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Bibb County mayor proposes to fund new agency after cutting funding for several others

This comes after several deficits have left the county with just over $7 million in their savings.

With a projected $16 million deficit looming over next year's budget, Bibb County Mayor Robert Reichert's had to make a lot of cuts to put together a balanced budget. But among the cuts, he is actually proposing to add 96,000 of funding to a new outside agency.

That money would go towards turning Little Richard’s house into a resource center for the Pleasant Hill neighborhood.

Naomi Johnson says the neighborhood is full of more than just Little Richard’s House.

“Sharing with each other and loving each other,” says Johnson.

Johnson says it is a community full of hope and people waiting for a chance to succeed.

“But you got to have a light or a match or whatever it is to light that candle… That’s what this is going to do, it’s going to help with that little flicker that’s in there get it started burning brightly,” says Johnson.

And by turning the house into a resource center, Johnson and Peter Givens say they can do just that.

“You give them jobs you see the way they walk down the street after work. They walk with their chest stuck out and people in the community are looking at them in a different light,” says Givens.

That is why State Representative, James Beverly, says he created the Macon-Bibb Community Enhancement Authority that will go into these neighborhoods and help shrink poverty.

“We got to invest back into these communities and not let them die,” says Beverly.

Beverly says his first goal is to complete the resource center, so they can bring jobs back to the area. But he says he cannot do it without the county’s financial support.

“Computers to having Wifi to a hotspot in this neighborhood. There’s a lot of things you could do with this but it costs money,” says Beverly.

Beverly says it is a win-win because while the county invests in them, they invest in the county by increasing property values in the area.

It is a project Johnson says could transform communities like hers.

“We will have our community flourishing the way it was,” says Johnson.

We also spoke with Bibb Commissioner Virgil Watkins who says they were lucky that the state funded renovating the house. Now, he says it is their turn to make sure that it can get up and running so the community can use it.

It is important to note that the authority will not get any money until at least six commissioners agree to funding the agency. They have until June 30th to do that.

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