College Hill Corridor Commission announces new round of grants, new leadership

Before passing the torch to a new commission of volunteers Wednesday evening, the College Hill Alliance celebrated all it has accomplished in its six years of grant-fueled efforts to transform the area between downtown Macon and Mercer University.

After two multi-million grants from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, the paid staff of the College Hill Alliance has dissolved with the near completion of the College Hill Corridor master plan. The responsibilities of the alliance now belong to the newly established College Hill Corridor Commission.

Dozens attended the celebration of the alliance at Mercer's Tattnall Square Center for the Arts, where members of the all-volunteer commission were announced by the new Mercer-appointed co-chairwoman, Carrie Ingoldsby.

"We certainly have big shoes to fill as a commission moving forward," said Ingoldsby, Mercer's director of student affairs. "I want to assure you that we have an awesome group (of) 14 wonderful community members and leaders that are all stakeholders in the College Hill Corridor movement."

Steven Fulbright, who heads Main Street Macon, also was appointed co-chairman of the commission by Macon-Bibb County Mayor Robert Reichert.

Ingoldsby also announced Wednesday that the Knight Foundation is providing $50,000 to create a fund for the volunteer commission to pay for the community's best ideas.

"We want to hear your ideas," Ingoldsby said. "We want to know what you still want to do in the corridor."

Much like the Knight Neighborhood Challenge grants, which paid for ideas such as Second Sunday concerts in Washington Park and the soap box derby, the new Knight Community Projects Fund will pay for ideas that coincide with the College Hill Corridor master plan.

Online applications can be submitted beginning Thursday at www. collegehillmacon.com. Projects selected for funding will be announced Feb. 1.

Former staff members of the alliance, Knight Foundation Program Director Beverly Blake, Reichert and Mercer University President Bill Underwood were among those who spoke at the celebration.

Regarding the College Hill Corridor initiative, Underwood said a total of $197.5 million in private and public investments have been made in the corridor's two square miles.

"It's been a tremendous success in terms of attracting investment into this district ... (and) talented young people," Underwood said. "We've grown our undergraduate student population by 25 percent during that period."

While the visible differences are striking when comparing scenes in the corridor from 2007 and today, Underwood thought the most impactful part of the College Hill initiative has been "watching the sense of self-confidence in the community rise as we see the successes that have resulted from this community-wide effort to rebuild our city," Underwood said. "I see that spreading. ... People are saying, 'If we can do that in College Hill, what can we do in Macon?' "

To contact writer Laura Corley, call 744-4334 or follow her on Twitter @Lauraecor.

This story was originally published December 9, 2015 at 10:07 PM with the headline "College Hill Corridor Commission announces new round of grants, new leadership ."