Forsyth, Monroe County officials at odds over 15-acre field

FORSYTH -- A 15-acre field adjacent to a city park has sparked a clash between Forsyth and Monroe County leaders.

Originally city property, the land off Ensign Road near the Forsyth Golf Club was deeded over to the county in the 1980s, but the deed had a condition.

“In the contract, if they’re not using it, it’s supposed to come back to us,” Mayor John Howard II said during a news conference in the park Wednesday.

The land was to be used specifically for recreation as part of the county’s recreation department, but that hasn’t been the case, Howard said.

Then this summer, 13-year-old Forsyth resident Patrick Ford wrote Howard a letter, describing the need for a skate park.

“It provides a way to get kids out of the house and go skate,” Ford wrote, noting that the closest such facilities were in Macon, Warner Robins and McDonough. “It gives kids exercise and a fun place to go.”

Howard and City Council members discussed the letter, and that got the ball rolling.

“Then we started forming ideas for what we could do out here,” Howard said.

City officials wrote their own letter to county commissioners, requesting the deed to the land. The commissioners voted 5-0 to decline that request Aug. 18.

Commissioner Jarod Lovett made the motion to decline, and he said it was based on the use the county has for the land.

It has been used as “overflow fields” for youth sporting events, and while the recreation department has secured space at the old Monroe Academy, those fields are expected to be used for upcoming Junior ROTC programs.

“So at this time, it wouldn’t behoove us to give up that field space,” Lovett said.

Council member Jimmy Jones, chairman of an ad hoc recreation committee set up by Howard, doesn’t see it that way. He described the city’s efforts as a “public education campaign” to inform Forsyth residents that they have plans for the field. Those plans include a bigger walking track to go with an amphitheater, dog park, skate park and splash pad.

But none of that can come to fruition until the commissioners return the land to the city, he and Howard said.

“It’s being wasted, and it has been wasted for years -- decades,” Jones said.

Lovett sees other motivation behind the news conference and the city’s push for the property.

“I think the city’s efforts are being glorified for the upcoming election,” he said.

Howard and Jones are both running for re-election next month, as is council member Greg Goolsby, and the vacant Post 2 is also being contested.

Lovett suggested that the city and county could work together and combine their efforts to improve the existing county recreation area within the city limits on Dan Pitts Drive.

“This would be a great time to talk about functional consolidation,” he said.

Both sides said they hoped for future communication on the issue, but Lovett noted that he had not been contacted other than the letter in August.

Howard said the city’s plans are on hold for now until the land can be secured.

“We’re hoping they’ll come around,” he said. “If not, we’ll have to seek legal action.”

To contact writer Jeremy Timmerman, call 744-4331 and find him on Twitter@MTJTimm.

This story was originally published October 14, 2015 at 6:24 PM with the headline "Forsyth, Monroe County officials at odds over 15-acre field ."