Perry mayor and city council members take to neighborhood streets

PERRY, Georgia (41NBC/WMGT) – The mayor of Perry and city council members went ‘grass roots’ on Tuesday. They spent the evening walking the streets of a Houston County neighborhood so residents could give their feedback on community issues from the comforts of their drive way.

Perry resident Jennifer Kiser says coming home to find the mayor at her doorstep was well–a surprise…and a pleasant one at that.

“That was pretty exciting actually,” she said.

Mayor Jimmy Faircloth and council members came with the sole purpose of asking what they could do to make living in the community a little easier.

“You know sometimes you don’t think they pay attention to that kind of stuff and that they’re really interested in your area and where you are. I know they have a lot of citizens who live here,” Kiser continued.

Mayor Faircloth says they’ve been doing these walks through the community with Perry council members for eight years.

“It’s one thing to drive through a community even very slowly…it’s quite another to walk it. I promise you’ll see things that you’ve never seen before,” he said.

In that time, they’ve learned a lot.

“We have learned some lessons in storm water, dumping in trash, some water issues we’ve come across, electrical…all kinds of things have been brought to our attention simply because we took the time to walk through some of the neighborhoods and the businesses,” Faircloth told 41NBC.

Tuesday’s lesson was on how to slow down cars driving through the neighborhood.

“We’re having a problem with speeding through our neighborhood especially right here on Amberly Court,” Kiser said.

All it took to find a solution was a short walk to their mailbox.

“It’s an opportunity for those people who live in those areas to walk down to the ends of their driveway and tell us what concerns them specifically regarding their neighborhoods,” Faircloth added.

Now that Perry officials have heard resident concerns on foot, they say they’ll be documenting them on paper to get those problems resolved.

The mayor and City Council members hold their ‘walk with the mayor and council’ once a month and invite community members to join in for the next one.