Macon Water Authority
After the Georgia General Assembly convenes Jan. 12, Sen. David Lucas will be crafting legislation to allow the Macon Water Authority to call for a referendum on a one-cent sales tax for infrastructure spending.
With MWA facing hundreds of millions of dollars worth of upgrades and expansion needs, Lucas believes the sales tax will enable the authority to fund the projects without having to drastically raise rates.
A proposal for the authority’s legal counsel, President Ron Shipman and Chairman Gary Bechtel to draft a resolution in support of Lucas’ quest to explore the tax, easily cleared the Finance Committee, but stalled in the board meeting as members raised concerns.
Last legislative session, Sen. Lucas introduced Senate Bill 337 reorganizing the authority, increasing its members, reducing the number of appointed positions, setting board salaries and requiring a minimum number of meetings each month.
When the full board considered Lucas’ sales tax plans, Finance Chair Dwight Jones motioned to limit the authority’s support to Lucas’ sales tax proposal and no other issues.
When the motion failed for lack of a second, the resolution in support of Lucas’ plan then deadlocked among other board members and failed 3 to 3.
Realizing the legislative session was just days away, District 2’s Desmond Brown asked to reconsider Jones’ prior amendment, in hopes the full board could agree to explore the sales tax proposal. After further discussion, the board passed the amended proposal that restricts the authority’s support to only explore enhancing a law that allows Fulton County municipalities to levy a one-cent sales tax.
The MOST, or Municipal Option Sales Tax, if approved by voters, could allow the authority to levy a one-cent sales tax for four years, and renew that six more times for a total of 28 years.
The authority’s non-profit arm, the Macon Water Alliance, also agreed to increase funding for water bill-paying assistance and fulfill the Macon-Bibb County Economic Opportunity Council’s request for $20,000, and Georgia’s Division of Family & Children Services’ ask for $7,000.
Brown, who chaired the authority’s Outdoor Committee, refused to convene Thursday’s scheduled committee meeting because he said the published agenda did not include items he submitted for consideration and only called for a review of the Fishing Derby.
Later in the board meeting when Bechtel assigned committee chairs for the coming year, Brown declined to continue as Outdoor chair, and Macon-Bibb Commissioner Bill Howell agreed to take the position.
Snow canceled the Outdoor Committee meeting last year, and the committee meeting was never rescheduled.
Thursday’s board meeting seemed to resolve another point of contention for Brown and District 1’s Elaine Lucas, wife of the state senator.
In recent months, Brown and Lucas voted against approving agendas due to concerns about the frequency of committee meetings and assignment of topics. Personnel Chair Lucas has complained some items assigned to Finance belong in her committee.
Jones agreed Thursday’s annual fitness program presentation belonged in Personnel, but explained the program had its origins in Finance.
Lucas and Brown also were voting against meeting minutes that she said were more “subjective” than “objective.”
Thursday, Bechtel explained the Authority was using an AI-assisted service that transcribed meeting recordings and provided an “executive summary,” which was being used as minutes.
This month, MWA included the entire transcript in the minutes.
Executive Assistant Ellenna Johnson said she goes through the transcript and corrects any mistakes, although some parts of the recording are unintelligible depending on how close a speaker is to the microphone.
Both Brown and Lucas seemed pleased with the inclusion of the transcript and voted to approve the minutes.
“I read this stuff and I can tell what’s objective and what’s subjective,” Lucas said. “These are more realistic and in keeping with what minutes should reflect.”
Brown liked the color-coding that highlights individual speakers.
“I want to say how pleased I am to see this format,” Brown said.
Friends of Rosa Parks Square
Less than a month before the Feb. 4 ribbon-cutting at Rosa Parks Square, the advisory board for the renovation project discussed the future of the Friends of Rosa Parks Square.
In 2019, the committee was initially set up to raise funds for the renovation project that is nearing completion, but members questioned what their role, if any, would be following the 10 a.m. ceremony on Parks’ birthday.
After scaling back an estimated $4 million project in 2024, Macon-Bibb County added $1.5 million from the general fund to the Urban Development Authority’s nearly $1 million donation from bond deal proceeds associated with Hotel 45.
The $2.5 million was enough to complete the renovation, but did not cover the cost of a planned statue for Parks, so it’s possible the board could continue to pursue that goal, but that is up for the mayor and county commissioners to decide.
Board Chair Andrea Cooke thanked members for their service at Thursday’s meeting and urged them to attend the ceremony.
“It may seem like it’s just a park in downtown, but there’s a lot of people who worked hard to bring it to fruition,” Cooke said.
Brownfields studied by Middle Georgia Regional Commission
Potentially contaminated sites in Baldwin and Macon-Bibb counties will get a closer look under a
$1.5 million grant to the Middle Georgia Regional Commission.
At Thursday’s MGRC Council meeting, Director of Planning & Public Administration Greg Boike said Macon-Bibb County requested the funding that the commission hopes will lead to the Middle Georgia Brownfields Program being an ongoing initiative for the region.
“Which is an opportunity for us at the Regional Commission to assist with our communities in the process of identifying sites that may have contamination concerns or may have other environmental concerns that prevent redevelopment or reinvestment in our communities from happening on those sites,” Boike said.
Thursday marked the end of Bubber Epps’ eight-year service as an officer on the Governing Council of the Middle Georgia Regional Commission.
The 60 members from 11 counties selected Pulaski County Commissioner Jenna Mashburn to succeed Epps.
UDA picking parking deck decor, selling $300 pole
At Thursday’s meeting of the Macon-Bibb County Urban Development Authority, members reviewed samples of metal panels that will screen the county’s parking deck that’s under construction with the D.T. Walton Lofts behind City Hall.
A year after breaking ground on the 363-space deck, the UDA is narrowing down its selection of the proper color scheme for decorative panels from Southeastern Architectural Systems to mask the massive concrete structure rising up out of the ground.
After a brief executive session, the authority also agreed to sell for $300 a pole on land it owns at 1196 Third St., the former home of Queen’s Auto Glass.
Executive Director Alex Morrison said an antique collector approached the authority about purchasing the rusted pole from the property at the corner of Hazel Street.
“Any sale of property has to go to the board,” Morrison said.
— 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.
