Departing Macon director: ‘The city has adopted me and I’ve adopted the city’

Refurbished benches made from old street lamps and tree rings and using leftover plants in Pinnacle Park exemplify the resourcefulness of the Macon-Bibb County Parks and Beautification Department.

Steve Lawson, the department’s director, says Pinnacle Park will become a new jewel for Macon as it becomes the latest neighborhood park in the city. The nearly completed park, located at the corner of Second Street and Edgewood Avenue, is one of the final projects Lawson will work on for Macon-Bibb before he leaves next month for a job in his hometown.

After nearly three years of as head of Parks and Beautification, Lawson is now headed to Big Stone Gap, Virginia, where he’ll become the city manager. Parks and Beautification was formed in 2014 with employees from recreation, public works and sanitation departments.

The department maintains 128 parks and greenspaces that include Amerson River Park, Rosa Parks Square, Washington Park and Coleman Hill Park. Parks and Beautification also coordinates programs inside those parks, such as yoga at Rosa Parks. Some of the parks have been aided by partnerships with agencies such as NewTown Macon and organizations such as the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation and Community Foundation of Central Georgia, Lawson said.

“This is what made me love Macon so much is people coming together for a common goal of growth and making this community come along,” he said. “I can say this about Macon: The city has adopted me and I’ve adopted the city.”

While at Pinnacle this week, Lawson pointed to a house across the street from park that was recently sold. The park is on the former site of the Boys & Girls Club, near other major redevelopments that include the Second Street Corridor and Tindall Senior Towers projects.

He said some creating a new park like Pinnacle may be able to help spur more revitalization.

“Our hope is the community picks up and other houses are here sell,” Lawson said. “Ideally for us, if you build a park, your hope is to make the property values better.”

The next phase of Pinnacle will include putting up a fence and lookout tower on a hill that oversees the downtown skyline.

“What I’m really most proud of is what the team has become,” Lawson said about the department’s employees. “When you build a park like Amerson and have to staff it, we have the talent to do that.”

Reshuffling of Macon-Bibb departments

Lawson is joining Tom Buttram of Department of Business Development Services as the latest departures from Macon-Bibb County government.

Buttram recently resigned and the department’s assistant director Ricky Fuller has taken over in an interim role. A search is underway to find Buttram’s replacement. A decision has not yet been made on who will fill Lawson’s position.

Macon-Bibb County has undergone some reshuffling of various departments over the last year, including seven interim directors being named permanent directors in December 2015.

Mayor Robert Reichert credits Buttram and Lawson for having made key contributions in the consolidated government.

“They took to heart the need to better serve the needs of the entire community, not just do what is expedient or easy,” he said in an emailed statement. “Tom worked with businesses and developers to help them through the inspection and licensing process, knowing we should encourage people to invest in our community. And Steve truly wanted to make Macon-Bibb a greener, more beautiful place to live; his management of our greenspaces like Amerson River Park, getting the fountains working, focusing on litter and debris cleanup, and more have made this a better place to live.”

This story was originally published September 23, 2016 at 6:33 PM with the headline "Departing Macon director: ‘The city has adopted me and I’ve adopted the city’."