Muscogee County School Board/City Council
Joint Property Committee
Tuesday, March 15, 2007
Present Committee Members: Absent Committee Members:
John Wells
Pat Hugley Green
Phillip Schley
Councilor Gary Allen
Councilor Jerry Barnes
Councilor Julius Hunter, Jr.
Councilor Mimi Woodson
Others Present: Mayor Jim Wetherington, City Manager Isaiah Hugley, Deputy
City Manager Lisa Goodwin, Deputy City Manager David Arrington, Interim
Superintendent Dr. John Phillips, Chief Administrator Liz Turner, Clerk of
Council Tiny Washington, City Attorney Clifton Fay, Interim Finance Director
Pam Hodge, Assistant and Recording Secretary Tameka Colbert.
Meeting Began: 12:05 p.m.
Open Discussion:
City Manager Hugley began the meeting by informing the Committee that Mr. Jim
Parnell had been invited to speak to several groups of people. At this time,
City Manager Hugley declared that the meeting would be open discussion. He
said when Mr. Parnell came up there was much conversation about the SPLOST. He
said during that meeting the issue of the Firestone building came up, along
with the issue of the property adjacent to the Mildred Terry Library. He said
in that meeting, the Mayor stated that the Firestone property should go to the
School District and the Library Board. He said we now have to find a way to
make that happen. At this time, City Manager Hugley turned the meeting over to
Dr. Johns Phillips.
Dr. Phillips said we have been talking about different issues surrounding the
Firestone building and the Mildred Terry property. He said we really want to
come up with something that would be beneficial to the School District, the
community and the City. He said most recently, he and the City Manager met and
looked at a potential Memorandum of Understanding, which would be that the City
would raise the Firestone building, clean the property and swap that property
to the Board of Education for the Sears property and also convey the Mildred
Terry property. Dr. Phillips said we reached a verbal agreement that in the
1999 SPLOST we would convey some property for a one-stop service center for the
City. He said the amount of property would be about two and a half acres and
there would be an additional three and a half acres for a potential YMCA. Dr.
Phillips said he would like for the two Property Committees to come to an
agreement with the MOU from the perspective of allowing it to go back to the
respective bodies, which is the Council and the School Board.
City Manager Hugley stated he would like to clarify some things. He said the
six acres that the City would receive are adjacent to the library and situated
on part of where the Sears building is located. He said those six acres would
be for the City Service Center and a full natatorium. He said this has nothing
to do with the YMCA even though they did express some interest in being a part
of the project. He said the project that we will be bringing forth would be a
project for the City, not the YMCA. He said if the property were conveyed, the
next step would be to bring all of the stakeholders to the table. He said the
stakeholders would be the YMCA, the City, the School District, the Hurricane
Swim Team and any others who have an interest in a natatorium. He said we
would ask each of those stakeholders to bring all of their needs and
requirements to the table and once that is done, the group would determine
whether we could work together and make all those requirements work in that one
setting.
Councilor Allen then made a motion that City Council and the School Board
exchange the properties as identified in the Memorandum of Understanding and
that the Property Committees adopt the Memorandum of Understanding and take it
back to the governing bodies for consideration. Seconded by Pat Hugley Green
and approved unanimously by those seven members present for this meeting.
City Manager said the motion that was just passed by this joint body is that
the MOU that was presented by the School Board?s attorney and our City Attorney
would be taken back to each of the respective bodies and also placed on the
Council?s agenda for Tuesday. He said once the MOU is adopted, we would
proceed forward with the swap at the appropriate time.
Meeting adjourned @ 12:39 p.m.
________________________________
Tameka J. Colbert
Recording secretary
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