10 stories to watch in 2016

Now that 2015 is behind us, The Telegraph staff is looking ahead to some of the stories we expect will make headlines in the coming year. Here are 10 of them.

KUMHO TIRE TO BEGIN PRODUCTION

In July 2014 Kumho Tire announced an ambitious timeline to complete its first North American tire manufacturing facility in Macon-Bibb County. The $424 million endeavor will feature an automated system that builds a tire every 36 seconds.

Construction of the 1 million-square-foot facility is on schedule, and production is expected to begin in the first quarter of this year. The certificate of occupancy is expected to be issued in the coming weeks.

So far 250 people have been hired and are reporting to work in the new facility located on Kumho Parkway in the Sofkee Industrial Park. Total employment is expected to be more than 400 at full capacity. The Georgia Department of Labor is assisting the company in finding workers.

-- Linda S. Morris

OCMULGEE NATIONAL PARK

A measure to expand the Ocmulgee National Monument is pending in Washington.

While visiting with Macon-Bibb County leaders in October, midstate U.S. Reps. Sanford Bishop and Austin Scott said they expected their colleagues would approve the proposal.

The resolution would create Ocmulgee Mounds National Park on 2,100 acres along the Ocmulgee River where Native Americans lived for centuries.

The proposal was introduced in the U.S. House last January and referred to the Committee on Natural Resources. The Subcommittee on Federal Lands held a hearing in June.

If approved as written, the Department of the Interior would study the national significance of the Ocmulgee River corridor between Macon and Hawkinsville, the feasibility of adding that land to the National Park System and plan for protection and interpretation of the lands.

-- Liz Fabian

CHARTER SCHOOLS ON THE RISE

Macon already has two charter schools, with the Academy for Classical Education opening in 2014 and Macon Charter Academy opening in 2015. Those have seen mixed results, with ACE experiencing growth and academic success and MCA feeling early growing pains.

In 2016 and beyond, several more charter schools could join them. Cirrus Academy is expected to open as a state charter in the old Eugenia Hamilton Elementary School on Pio Nono Avenue in Macon, and two more -- Bloomfield Preparatory Academy and DREAM Academy -- are going through the petition process with the Bibb County school board. Official approval for BPA could come as soon as the Jan. 21 board meeting.

In Peach County, the Byron Peach Charter High School could open in the fall of 2016 after delaying a year to deal with terms of a federal desegregation order ruling.

-- Jeremy Timmerman

WARNER ROBINS BUILDS VETERANS PARK, REVAMPS CITY HALL

Warner Robins City Hall is expected to look drastically different later this year. The City Council recently voted to spend $4.11 million to renovate the 1970s-era building and to create a Veterans Memorial Park on the front lawn facing Watson Boulevard.

The veterans memorial park is projected to cost about $600,000, with renovations and contingencies accounting for the remaining cost. In addition to a smaller memorial featuring a piece of steel from the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center, the park will honor local veterans from all military branches with engraved brick pavers arranged in a circular plaza around an eternal flame.

The council hired Warren Associates Inc. to handle both projects, which are being paid for using special purpose local option sales tax money.

Renovations already are underway. Warren Selby Jr., the construction company's president and chief executive officer, told the council in a November meeting that the time line for completion will depend on the city's ability to temporarily relocate some departments. The park will be built later in dry months, Warren said.

Mayor Randy Toms said the veterans monument is "not a memorial," but instead is a place for events to draw people to the city "as we revitalize this whole part of town."

-- Laura Corley

BIBB DEPUTIES GETTING BODY CAMS, OFFICE REORGANIZES

More than eight dozen Bibb County deputies will be wearing body cameras in 2016.

Sheriff David Davis has budgeted up to $200,000 to equip 100 officers with cameras and pay for data storage.

Before selecting the equipment, deputies tested different models of cameras in the final quarter of 2015.

After months of delays, the sheriff's office also is expected to move into the new annex in the old Sears building near the corner of Third Street and Riverside Drive.

All investigators will be under one roof, along with case files and Central Records.

After Macon-Bibb County consolidation, investigative units have been scattered in different buildings, some that belonged to the former Macon Police Department.

The building is expected to be ready by summer, Davis said.

"It sort of helps with a lot of dominoes falling," he said.

In the move, the sheriff's office will vacate the Willie C. Hill Annex building and the old Macon Police Department detective bureau and free up space for other county offices.

-- Liz Fabian

MACON-BIBB BLIGHT PROJECTS TO MOVE FORWARD

The issue of blighted properties will remain at the forefront of Macon-Bibb County in 2016.

This year, plans to remedy dilapidated structures are expected to move forward as the nine commissioners have $1 million each to spend on blight. County officials say patience will be key as the county navigates a lengthy process -- typically at least six months -- to acquire rundown properties.

Commissioners already have begun getting input from residents offering ideas for projects. Some structures could be torn down and possibly redeveloped into parks while others might be rehabbed and potentially sold to investors. Other options also are on the table for commissioners who are tasked with addressing a problem that has plagued Macon.

Each project will have to be approved by commissioners through a process that will involve a blight consultant and the Macon-Bibb Land Bank Authority.

The county also has another $4 million of blight bond funds invested on projects in Beall's Hill and on Wise Avenue.

-- Stanley Dunlap

WILL MACON HIT A HOME RUN OR STRIKE OUT WITH BASEBALL?

Whether Macon can support another minor league baseball team likely will be answered in a study released early this year.

Representatives from B&D Venues will inform the Macon-Bibb County Commission if Macon has the resources and demographics for a team to be viable in the city.

In November, the firm took a tour of some potential sites for a ballpark, which included the historic Luther Williams Field as well as the former Bibb Mill property off Coliseum Drive where Mayor Robert Reichert has been a proponent of creating a mixed-used development centered on a stadium.

Even if B&D says Macon could handle another franchise, the process of courting a team, funding a stadium and other numerous tasks would need to be worked out. But before that, each step would have to get the go-ahead from a County Commission that was nearly split, 5-4, on paying $50,000 for the feasibility study.

The last Major League Baseball-affiliated team in the city left in 2002 when the Atlanta Braves farm team moved to Rome after that city agreed to build a new $15 million.

-- Stanley Dunlap

A YEAR OF ELECTIONS

Georgia is pushing its way toward the front of the presidential-picking line as part of the so-called SEC Primary, a March 1 vote in seven Southern states.

The primary is named for the Southeastern Conference where many of the states are grouped for college sports.

The idea is for the South to get more attention and visits from presidential candidates, according to the SEC Primary's architect, Georgia Secretary of State Brian Kemp.

But the big Southern vote is not necessarily a knockout round for Republican candidates who endure through the first four contests in Iowa, New Hampshire, Nevada and South Carolina. The SEC-vote states -- Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Texas and Virginia -- will divide their delegates proportionally.

So candidates who don't finish first will still carry some power at the 2016 Republican National Convention in Cleveland.

Presidential candidates will share the final Nov. 8 ballot with elections for all 236 seats in the Georgia state Legislature, all of Georgia's U.S. House seats, one of Georgia's U.S. Senate seats and scores of local races. It may be hard to call the Senate election a contest just yet. Republican incumbent Sen. Johnny Isakson has yet to attract a high-caliber Democrat challenger.

The same day, Georgians also will vote on whether to allow the state to take over county or city schools that fail to meet state standards for at least three consecutive years. The list of "failing" schools changes each time they are graded, but 14 Bibb schools could qualify if their scores do not improve.

Georgians must register to vote by Feb. 1, 2016, to be eligible for the March 1 primary election.

-- Maggie Lee

WHAT'S IN STORE FOR ROBINS AIR FORCE BASE

It's not considered likely that Congress will approve a new Base Realignment and Closure Commission in an election year.

But that doesn't mean things can't happen in 2016 that will impact jobs at Robins Air Force Base. It happened last year when the Marines moved the helicopter unit that employed 300 people at Robins.

With the budget pressures on the Department of Defense, Robins advocates say they are being watchful this year for any similar moves.

The 21st Century Partnership, a group that works to protect jobs at Robins, is looking for a new leader for its efforts. One is expected to be hired by April.

-- Wayne Crenshaw

PEACH COUNTY TRIAL EXPECTED IN FATAL SHOOTING OF CHILD

Six men charged in connection with the fatal shooting of an 8-year-old boy in Fort Valley are expected to go to trial in 2016.

Jai'mel Anderson was fatally wounded when shots were fired through the front door of an apartment last January. He was in his pajamas on an air mattress in the living room.

Kristian Jamal Wipfel, Antonio Darrelle Garvin, Jeremy Quillen Jackson and Tevin Juwan Sams, all of Macon, and Dennis Ray Eason, of Fort Valley, are all facing trial on a charge of felony murder.

Eason also was charged with terroristic threats. He is accused of sending a text message an hour before the shooting to De'Jad Williams, who was taking care of the boy while his mother was at work. The text asked Williams to come out and fight.

Williams was charged with murder in the second degree and cruelty to children in the second degree in the child's death. Williams is accused of encouraging and engaging in threats and aggravated assaults involving a firearm by text messages.

Williams previously was charged with cocaine possession with intent to distribute, possession of a firearm by a convicted felon and a probation violation.

The case is expected to be tried sometime in 2016.

-- Becky Purser

This story was originally published January 1, 2016 at 9:29 PM with the headline "10 stories to watch in 2016 ."