Warner Robins City Council mulls Wellston Park plans

WARNER ROBINS — While the city plans upgrades to its parks and recreation facilities, the leader of a local nonprofit is calling attention to 30 acres of overgrown and unused land his family donated to the city almost two decades ago.

Jim Taylor, chairman of the nonprofit Wellston Trees & Greens, told the City Council on Monday that his brother-in-law, developer Charlie McGlamry, donated to the city in 1997 the land near Wellston Ridge Apartments off Olympia Drive. However, the city has no definite plans to develop the land.

As he did last September, Taylor presented the council with the nonprofit’s plans for Wellston Park, which call for a dog park, amphitheater, a classroom building and more.

“We’ve been talking about these projects, and you guys have been putting money into studies. ... There’s a lot of us in the community that want to be a part of it and lend our expertise or lend our resources,” Taylor said. “All this would be done in phases.”

Over the past two weeks, volunteers including McGlamry have completed $80,000 worth of clearing work “to get the ball rolling,” Taylor said, adding that corporate sponsorships are a good idea to keep costs down “instead of it falling on the back of the taxpayers.”

Councilman Keith Lauritsen called the idea “fabulous.”

“This is the kind of thing I think everybody’s looking for,” he said.

David Jones, a retired 65-year-old who lives behind the city’s property on Flournoy Drive, attended Monday’s pre-council meeting.

“I think if you put an amphitheater in there, you’re going to have a lot of opposition,” Jones told Taylor and the council. “The rest of it sounds really good.”

City Councilwoman Carolyn Robbins said the council hasn’t begun exploring possible sites for an amphitheater, a project approved by taxpayers in the 2012 special purpose local option sales tax referendum.

“I haven’t been out there yet, but it looks like an ideal place for (an amphitheater) from what I’m hearing,” Robbins said. “The only thing that may be an issue is traffic ... but we can do a traffic study on that and see how that would work.”

Mayor Randy Toms, who visited the freshly cleared site with Taylor on Friday, said the city currently has a lot of projects in the works, but creating Wellston Park is “a project we need to pursue.”

“Anything like that, when you’re able to see more, you want to do more,” Toms said. “So, would it move up on the list of priorities? Possibly, because it becomes an easier project to do.”

As for an amphitheater on the property, Toms said he’s “a little questionable about it” and would want some type of study completed. Toms said the city owns several undeveloped properties and that he’s “tired of land just sitting there ... not being used.”

City Attorney Jim Elliott said the Olympia Drive property has never been developed because, “I guess over a 17-year-period we’ve had several different administrations and different concepts about what to do with it.”

In other business Monday, the council approved hiring Macon-based paving contractor Reeves Construction to resurface Moody Road from Russell Parkway to 400 feet south of Sandy Run Road for a total cost of $587,009 to be paid for using 2012 SPLOST money.

The council also voted to condemn two properties in order to gain the right of way for the extension of Wall Street. Currently, Wall Street begins at South Davis Drive and dead-ends at Huntington Middle School, but work is being completed to extend the road by a little more than a half mile past the new veterans training facility to connect with Dixon Street.

Both the paving job and property condemnation issues received full support from council members Monday. Councilman Chuck Shaheen was absent.

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

This story was originally published December 7, 2015 at 10:28 PM.