City of Perry – Year in Review – Mayor Randall Walker

The year 2020 is coming to an end. On a global scale, we’ve seen quite a bit of change and hardship; nationally as well. But no one knows better about local hardships in Perry, Georgia and how we’ve solved them better than the city’s mayor himself, Mr. Randall Walker.

“Let’s not call them hardships,” he began. “Let’s call them challenges that we’ve faced, because we look at all of these as challenges that we have to learn how to operate [in], and provide the same quality of service our citizens have expected,” Walker explained. “I think it’s made us more efficient, and we’ve been able to find different ways to provide services to our citizens without putting our employees or the citizens in any type of harms ways from COVID-19.” Walker explained that the new JACK kiosk at Perry City Hall is an example of this. The mayor expounded upon this by saying, “That allows people to pay all of their utility bills any time of day, 24 hours a day, and it takes any type of payment, from cash, to checks, to money orders.

“The City of Perry has an outstanding staff,” Walker went on to say. “If you’re talking about our police department, fire department, public works—they’ve done an outstanding job of making sure the simple things that we’d all expect like our trash getting picked up on a timely basis, or if we have water issues or sewer issues, they get taken care of. They have all found ways to make that successful within the environment that we’re working in.”

This becomes apparent when looking at the some of the awards Perry has received this year. Perry received recognition from the Association of Water Professionals for outstanding water and wastewater services, received its 20th Certificate of Achievement for Excellence in Financial Reporting, renewed its statewide distinction in the Georgia Department of Community Affairs PlanFirst program, and has also commissioned the Tucker Road Water Treatment Facility while earning the state award of a WaterFirst community.

At the same time, Perry has worked to revise previously planned events so that they may work in the confines of COVID protections. “Our staff, as I have talked about, is very adaptive, and they have found various ways that we can participate in these types of activities during this COVID environment,” Walker said, citing events such as virtual dance parties and scavenger hunts, the My Colorful Community event and the Rockin’ Around the Rotary event.

Even amongst these challenges, the city has seen growth. “We will have record growth this year in the housing development here in Perry,” Walker stated.

The city has seen over 426 new single-family residential permits issued in 2020. According to the mayor’s office, “this number is right on track with the record growth our city saw last year. We continue to see growth and expansion with new, existing, and proposed divisions.”

“We’re moving forward to make sure that we’re in a position to serve all the citizens that will be moving to Perry and are expecting that same quality of service we’ve always expected,” Walker stated, adding, “We’re very optimistic about 2021, I think the mayor and council as well as the city employees are looking forward to continuing to offer the services we provide as a city to our citizens.”

Other growth in Perry’s community includes the continued commercial development, with new businesses such as Hilton Garden Inn, the Avid Hotel and IHOP, as well as the continued growth of the downtown area with businesses such as Clover Wine Merchant, Ball Street Studios, Casserole Shop and Morning by Morning Coffee.

“I could say that I was disappointed because we didn’t get to do all the things that we’d planned, which would have put a very strong plan in place, but on a very positive note, we found ways to continue to grow our city, provide our services, and take care of the citizens in a way that they expect to be take care of,” the mayor explained.

In closing, Walker said, “I’d like to thank all the citizens of Perry for their patience with us as we all have worked through this COVID issue, and I’d especially like to thank all the staff members of the City of Perry for their dedication and the hard work that they have put out this year to serve our citizens effectively.”

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