It’s official: the City of Perry becomes smart community

PERRY, Ga. – Tuesday council meeting established the City of Perry as a smart community which will lead to more city growth.

Economic Development Director Holly Wharton presented the mayor and council a proclamation symbolizing Perry’s new membership to the Middle Georgia Innovation Corridor. Wharton said this proclamation was brought because of the city’s strategic plan support of Robins Air Force Base.

The Middle Georgia Innovation Corridor was recently established and promotes new ideas to better the community using technology and science.

“Furthermore, Perry continues to enhance connectivity, recreation and leisure, and downtown development which supports the attraction of a smart community’s workforce; and whereas, these factors combine to make the city of Perry and middle Georgia an exciting location rapidly transforming into a modern technology corridor. It offers enticing future-oriented training, career opportunities, and a broad range of quality-of-life amenities; and whereas, the middle Georgia region is fast becoming an emerging innovation hot spot, thus supporting the formation of the middle Georgia Innovation Corridor,” states the proclamation.

The entire proclamation is available on the council agenda: pub-perry.escribemeetings.com/FileStream.ashx?DocumentId=4424.

Later in the regular council meeting, there was a second reading of the ordinance to adopt the Fiscal Year 2024 operating budget. The budget was presented by Director of Finance Mitchell Worthington and approved during the council meeting.

The budget goes into effect July 1. A full look at the budget can be found at perry-ga.gov/escribe-agendas-minutes.

During pre-council, Downtown Manager Alicia Hartley proposed to mayor and council to add five parking signs in the downtown area. The current signs are located on Main Street and Washington Street. Hartley said a couple of weeks ago her department conducted a parking study, which came with recommendations of additional parking in the area.

Hartley proposed the five signs be added on Ball Street, Macon Road, the new lot along the railroad right of way, at City Hall parking lot, the parking lot behind the Event Center and Legacy Park parking lot. Hartley said these new signs will help better locate citizens and visitors.

Mayor and council approved Hartley to move forward on the plan during the pre-council meeting.

Hartley added she is also working on more lighting at the parking lots and will come up with a plan to propose to the council at the next meeting.

One of the first items on the pre-council agenda, City Manager Lee Gilmour proposed to the mayor and council to change the future buildings plan. Gilmour said the customer service building will stay at the administration building to better accommodate citizens who are familiar with the location and has enough parking for them.

He said the second recommendation is shifting a portion of the Department of Community Development to the administration building. According to Gilmour, the reason this shift is occurring is because there is not enough office space in the community development building and there is enough space in the administration building to help the department.

The third recommendation is that the Perry Police Department will remain in a renovated public safety building and will be taking over the Perry Municipal Court space. According to Gilmour, there has been talk in the past about constructing an evidence room for the police department and this will be a perfect opportunity to finally build the room.

The public safety building will have an addition of new offices, living space and a new bay for the Perry Fire and Emergency Services Department. Gilmour said the primary reason for the new bay is to make it easier for the department’s vehicles to go out using one way.

The final recommendation after applying all the changes is the multi-use building on Carroll Street will decrease in size to better accommodate the Office of the City Attorney, Office of the City Manager, Communications Office, Finance Department and Department of Human Resources.

When the mayor asked questions, Mayor Pro Tempore Darryl Albritton told the council they originally made a different plan for the buildings. Gilmour said the change from the original plan is because many city departments are growing and need additional space, and the cost of the new administration building is starting to increase. The new plan will guarantee more space for the departments that need it and save the city money.

Mayor Walker said things will continue to change for the city and it must take care of its frontline employees.

Mayor and council decided to move forward with the new plan concept.

Moving towards the end of pre-council, Gilmour also proposed to improve the intersection at Macon Road and Commerce Street, which caused a lot of confusion towards the end of pre-council. Gilmour reminded the mayor and council that the city and the Houston County Board of Commissioners decided to make improvements to the intersection.

Gilmour presented a concept plan of the intersection to the mayor and council. Gilmour said one of the concerns in this plan is the circle will negatively impact Perry Drug Company and Anytime Fitness because there will be no access to enter the businesses. Mayor Walker said he will not allow those businesses to close. He said the plan will bring down traffic on Commerce St. and Macon Rd. which, according to Gilmour, has increased over the years due to Highway 127.

After much confusion and debate from council members on the proposed plan, Mayor Walker said he will let council members think about the plan since it was the first hearing. The mayor and council decided to make their final decision on the plan at the next council meeting on July 18.

Various recognitions were also made Tuesday evening. Fire Chief Lee Parker presented the annual awards by the Perry Fire and Emergency Services Department.

The awards are held annually and recognize members of the fire department who are voted for by their peers. One of the awards is Fire Recruit of the Year, given to Firefighter Will Kersey. Firefighter of the Year was given to Firefighter Caleb Woods and Fire Officer of the Year was given to Fire Lieutenant Tom Schonau. Mayor Walker congratulated each honoree and thanked them for their service.

Police Chief Alan Everidge also introduced a new member to the police department. Everidge introduced Police Officer Shawn Douglas to mayor and council and told them the department is always looking for the best. Douglas gives the mayor and council his thanks and looks forward to serving the community.

Everidge also recognized Corporal Jason Seaman and Corporal Tayler Talley for their service at Mossy Creek Middle School. According to Chief Everidge, the Board of Education wanted to recognize their service in protecting the school all school year.

After recognitions, the council meeting consisted of appointments to the Perry Area Convention and Visitors Bureau Authority.

Wharton said there were three vacancies and presented the names of those who will fill those positions. Mayor and council also had to ratify the appointments of current members of the department. After Wharton presented the names of new members and current members, the mayor and council approved the appointments.

During the council meeting, the mayor and council decided to cancel the July 3 work session due to the holiday and will have their first work session of the month on July 17.

Mayor and council will meet again for their pre-council starting at 5 p.m. and regular council meeting at 6 p.m. on July 18. Everyone is invited to attend these meetings and the agenda can be found at https://perry-ga.gov/escribe-agendas-minutes.

After giving thanks on the Juneteenth festivities and a reminder of events coming up for the remainder of the month, the meeting was adjourned.

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