The Americus City Council met on Sept. 19. Honorary council member Glenda Cason was recognized. Mayor Lee Kinnamon told how the 30th would be Georgia Reads Day, and members of staff and leadership in the City would be reading to students at Furlow, Southland Academy, and the public school system.

The late William Powell, a former teacher, was recognized by Kinnamon. He fondly recounted his mentorship and had tears in his eyes. Post 558, who were in attendance, stood and saluted.

Tammye Pettyjohn Jones, Director of Programs for OneSumter, addressed the City Council. Jones presented information on the Thriving Communities Program. “We are the only Georgia County or community in the state of Georgia selected out of 52 across the nation.”

She talked about the benefits. “For the next three years, we will receive technical capability support.” Jones told how they had been assigned a capacity building team that came the week prior to do a needs assessment of the community. “We’re doing a work plan within another week virtually, and then three of us will travel to Washington, D.C., to join the other 51 communities in October. It will be chairman David Baldwin from the County, it will be superintendent Walter Knighton from Sumter County Schools, and yours truly from OneSumter.”

Jones gave further details. “We are focused on our top priorities in Sumter County, the entire County, including all five municipalities, housing, transportation, infrastructure, and the list goes on, but those are the big three.”

The chairman of the Historic Preservation Commission, Lane Tyson, then addressed the Council. “The downtown continues to improve, the, tons of businesses are taking advantage of the matching grants that are available to improve the facades.” He did mention concerns for the City, including blighted properties and chained up animals. Kinnamon noted that a blight tax had recently been enforced.

A representative of the Sumter County Landbank, Carolyn Brown, addressed the Council. “We have been focusing on trying to brighten our Americus and Sumter County areas, get rid of the blighted property.” She did note on Qpublic there were nine properties listed under the landbank, with seven available for sale. She told how they meet the second Wednesday of each month at 1 pm on the third floor of the Americus City hall building.

She noted they had been studying other landbanks. “One of the things that we would like to share with you is not wait until the property is just totally blighted. We would like to seek some grants to help the community, the homeowners, possibly in the blighted areas, to be able to obtain funds to help fix their homes up before they get to such disrepair.”

Marcus Johnson, with Phoebe Sumter, came seeking guidance on sign regulations for their community gardens. City Attorney Jimmy Skipper noted options were limited in size for the historic district, with one community garden situated by Calvary Episcopal Church.

For more news on the Sept 19 City Council, see the companion piece, Americus City Council hears district 4 complaints.