By PHILLIP RAMATI — pramati@macon At one point during the Bibb County Commission committee meetings, Gene Dunwody Sr. took note of the faces in the room.“I can’t believe y’all are so calm,” said Dunwody, a former president of Macon City Council. “When I was running, I was always nervous.”Bibb County Commissioner Joe Allen, running for mayor in Tuesday’s special election to choose the new Macon-Bibb County consolidated government, said there was little Tuesday morning that he and the other commissioners seeking offices in the new government -- Chairman Sam Hart and Commissioners Bert Bivins and Gary Bechtel -- could do at that point.“Whatever will be, will be,” Allen said. “This (meeting) is more important.”Dunwody was at the commission meeting to discuss the location of the new rangers’ office at Lake Tobesofkee. Dunwody and his son, Gene Dunwody Jr., proposed a plan to locate the new office along with a new meeting hall on Claystone Beach, which is open year-round.The county is developing a master plan that would include a major conference center and amphitheater at Sandy Beach, but the Dunwodys’ plan would be separate from that.Doug Furney, chief ranger at Tobesofkee, said the additional meeting space at the lake would be put to good use, since the lone pavilion for meetings currently at the lake is booked into next year.Dunwody Jr. said the lake could be a destination for groups, family reunions, conventions and others who would want to use the meeting space.“This is an opportunity for us to understand the marketplace for meeting centers,” he said. “This is an underutilized piece of property.”By building on the site the Dunwodys proposed, it would preserve other sites for future projects in the master plan without disrupting much activity at the lake. Some holes on the disc golf course would have to be reworked, he said, but that would be a minor issue.The Dunwodys told commissioners they would put together a more specific plan within the next six weeks, and they hope the project can be completed within a year.In a separate discussion, Furney told commission members that an eagle’s nest which was holding up development at a new subdivision off Thomaston Road has been resolved. The U.S. Department of Fish & Wildlife approved a plan that would allow developers LT Acquisitions to work around the site of the nest, provided they follow strict guidelines.Furney said the guidelines included no development work being done between Oct. 1 and May 1 -- mating season for eagles -- as well as a $10,000 contribution to the World Wildlife Fund.During that part of the meeting, commissioners approved allowing the developers to put in two common areas for the development, including developing a beach site.To contact writer Phillip Ramati, call 744-4334. Read more here: macon/2013/09/17/2669654/bibb-commissioners-study-new-office.html##storylink=cpy
Posted on: Thu, 19 Sep 2013 21:13:49 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015