Eggs & Issues hosts Houston County mayors

Robins Regional Chamber CEO April Bragg hosted the final Eggs & Issues of 2020, Tuesday morning. Warner Robins Mayor Randy Toms and Centerville Mayor John Harley served as special guests and joined Braggs virtually for this month’s meeting. First up was Toms, and he answered Bragg’s request for him to highlight some of the things that the city of Warner Robins implemented because of the pandemic.

“Our number one concern was then, and is now, the protection of our employees and our citizens, so we had to change things,” he said, pointing out how the city had begun using technology to a greater degree by hosting teleconferences, department meetings, director meetings and council meetings by using the platforms of Zoom and Facebook Live. In addition, Toms mentioned expanded opportunities for citizens to pay bills and take care of licensing needs by online means.

Bragg inquired about employee morale and how the environment had been in city hall throughout COVID-19. To that, Toms honestly admitted that there have been some challenges along the way.

“I think it’ll be a bit naïve to say that nobody struggles during this time because I think we all have,” the mayor stated. “In city hall and in all of our departments that we have, I think you see a certain amount of anxiety. The morale is good, and the employees inspire me the way they try to encourage each other and lift each other up and laugh and keep that part of the family environment going on. I’m very proud to be a part of the employees of the city of Warner Robins. I think they’ve done a great job.”

CARES Act (Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act) is a $2.2 trillion stimulus bill passed by Congress and signed into law by President Trump in March of this year in response to the economic fallout of the COVID-19 pandemic. This money gave a financial boost to the cities all over the United States, including those here, in Houston County. Toms noted that those issued funds made a big difference for Warner Robins, particularly in public safety.

“What we were able to do was to take that money that came down from the state and use that to pay all the salaries in both of our public safety departments—police and fire,” he shared. “The money that we had allocated in the budget… we were able to shift that over to the general fund and use the CARES Act funding to pay the public safety salaries and benefits through those funds.”

Another item that Bragg brought up was that of how much the city had improved in the area of parks and recreation. Toms agreed, pointing out that beyond parks and recreation, Warner Robins had also acquired a building on Davis Drive and in the next month or two, it would become their new municipal court building. Previously, Warner Robins had been holding court on the municipal court level at the Houston Health Pavilion.

“We could have a whole show, hours long, about parks and recreations and how exciting that is,” he went on to say, pointing out several items in the works; some of which are a multi-million-dollar gymnasium at the Deloris Toliver Park, various recreational offerings that will be available at Memorial Park and the North Houston Road project, which includes an $18 million facility that will be capable of hosting major tournaments and boosting the city’s economy with the number of visitors that it could draw.

Toms cited many things that he was excited about regarding the direction in which his city is headed. One thing in particular he mentioned was the grand opening of Buc-ee’s. The travel center chain will open its first Georgia store later this month, and Warner Robins was selected to be its home.

Mayor Harley shared with Bragg how Centerville City Hall had been coping with COVID-19. Harley indicated that city hall faced the same challenges as any other business, such as finding the necessary supplies.

“We had to seek out PPE (personal protective equipment) and cleaning supplies for our employees, and they were often pretty tough to find,” he said. “When the state implemented the stay at home orders, we quickly identified those employees who could do so and supplied them with laptops so they could work from home. We also identified high-risk employees and found ways to keep them protected and on the payroll.”

Although police, fire and other essential workers didn’t have the option to work from home, Harley assured that well-planned measures were, and still are being taken to protect them and keep them as safe as possible during the continuing global crisis.

Bragg complimented Harley on how the city had effectively maintained communication with the community during COVID by using technology tools and resources.

To that, Harley replied, “I learned more about technology during these trying times than I’ve ever learned in my life. I’ve been fascinated during this time period with the things we’ve been able to do. We’ve continued to maintain our public meetings with Centerville City Council. Beginning in March, we began to switch our meetings to Facebook Live.” He went on to say, “We’ve utilized three different platforms for bringing our meetings to our residents. Our staff has ensured our ability to keep residents up to date on our website, on social media and via these live streams. We had an emergency banner on our website just for COVID-19 information that saw hundreds of visitors every month. Social media allowed for quick answers to questions for businesses, residents and visitors. Many of our great citizens adapted, watched and interacted with our meetings on these new platforms regularly. A special thank you to our media partners. They’ve been wonderful during this time period.”

Like Warner Robins, Centerville, too, benefited greatly from CARES Act funding. According to Harley, his city was one of the earliest to actually sign into the grant. To date, Centerville has received about $400,000 in grant funds to assist with COVID-related expenses.

And, also as with its sister-city, Centerville is experiencing improvements in city facilities and growth in the area of parks and recreation. Two of the things Harley talked about were Center Park at Centerville and the city’s new state-of-the-art fire station.

“We’ve completed a 3,800-square foot playground,” Harley said of the new park that is nearing completion. “Kids are going to love it. We have a couple of other beautiful buildings there. The pavilion, of course, will be available for rent, and it can comfortably seat 96 people.” Of the fire station, which is also under construction, the mayor reported, “This week, they actually put up vertical beams. If you have a chance to go by there, it’s right by Centerville Elementary School. Every day, you see growth in that thing, and our firemen are so excited about it. It’s going to probably cost close to $6 million and will be the finest facility in Houston County, as far as we’re concerned.”

Both Mayor Harley and Toms couldn’t say enough about how proud they were, not only of their respective cities, but also of the people who live and work there; especially during COVID-19.

“Our city’s efforts and resources allow our employees to maintain the same excellent level of service during the pandemic as they supplied before the pandemic,” Harley commented. “Our people understand how much we appreciate what they do every day for our citizens. We have some great employees here, and we’re proud of every single one of them. They are all heroes to us.”

“I think the morale is as good as it can be during this pandemic time,” Mayor Toms stated, “but I do think we would all have to agree that we’re getting weary. We’re tired. To say otherwise would just be not true. We need to continue to pray diligently for the answer. I know that the answer comes from God, and ultimately, He’s going to provide our needs in that area.”

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