In Tuesday’s Board of Commissioners meeting, Macon-Bibb County invested another $500,000 to improve mental health, took the first steps to correct drainage issues at the Walnut Street entryway to Carolyn Crayton Park, and hired a former commissioner to handle programming at Henderson Stadium.
The Southern Center for Choice Theory, or SCCT, presented an overview of their work with the county’s Mental Health Matters Initiative that reached more than 1,200 people over the last 12 months.
Mayor Lester Miller sponsored the resolution to provide an additional half-million dollars to continue to provide no-cost mental health services through 2025.
SCCT CEO and lead therapist Gloria Cisse said their mission is to create a mentally healthy, resilient community.
“We know there is no health without mental health,” said Cisse, who tries to build community through traditional and non-traditional services, such as drum circles and knitting.
In the last year, more than half of those who received a variety of services were under the age of 17.
Cisse’s presentation showed nearly three-quarters of those served were Black, a quarter were white and the remaining 5% were Hispanic or other races.
In the breakdown of zip codes, about 58% of the work involved 31204, around 27% in 31206 and less than 10% in both 31217 and 31210.
SCCT’s Andrea Cooke said even after the prior contract expired, they continued to provide more than $119,000 in services.
“It has been our honor to continue to provide the service,” Cooke said. “Part of the work that we’re doing is trying to create opportunities for this to be sustainable without government help.”
Plans for the next year include hosting the first mental health symposium and further studying the effect of Adverse Childhood Experiences or ACEs on the community.
SCCT also mentored 37 counseling interns through about 19,000 hours of clinical experience and monitoring.
“We get a chance because of this initiative to help to create the next generation of mental health professionals that are going to be in our community,” Cisse said.
The funding passed unanimously.
“Mental health is just so important and it’s been neglected,” Commissioner Elaine Lucas said.
Walnut Street
Commissioners also approved a $140,000 contract for BTBB Architects to draw up a design for a bid set for work to enhance Walnut Street between Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard and Carolyn Crayton Park.
With money from the engineering budget, the county plans to build a new parking lot where the old batting cages were and the current Norfolk Southern building remains.
The county has been working with the railroad company and making slow progress in cleaning up the area under the wooden trestle where drainage has been an issue due to a possible spring.
The county unveiled a preliminary parking design, which prompted Commissioner Virgil Watkins to ask why they couldn’t just start building the parking lot on that strip of land the county now owns.
Alex Morrison, director of planning in public spaces, said a lot of engineering work is needed to design a new traffic pattern, sidewalks, parking and bike lane to connect to the Pleasant Hill Pathway along Walnut Street.
“A lot of the engineering is to address the water flow. There’s an existing creek bed that runs through there. It has to be addressed so you have to have geotechnical engineering that goes into that,” Morrison said.
BTBB will oversee the pre-construction process with subcontractors working on the design, which will lead to a bid set to hire a contractor to build the project. The total cost of the work won’t be known until the design work is complete.
Miller said the county plans to recoup the construction cost through the next SPLOST campaign.
“It will clean up the area, and at the same time, the thought is to put cisterns there to collect the water,” Miller said.
Henderson Stadium booking
Former Macon-Bibb County Commissioner Al Tillman’s company will be taking over scheduling entertainment acts, sporting events and other activities at Henderson Stadium on Anthony Road.
In January, Tillman resigned from the District 9 seat in the last year of his final third term in office so that he could pursue government entertainment contracts.
The $65,000 1-year contract with Tillman’s Teeger Entertainment & Consultants Inc. will come from the county’s recreation budget to optimize the stadium’s use as an event space.
Miller said he expects Teeger Entertainment to bring in at least three times the contract amount in additional revenue from the stadium.
The county manager will have final approval for acts selected for the venue under the resolution that passed with only Commissioner Valerie Wynn voting against it.
Wynn said she thought $65,000 was too much to pay for a new position, but Miller said other firms would have charged more and that Teeger has a local track record.
State Senator David Lucas’ annual Soul Jam Festival in its 25th year will be considered a legacy event for the venue. If the county wants to hold something at the stadium, it also would take precedence over scheduling other entities.
Chief Senior Assistant County Attorney Michael McNeill said alcohol sales will continue at the county-owned stadium which is across from Hartley Elementary School.
Since this is the first time the county has actively recruited events at the stadium, McNeill said they would evaluate the success after the first year.
Insurance and security are typically handled through the contracted acts, he said.
The county also agreed to spend $342,500 from the general fund to supplement the Macon Transit Authority’s vehicle liability insurance. The Georgia Department of Transportation picked up the other half, Miller said.
Watkins and Lucas both questioned why the county continually provides supplemental appropriations to the transit authority instead of initially budgeting the correct amount, but County Manager Keith Moffett said they can only estimate some of the costs which aren’t fully known at the time.
Lucas encouraged her fellow commissioners to continue to oppose any fare increase that could provide hardships for the people of Macon.
Commissioners also approved seven alcohol licenses, including for new restaurants Jalapenos at 458 Second St. and Tenmii Japanese Eatery at 6125 Bass Road, and the Beauté and LeBar nail salon at 1625 Bass Road.
Here is a summary of Tuesday’s agenda items captured in social media posts during the meeting.
— Civic Journalism Senior Fellow Liz Fabian covers Macon-Bibb County government entities for The Macon Newsroom and can be reached at [email protected] or 478-301-2976.
