Bibb Commissioner: Macon’s Blight Problems Could Continue Because of Lack of Staffing, Funds

Macon’s dilapidated housing problem keeps getting worse, and city officials are trying to figure out what to do about it.

Jimmy Bell, a local entrepreneur, bought a rundown property on the corner of Cowan St. in Macon 7 years ago, but he is struggling to make it into a home.

“Everything is wrong with it,” he says. “It’s uninhabited for one, you see the porch done fell in, the back porch done fell in…  I don’t know what I’m gonna do with it.”

The blight problem has plagued both the city and the county for years, and with city employees moving to the county in July, Bibb County Commissioner Lonzy Edwards says these blemishes in the neighborhoods may have to sit untouched.

“We’re absorbing $5 million with city expenses; that means less money for things that we would like to be able to do– although, in truth, we’ve not done very much before that. I think this makes it even less likely that we would have resources to devote to new personnel,” Edwards says.