housing permits and eight new commercial structures.
“The property you want to annex has to be contiguous to the city limits. One of the ways that cities have expanded is to annex roads. Then any property that touches the roads can become city property. The state legislature has passed laws stating that when you annex or de-annex, you cannot create an island, which is obvious. Over the years – and Warner Robins is an example of this – islands will be created and these islands will be absorbed by a municipality, sometimes against the wishes of the people. It really gets to be a problem when you start talking about services such as fire and police. Whose property is this? And we run into that now, especially in the outlying areas. Certain subdivisions along Hwy. 127 are in Perry; some aren’t. It can create unintended consequences.
“Building permits are rising; we’re going to beat last year’s numbers for single family homes, commercial structures are up.”
Immediate future?
“You’re going to see progress on a lot of different initiatives we have. We want to develop Heritage Park to the point we can have the music festival there, Rotary Centennial Park, the walking program, connecting each of our parks with walking trails, infrastructure upgrades, we’re paving roads throughout the city. We’re looking at Mr. Dye and the leisure programs. This form-based code, that’s new, the search for a new community development director. I’m not saying there’s going to be big changes, but some modifications, some changes in the old stuff like form-based code along Courtney Hodges. It’s going to get some mixed reviews; we understand that. Robert Smith, the economic development director, is doing a good job, Robert Loudermilk and the Ag Village project out there next to Brannen Outfitters and the new Ford place. He is putting quite a bit of money in that area, and that is exciting as well. We’re looking forward to see that continue to develop and that will be another draw for people to come to town.
“Younger people and the energy they bring – that’s what we’re looking for. We are also looking at upgrading how the council operates. A new IT committee. Moving away from paper to more electronic. We need to be more transparent about what we do. I like what we’ve done with our web site, but we have a long way to go. You should be able to go to our web site and find the answer to all your questions. That’s a big undertaking. And you heard Robert Smith talking about contracting with the regional commission to do a housing assessment, and all of that will be online. The GIS project to locate all the different water facilities we have and the fire department is doing the same thing. As we replace these, we’re putting GPS coordinates on every one of those lines and on the fire hydrants so that we can pull these things up electronically and see where these things are supposed to be and go straight to it. This is nothing new as far as technology is concerned. What is new is our embracing it and using it in the efficient function of city processes.
“We have an intern who’s working with us on social media. That’s critical because that is the new communications venue in today’s world. We know that soon down the road we’re going to have to have someone to run that. That’s past me and I understand that we don’t need to ignore it. I want to make certain we have people on the staff who do understand that and keep us where we need to be, to react and act accordingly.
“If we want to attract the late 20-somethings or 30-somethings, we’ve got to offer what they’re looking for. And I think this council is cognizant of that. We need to make sure we’re doing something or at least touching base with that age group and we’re hiring people in that age group.
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