Hawkins, Weidner face off in Jones commission chairman's race

A businessman is challenging the chairman of the Jones County Commission in the May 24 Republican primary election.

No Democrats are running, so the winner of the primary will take the office.

Chris Weidner, a political newcomer, is opposing 12-year incumbent Preston Hawkins.

Weidner was formerly in the timber business but has been a real estate investor for the past 13 years. He said he buys homes, usually in foreclosure auctions, fixes them and then puts them up for rent.

Hawkins, who was a construction engineer for the Georgia Department of Transportation for 34 years, said he has worked well with the DOT to improve roads in the county while he has been in office.

"We are in better shape than we were 12 years ago," Hawkins said. "I know the roads are in better shape, and the bridges are, too."

He said he would like to do more if re-elected.

The commission has supported calling for a new vote on a regional transportation special local option sales tax. If it passes, Hawkins said, the revenue could get some important projects done, including extending a rail spur to the county's industrial park.

Hawkins also said he would like to work on extending the county water system and providing sewer service to the industrial park.

Those improvements would be important for bringing jobs into the county, Hawkins said. The industrial park, he said, has difficulty attracting tenants due to the lack of sewer. The commission has approved a plan to provide sewer by tying into the Macon Water Authority system.

Weidner said he regularly attends commission meetings and thinks there are issues with "accountability and transparency" in county government.

"As a businessman, if I had made some of the decisions (the commission) had done, it would have bankrupted me," he said.

When asked for an example, he said, "Just different investments they've made. It would be a broad range of decisions I've seen them make, some long-term investments where I think they could have started at a smaller scale and done a little bit more research."

Weidner said his priority would be reducing wasteful spending.

"I think we need to be more accountable on our bid systems," he said. "Make sure everything is done by the books."

He said any expenditures by the county over $10,000 are supposed to be put out for bid, but there have been instances of that not happening.

He criticized the commission for what he said has been off-and-on construction of a new county recreation complex. He said he wants to see that project completed.

Hawkins said the project has taken several years to complete because the county contracted with the Department of Labor to have inmates do much of the site work. The inmates work limited hours, and they sometimes leave to do other projects, he said.

"We probably saved a million dollars by doing that," Hawkins said. "We did that to save money. We just didn't have the money to do it."

He said the county has awarded contracts to install lights, irrigation and other infrastructure, and he thinks the park will open by next summer.

Hawkins said the 66-acre site will have at least six baseball/softball fields and three to four soccer fields.

To contact writer Wayne Crenshaw, call 256-9725.

Jones County commission chairman

Preston Hawkins

Age: 77

Occupation: Commission chairman, retired Georgia Department of Transportation construction engineer

Political experience: Commission chairman for 12 years

Chris Weidner

Age: 54

Occupation: Real estate

Political experience: None

This story was originally published April 12, 2016 at 4:38 PM with the headline "Hawkins, Weidner face off in Jones commission chairman's race ."