Wednesday marked a turning point for Augusta Housing Authority with the replacement of longtime chairman, pastor Rodger Murchison, with new commissioner Nick Dickinson Jr.
“The reason I’m here today is to make a transition, to celebrate one great Augustan and welcome another great Augustan,” said Mayor Garnett Johnson.
Johnson declared Aug. 23 as “Dr. Rodger Murchison Day.”
Murchison served on the authority from 1997 until stepping down last month.
He was the board’s second-longest serving chairman, at 22 years, after Elbert Peabody, who served from 1937-1974, said authority Executive Director Jacob Oglesby, who recently celebrated his 30th year in that role.
Oglesby said Murchison had been a “tremendous leader” with the foresight to support the authority in several successful ventures. They include joining a consortium of housing authorities, National Housing Compliance, to which HUD awarded the job of Section 8 compliance, and another that purchased a St. Louis consulting company.
Murchison oversaw the transformation of several housing developments, including the 2008 sale of Gilbert Manor to the Medical College of Georgia, the transformation of Underwood Homes into Walton Oaks, the conversion of Cherry Tree Crossing into the Legacy at Walton Green and the development of Powell Pointe development with the city of Augusta.
Wednesday, the authority’s development corporation, Augusta Affordable Housing Corporation, approved an inducement resolution for Walton Meadows Phase 1, the authority’s new 236-unit development off Deans Bridge Road.
Murchison said the sale of Gilbert Manor was the board’s most significant move during his tenure.
The mass relocation of a community from the 1941 complex, named for educator and archaeologist John Wesley Gilbert was controversial, particularly among generations of Augustans who had lived there. The property now is home to the Dental College of Georgia and allied health classrooms.
“Gilbert Manor was a big, sprawling housing project,” Murchison said. “In some ways, we didn’t mean to do this, but we were warehousing the poor. It was a site that needed transition so, a lot of angst, a lot of concern.”
Gilbert “was an educator and a person who cared about this community,” he said. “We thought the name of this place, Gilbert Manor, would be appropriate to move toward an educational, medical need, so we carefully took every one of those families and found them additional housing, and now it’s a beautiful site where people are being educated for dentistry and the medical community.”
Patricia Walker, the authority’s first woman and first African-American chairperson, gave the oath of office to Dickinson.
His appointment was a rare application of one of the Augusta mayor’s few official duties, to appoint members of Augusta Housing Authority. Johnson said he wants the compositions of boards to be fluid and incorporate succession plans.
Dickinson said he “had a lot to learn” as he joins the authority and will lean on Murchison and other board members for guidance.
“As far as the future, I can’t even say I know enough about the current status, but I just know that there’s a need for more housing units in the area and am looking forward with the board to try to fill that need,” he said.
