Plans to reconnect highway-divided Pleasant Hill neighbors to themselves and downtown will get a $600,000 boost after Macon-Bibb County Commissioners accepted a federal grant Tuesday that will design streetscapes and a commercial development plan for the neighborhood.
Alex Morrison, the county’s director of planning and public spaces, said the federal program aims to rejoin communities separated by the highway system.
To secure the half-million dollar Federal Highway Administration Neighborhood Access and Equity Grant, the county agreed to a $100,000 local match with the Knight Foundation providing $50,000 and the remainder of the match coming from the county’s general fund.
The $600,000 will hire a consulting firm to compile suggestions from the neighborhood and pay architects and engineers to draft a plan to mitigate the disruption caused when the interstate came through in the 70s.
“We have been working with the Pleasant Hill community for a long time on ways to expand the recent mitigation work that has been done to help improve neighborhood conditions beyond just the immediate area,” Morrison said.
Neighbors want sidewalks on all streets, better connections across the interstate, more commercial opportunities and revitalized housing, he said.
Morrison expects the process to take about 18 months for the county to have a fully developed proposal, which is required to apply for future federal funding to implement the plans.
Commissioner Brendalyn Bailey suggested including in the planning process St. Peter Claver Catholic School, which was founded in Pleasant Hill in 1903 to educate underserved Black children.
“Their area was definitely impacted when the highway did come through,” Bailey said.
Commissioner Stanley Stewart would like to see a greenscape pedestrian bridge, more like a park, that would reconnect both sides of the neighborhood.
In the coming weeks, the county will put out bids to hire the consultant who will begin engaging the community next year.
Grants and goodbyes
Also during Tuesday’s meetings, Macon-Bibb also accepted a $6,000 Georgia Department of Agriculture grant to spay and neuter dogs and cats at the county shelter.
They approved more than $29,000 from the Governor’s Office of Highway Safety to contribute to the operation of the Highway Enforcement of Aggressive Traffic department of the Bibb County Sheriff’s Office’s.
Commissioners also agreed to Georgia’s Criminal Justice Coordinating Council contributing $93,350 to the Macon Judicial Circuit District Attorney’s Office under the Victims of Crime Act, and awarding more than $41,000 to the Solicitor General’s Office under the same program.
To address Macon Judicial Circuit backlogs from the pandemic, the county will accept the Judicial Council of Georgia’s more than $51,000 in American Rescue Plan Act funds.
No local matching funds were required for those grants from state agencies.
Commissioners agreed to spend about $108,000 for a 12-month extension of Ricoh USA’s annual lease for copiers and printers, and transferred $250,000 in the engineering budget to cover costs of hiring companies to do road work and asphalt patching.
Before Tuesday’s meetings, Macon-Bibb County honored the four commissioners who were not eligible for re-election due to term limits — Elaine Lucas, Virgil Watkins, Al Tillman and Mallory Jones.
The final commission meeting of the year is expected to be Dec. 17 when Mayor Lester Miller and newly-elected and returning commissioners will be sworn in for the new 4-year term beginning in 2025.
Here are highlights captured in social media posts during the meetings.
— 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.
