MILLEDGEVILLE, Ga. — Milledgeville Mayor Mary Parham-Copelan addressed a crowd of about 30 people along with her council members in her annual state of the city address during Tuesday's council meeting.
Parham-Copelan detailed about accomplishments that the city of Milledgeville accomplished in 2018, including the creation of a new office to study data infrastructure, paving 12 miles of city roads, and completion of new pavilions for city parks.
"The city's in a good position and we want to make sure our constituents can see that.," Parham-Copelan said. "They can see that just by the improvements being made, but budget-wise, we want them to see our state financially as well."
Parham-Copelan said of all the things the city did well in 2018, nothing was more important to address than Milledgeville's water system.
The city secured a $3 million loan from the Georgia Environmental Finance Authority to complete a study and develop plans to build a new water treatment plant. They secured another $530,000 loan from the GEFA to replace a delivery pump at the Lamar Hamm Water Treatment Plant.
"With every city, you've heard about the water system and what's going on, but to able to put the new pump system in to make sure we're filtering our water system through and improving it every day was one of our major accomplishments," Parham-Copeland said.
The mayor said the second priority was improving the city's downtown area, where $1.2 million was awarded for sidewalk and road repairs on South Wilkinson, West Greene and West McIntosh Streets. Halogen lights throughout the city are also being replaced with LED bulbs.
Parham-Copelan said 2019 will be "bigger and better." Her address mentioned that 2019 will address needed change for housing additions, improving city traffic flow and trying to decrease blighted property. The city has big plans for the upcoming year.
"From 2019 on straight through the rest of my tenure, we're looking to make it better each year and you all are going to look to see that Milledgeville will be on the map," Parham-Copelan said.
A full list of items addressed from the mayor's speech is here.