WARNER ROBINS, Ga. — When you drive into Warner Robins on I-75, a T-33 Trainer aircraft welcomes you into the city.
But last week, a Warner Robins Convention and Visitors Bureau board member asked the Warner Robins city council for help to get the area in better shape.
Warner Robins has a history of showcasing military aircraft on the interstate and Bill Mulkey, Warner Robins Building and Transportation Director says this one has been by exit 146 for the last six or seven years.
Lately, it's become hard to notice.
"You can't see it sometimes and I think that's what prompted the conversation," says Warner Robins Convention and Visitors Bureau Director Marsha Buzzell.
She says the aircraft is covered by trees and when you drive to the area where the plane sits, it's full of old sofas, mattresses and ovens dumped in the dirt.
Paul Shealy, a board member for the Visitors Bureau, says something needs to be done and Buzzell agrees.
"We need to keep it just as spic and span as it possibly can be because we're proud. This is community pride. This is our hometown pride is really what it's all about," says Buzzell.
Shealy wrote a letter to council members asking the city to trim the trees back, to install a fence to stop the dumping and for a spotlight light to shine on the T-33.
In the letter, he says at one time the city had street light SPLOST money that could be used for this project.
"It's important to have that beacon, truly a beacon of light shining on our exit. This is the exit to the base," says Buzzell.
It really is.
Exit 146 is a clear shot right to the main gate of Robins Air Force Base.
Members of council did discuss the problems last week and decided to ask Keep Warner Robins Beautiful if they want to handle the project. They'll also talk to the public works department about keeping that area clean.
The T-33 Trainer is on loan from the National Air Force Museum.
Back in the 1980s, Mulkey says the city had a missile on the side of the interstate and a rocket on the other side of Watson Boulevard.
Now, you'll find a F-15 in front of City Hall that's been there since 2014.
