Earlier this month, many of the 70-plus residents surveyed and those who provided input to Demorest officials during two town halls offered common sentiment on the future of the city: Limit growth, enhance parks/recreation spaces and preserve the downtown area.
That input from the community will serve as a basis for city officials to develop a long-term strategic plan, which was discussed among council at a planning retreat held at Piedmont University’s Swanson Center on Saturday, March 8.
Since the retreat, city officials have established various short-term objectives to bring some of those enhancements in the near future.
Dog park
The first step in that was a verbal consensus among council to move forward with improvements on Demorest’s dog park located off Florida Street. By April, council members will likely approve additional fencing to separate areas where children play from a portion of the park where residents walk dogs.
“You have about 70% of the outfield fence that is there,” Demorest City Manager Mark Musslewhite said. “We’re going to get some quotes on enclosing some additional gates, so the parks are separate there – a kids park and a dog park.”
Code enforcement changes
Without a concrete policy on dilapidated and neglected properties, Demorest officials plan to proceed with a strategy to clean up parts of the city.
Musslewhite said on Tuesday that officials already have identified 16 properties that they considered derelict. Now, while attempts have been made to contact the owners, official notices could be delivered that require them to appear in court and address the apparent abandonment of homes and vehicles.
As planned, Fire Chief David Scheurer will have a prominent role in the enforcement of the city’s codes after Demorest City Attorney Thomas Mitchell drafts an official policy for the ordinance, according to Musslewhite.
“That is actively underway,” Musslewhite said. “…a couple of them are out-of-state (property) owners. Some of the people have responded to the certified letter (from the city), and some of them have not. So they’ll be working to get them to a court date.”
As part of the cleanup effort, in addition to dilapidated properties, Musslewhite said abandoned vehicles without tags and swimming pools left in disrepair also could be subject to code violations.
“Please, start to clean that up,” Musslewhite said as a message to residents. “We just need everybody to clean up.”
Other improvements
Musslewhite said council members also plan to approve upgrades to the pavilion by the U.S. Post Office building in downtown Demorest, as well as determine best use of more than $36,000 recently received through GDOT’s Local Maintenance and Improvement grant. That grant will require a 36% match from the city.
“I think, overall, (the retreat) gave mayor and council camaraderie to work through this,” Musslewhite said. “To think you could be spending your day with your family, or spending it with fellow elected officials and city department heads…I think it just helps the city be able to do our planning.”
Demorest Mayor Jerry Harkness called the retreat constructive and said the city plans to follow through on the feedback received from residents.
“Through community input, over some of our last open sessions, we analyzed a lot of that data and we really talked about what we wanted to see. By focusing on that, I think that we’re focusing on what our community wants us to do – and continue to be a voice for our community.”
