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EDITORS’S NOTE: This is part two of a four-part series on the recent Chamber of Commerce Voices of Leadership luncheon. In order to cover all four participants, we have chosen to break down the event into four articles. Today we will cover LaGrange Mayor Jim Arrington.

The Voices of Leadership in Government Luncheon was held on Monday at the LaGrange-Troup County Chamber of Commerce featuring LaGrange Mayor Jim Arrington, West Point Mayor Steve Tramell and Hogansville Mayor Jake Ayers, along with County Commission Chair Patrick Crews. 

Each participant was given time to speak on a wide range of questions from moderator Jamey Jackson. Arrington spoke on behalf of the City of LaGrange.

INFRASTRUCTURE 

“Infrastructure, it’s not sexy. It’s not one of the things we want to talk about too much. But when it’s not working, it’s a problem. The city has been investing money in our infrastructure for many years, but just recently, we’ve invested about $28 million into our sewer facilities, in our water treatment facilities, in our lift stations, and that’s all just to upgrade,” Arrington said.

Arrington explained that as the city continues to grow, it has to maintain and upgrade its infrastructure, which costs money.

“We’re spending money out on Hamilton Road right now, moving all the utilities. Some of those utilities out there were put in in the early 1900s, so it’s getting old. We have an opportunity to upgrade as we relocate, so a lot of our money goes to that,” Arrington said.

“We’ve got a $2 million project that we hope to get started on soon on the water, the sewage treatment plant that needs some upgrades,” Arrington said, explaining that the plant has been in operation since the 80s and needs modifications.

PUBLIC SAFETY

While the other leaders focused on fire and emergency medical issues, Arrington acknowledged that LaGrange is more of a crime hotspot in Troup County.

“I see everybody’s on pins and needles now. What’s the city going to say? That’s where it all happens, so I’ll talk more about our police,” Arrington joked. “Public safety is much more than the police, but I’m sure most of y’all want to know what LaGrange is doing about the police department and the crime rates.”

Arrington said a little over a year ago, the city was down almost 25 officers, so the council voted to increase officer pay.

“The council decided that they were going to get police officers and a starting salary increase to catch up with places like Carrollton and Griffin, and probably not the city of Atlanta, but get close because we still have to compete with them,” Arrington said. “We may not be in that line of danger as often as seated Atlanta police, but we are in it frequently.”

The pay increase worked and the city is close to being at full staff soon.

“I’m proud to say that we’re only five officers down with three in the academy. So in a month or two, they’ll be coming out of the academy, and we should be one or two down. The police department’s got 110 to 115 employees, and they’re up and down all the time, so any given day number may not be correct,” Arrington said.

Arrington said one of the things they think will help is investing in technology the city has budgeted for a first response drone as well as a drone that can quickly and efficiently map crime scenes.

“The drone that sits on the top of the police department. It can be anywhere in the city of LaGrange in 90 seconds. It has tag readers. It’s got video, so it can be on the scene much faster than an officer can’t be,” Arrington said. “As soon as it gets there, it starts videoing. It’s videoing everything. It’s reading car tags and cars that could be leaving the area.

Arrington said the first response drone should be coming in sometime this spring but the crime scene drone is already here and being used. The drone maps out crime scenes quickly with accurate measurements and even catches things officers can miss.

“It’s got all these lasers and 3D cameras, and it reads the entire [area],” Arrington said. “That’s going to increase our police officers being on the scene because usually, it would take three or four officers three to four hours to do a crime scene. Now they can go in with two officers and in 45 minutes to an hour and a half. That’s going to help out a tremendous amount.”

RECREATION

“The county does recreation, and they do a good job of and we want them to continue to do recreation in the city. We have a ton of parks. We have a new park that we’re about to get ready. It’s called the W.T. Edmondson Park at Ridley Lake,” Arrington said.

The new park is located near Nutwood and will feature a lake with fishing, ADA-accessible kayak launches and an ADA-accessible playground.

SHORT TERM RENTALS

Arrington was specifically asked about short-term rentals and how the city will ensure fair access to permits for local property owners versus larger investors with the new limit of five permits per year.

“First and foremost, I asked my council to protect the residents of the city of LaGrange with STRs. When you ask about how the five count works in the situation, I don’t really know. We don’t know that. We’ve created several other things like a 1000-foot rule between short-term rentals so that it protects neighborhoods. We’ve got inspections that have to be done. There’s so many things that protect our residents above the people that want to own and operate a short-term rental,” Arrington said.

“We want short term rentals, and we need short-term rentals. LaGrange has a booming wedding industry and we have all these places for people to come. There’s not a ton of short-term rentals, but there’s 12 or 14 that could possibly be grandfathered in that were already operating under Airbnb or VRBO,” Arrington said.

The five rentals, I think that’s a reasonable number, and then next year, you can get five more,” Arrington said. “The process of the small guy versus the large corporation that wants to do a short-term rental, the public hearing is probably going to be the best utilization for that, the small guy that lives in the neighborhood that’s got a little Airbnb … It’s probably going to go through the public hearing fairly easily, especially if he’s a good neighbor. A corporation that comes in that wants to buy 10 of them, comes in and just puts them in neighborhoods. It’s going to be a little hard for that person.”