Bibb County Commissioners Upset Over Council’s Statement Over Pool Delays

MACON, Georgia (41NBC/WMGT) — Some Bibb County Commissioners are not happy that Macon City Council is speaking out about the county’s handling of the pools.

Commissioner Lonzy Edwards spoke out at today’s meeting saying that the city handed the pools over to the county in terrible shape and it shouldn’t criticize the county.

This comes in the wake of city council proposing a resolution Monday, expressing concern and requesting Bibb County expedites the process of opening the pools.

Council’s Ordinances and Resolutions committee drafted the resolution. 41NBC spoke with the chair of that committee, Councilman Rabbi Schlesinger, on Monday regarding the proposed resolution.

“These are important gathering centers for our students who are out of school and they should be given top priority, constantly and throughout the year if maintenance needs to be done,” said Schlesinger.

Parks and Recreation Director Doc Dougherty says the pools have been in bad shape for a long time. During the two years he was working for the city, he said it didn’t spend any money to help with repairs.

“There’s been a lack of investment over the years, and it may not be necessarily be neglect it may just be priorities for other projects but we hit the point now that they all need to be redone and three of them are open today, and we’re fixing the others,” said Dougherty.

At the county commission meeting Tuesday morning, Dougherty passed around pictures of the Frank Johnson pool which showed major cracks in the surface. He said those repairs couldn’t be done during the winter, and the process for getting the projects off the ground took longer than expected.

The Booker T Washington, East Macon, and Memorial Park pools opened today.

Schlesinger told 41NBC via text the full council voted on the resolution Tuesday night, and it passed unanimously.