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EDITOR’S NOTE: This is the final part 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 comments by West Point Mayor Steve Tramell.

West Point Mayor Steve Tramell was joined by LaGrange Mayor Jim Arrington, Hogansville Mayor Jake Ayers, and County Commission Chair Patrick Crews during the Voices of Leadership in Government Luncheon held on Monday at the LaGrange-Troup County Chamber of Commerce. The four government leaders answered questions on a range of topics affecting their communities by moderator Jamey Jackson. Tramell spoke on behalf of the City of West Point.

INFRASTRUCTURE 

“When I hear infrastructure, new growth and what we’re going to do, I would suspect probably 80% of what we do, maybe even more of infrastructure, is taking care of the 100-plus-year-old pipes we’ve got in our streets,” Tramell said, noting there was a leak just earlier in the morning.

Tramell said the majority of the issues come from cast iron pipes that have rusted through after 100 years.

“The other 20 percent, we’ve got a new project going out on Gabbettville Road that’s going to be a truck parking facility. We’ve got to run water and sewer out to it. We’ve also got a new subdivision coming in,” Tramell said.

Tramell noted that when subdivisions come in, typically it’s the developer’s responsibility to get the infrastructure inside the development, but the city has to bring it to them, whether that be water, sewer or power.

“The majority of what we’re doing infrastructure-wise is maintenance. We’ve got about all the roads unless we annex more than we’re going to have. We’ve constantly got to keep those roads maintained. What good we can do, we do every year when springtime rolls around,” Tramell said.

“We did get a grant last year, about a $6 million grant, that’s going to allow us to move our intake off the Chattahoochee River up closer to the dam. Right now, we take in our water right near the bridge,” Tramell said. “Every time it rains, it’s just brown water coming down the river. We’re taking in that water that we’ve got to clean, so we’re going to be able to move our intake now past that creek and take in a lot cleaner water.”

PUBLIC SAFETY

“There’s a lot of similarities between the cities in our police departments, not drones and laser cameras [like LaGrange], but we do value our police and our fire, just as much as we’re very thankful for the good team that we’ve got,” Tramell said.

Tramell said West Point is near capacity on officers in the police department and pretty close in the fire department as well.

“Fire is extremely important. We all see what’s going on in California right now. I can’t imagine if that were happening here to us and trying to maintain that, but certainly, we’re very proud of our police and our fire,” Tramell said.

RECREATION

“We rely on the county for recreation. We work well with them and do a lot. We are adding, with the help of the county, a soccer field on OG Skinner Drive. That’s slated to come up here soon. I think they’re starting to do some underground piping for the storm drains and stuff like that right now,” Tramell said.

Tramell said the recreation facilities that the city currently has are well utilized.

“Our rec facilities stay full constantly,” Tramell said. “Our programs are always full and very, very good for the community.”

West Point will also be expanding its Downtown River Walk loop into the trail that goes to the Georgia-Alabama state line using grant funding.

HOUSING

Tramell was specifically asked with growth tied to local industry, how is the City of West Point addressing the need for new housing developments.

“We just finished a multi-family, 72-unit facility on 10th Street, right next to the Coke plant, if you are familiar with that area. We’ve got a good new neighborhood, Harris Creek, that’s in West Point on the Harris County side. It seems like as fast as they are put up they are selling them,” Tramell said.

“We’ve got a few more that hopefully will call online soon [on] 600 acres we annexed into the city a year and a half ago … we’ve got a lot of things in the pipeline. We’re getting a lot of infill housing. We’re happy to see that some of the lots that have been sitting empty for 50 to 60 years are now starting to get houses built on them. That’s a good thing,” Tramell said.