FITZGERALD, Ga. — Over the last few years, we’ve followed the path of the giant chicken statue / bed and breakfast going up in Fitzgerald. Well, it seems the mayor ruffled some feathers with his plan because voters plucked him out of office earlier this month.
“I used to go that way before work and now I go around it because it hurts,” said Fitzgerald mayor Jim Puckett.
He says it’s like a punch in the gut that voters told him to fly the coop. The one-term mayor and restaurant owner lost his re-election bid earlier in November.
From the beginning of his term, the mayor set out to build the world’s largest chicken at 62-feet-tall. He figured the fowl would bring folks in by the flocks to the town of 9,000.
“We’ve got a list of people ready to book it right now,” he said.
Those folks will have to make other plans. The council put a freeze on spending until new mayor Jason Holt takes office.
Chickens have roamed wild in these parts for quite some time, hence Puckett’s idea to pay homage by building the mammoth metal piece.
“There’s not much more money left to be spent,” he said.
And for some folks, that’s the rub. Puckett used SPLOST dollars earmarked for tourism. What started as a $150,000 project is now double the price tag, but the town has already seen a return on investment.
“A full-page color ad in the Wall Street Journal costs $174,000. We’ve been on the front page twice because of that chicken,” he said.
They’ve had papers from all over the world write articles on the mayor’s attempt to get a leg up in the small town.
“A lot of people know where Fitzgerald is. Some people think all publicity is good; I’m not sure,” said mayor-elect Jason Holt.
So, this all begs the question: Will the chicken concept come home to roost, or will this statue sit in limbo?
“We have a large group of community members that have expressed ideas, so we’re going to sit down and talk through all the ideas and see where we go from here,” said Holt.
As for Puckett, he says if he had to do it all over again, he wouldn’t chicken out. He’d bring the bird back to life.
“This is my hometown. I love this place,” said Puckett.
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