MACON, Ga. — From busting blight and fighting crime to building affordable housing and boosting tourism, Mayor Lester Miller says the county is prioritizing how they're spending their first round of American Rescue Plan money.
The county is set to vote on how to distribute the first round of the funds -- a little over $18 million. Macon-Bibb is slated to see a total of $75 million in rescue funds overall.
The largest chunk of the first distribution of the county's Rescue Plan Money could go to one of the county's biggest priorities right now -- blight elimination.
We've seen dozens of demolitions this year, but we could be seeing more with this funding. Miller wants to set $5 million aside for demolitions and building new homes.
"We don't want to just tear houses down. We want to build the communities back up," Miller said. "One way to do that is a revolving loan funds. We can loan so they can repair properties in their own neighborhoods, build more properties in their own neighborhoods, but build them up."
The mayor also says the county needs more affordable housing options, so he proposes $600,000 goes towards Historic Macon, and $1 million to NewTown Macon.
"We're hoping to get a match on that. $1 million that's 10 to 12 homes. Doubles to about 24 homes in a short period of time. With the historic foundation, that's $600,000. They're going to do 30 to 40 homes over a five year period of time. We can double that with a match. So we can do 60 to 80 houses."
The county also wants to continue getting folks off the streets.
The mayor wants to put a total of $4 million toward the Brookdale Warming Center. The ordinance says it would be used for staffing, equipment, upgrades and more.
"More than 600 people have come through there. They stay anywhere from two days to 90 days. 100 jobs have been provided through the Brookdale Warming Center. Some of them might be multiple jobs by the same person. 45 people have received housing through there and 25 people have received a bus ticket back home reuniting them with their family," Miller said.
Mayor Miller says he hopes to secure at least 15 years worth of funding between this funding for the center and a donation from a private donor and philanthropy.
If the commission passes this breakdown of the funding, $2.5 million could go to help solve food insecurity in the county.
$1 million could go toward addressing the county's food desert areas, $500,000 for household assistance food programs, and $1 million for Middle Georgia Community Food Bank.
"A lot of the food you see here is donated, but some of that food is also purchased," said Kathy McCollum, executive director of the Middle Georgia Community Food Bank.
While people were forced to quarantine at home, another big area that suffered in the pandemic includes tourism.
Mayor Miller says he wants to put $3 million to the rescue money towards Visit Macon to boost tourism to it's pre-pandemic levels.
"Because that's our tax dollars. Those are jobs coming into our community and those are much needed resources that we need," Miller said.
For the fiscal year 2022 budget, the commission decided to cut funding for outside agencies, including museums.
Those cuts included the Georgia Sports Hall of Fame, the Tubman African American Museum, the Museum of Arts and Sciences, and the Macon Arts Alliance. All those mentioned received $50,000 last year, except the Macon Arts Alliance which received $30,000.
"One thing we assured people in the budget because we weren't able to fund a lot of those museums--the Sports Hall of Fame, the Tubman, the Douglass, the Arts and Sciences, the Cultural Arts, Visit Macon itself, those places took a hit and we told them we would make them hole," Miller said. "One way to do that is to make up for that gap in 2019, but also take part of that money to look for incentives to incentivize people to come to Macon in the future."
The mayor says he wants to set $2 million aside for community intervention to prevent violent crime through their MVP Program--Macon Violence Prevention.