Former Bibb leaders pointing fingers over failed fire station site

A piece of property bought in 2013 for a fire station in east Bibb County that recently was deemed unsuitable for the project has former government leaders pointing fingers.

Two months ago, tests revealed the site’s soil could not adequately support a fire station and accompanying equipment.

Now, several of those former county officials say they’re not sure why the necessary testing wasn’t done on the property off Donnan Road before the county bought it for $100,000 from Bob and Sandra Shipp of Savannah. Bob Shipp served six years as chairman of the Bibb County Board of Tax Assessors during the 1980s.

Several officials said tests should have taken place prior to the sale of the 6.2-acre tract.

“That goes back on the commissioners and administration for, I think, dropping the ball and evidently making certain assumptions,” said Gary Bechtel, who was a Bibb County commissioner before being elected to the consolidated Macon-Bibb County governing board.

Bechtel said there should have been more due diligence. Typically, when government leaders vote on a land purchase, the proper tests have been done before the sale is finalized, officials said.

Reached for comment Wednesday, then-Bibb County Chief Administrative Officer Steve Layson said he had very little involvement in the process beyond finding money for the land buy.

When asked if it was ultimately his responsibility to make sure the proper steps were taken to determine if the land could be used, Layson said that was a difficult question to answer. In the final months leading up to city-county consolidation, some commissioners had certain projects they made a priority, and thus took more control over them, he said.

“They were making sure some things were buttoned down for their projects,” Layson said of commissioners.

Former Bibb County Commissioner Lonzy Edwards said the assertion that some county officials would take over a project is untrue. He said commissioners would advocate for projects in their districts, but they would not take over responsibilities that Bibb County employees should handle.

Edwards said he wanted the best site for the east Bibb fire station that was going to be built in his district, but it was a collective effort to purchase land for the station.

As the January 2014 consolidation date neared, county leaders were hurrying to get certain things accomplished,

“My recollection was that everything was rush, rush, rush,” Edwards said. “ We were trying to get as many pieces of property acquired that we had made a commitment to getting done.”

Interim Macon-Bibb County Clerk Janice Ross said Wednesday she could not find the minutes from an October meeting when a vote to finalize the Donnan property sale likely took place.

Meeting minutes were available before and after that date, but there was no mention of commissioners voting to approve the final sale of the property, Ross said.

During the transition period before consolidation, some electronic files were lost due to a computer malfunction, Ross said.

Documents on file with Macon-Bibb County, however, do include a May 30, 2013, sales agreement showing that the final purchase was dependent on the county being able to perform various inspections, including soil tests, and that the deal must receive final approval from commissioners.

Joe Allen, who served 20 years on the Bibb County Commission, said it’s a shame some county leaders aren’t accepting responsibility for what happened. Allen said he favored another location for the fire station, but he voted for the Donnan Road property after being advised that it was the best site.

“Everybody wants to take it off their back, and that’s wrong,” Allen said. “(We) need to find out what happened, and the truth needs to come out. We had a groundbreaking, and when you go that far with something, everything should be in order.”

The land was surveyed in September of that year, but Ross did not find any documents that show a soil test had taken place.

Former Bibb County Commission Chairman Sam Hart said he was under the assumption that all the necessary testing had been done.

“Usually when a place is proposed for a particular kind of venue, then usually there’s some preliminary testing,” Hart said. “I’m not sure to what extent it was done.”

Hart said he doesn’t remember who recommended the Donnan Road site.

“I’m extremely disappointed that it doesn’t support what we’re trying to do,” Hart said of the property. “It would have been a location in a great spot that I hoped would’ve spurred some economic development in an area that needed it.”

Now that plans to build a fire station on the property are dead, the future of the Donnan Road property is anyone’s guess. Macon-Bibb County spokesman Chris Floore said nothing has been decided.

The Macon-Bibb County Commission will vote next week on a resolution that includes an amendment to provide at least $2 million to build the fire station on new property.

To contact writer Stanley Dunlap, call 744-4623 or find him on Twitter@stan_telegraph.

This story was originally published October 14, 2015 at 8:38 PM with the headline "Former Bibb leaders pointing fingers over failed fire station site ."