North Augusta Mayor Briton Williams has completed his first year in office. He said he has no regrets running for office. In fact, he said, he is having a blast.
He credits the shared vision and goals embraced by elected officials and staff.
He said he and councilmembers sat down a year ago and established the priorities for the city.
“Out of that came really three main pieces. Communication, collaboration, that’s all one, and what that really means is we want to give people a voice. That means let people have a chance to where they feel they have opportunity for us to listen and opportunity to share,” he said. “Second was downtown, and third was tourism.”
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Williams was not a stranger to city government. He had been a member of the Planning Commission since 2016. He served two years as chairman and said that was when he began to get a taste of his life to come as mayor, sitting in the middle chair, running the meeting with a roomful of people.
One frustration he had during those days was what he felt was a lack of communication between city council and the planning commission. He pushed hard and in 2019 was able to arrange the first joint meeting of the two bodies.
“Yes, we run separately, we’re separate entities. But in a sense, we need to be on the same page, at least knowing what are the challenges, what’s going to happen the next 10 years,” he said.
The city was facing a major challenge in the weeks leading up to the April 27, 2021, elections. Riverside Village, the city’s lynchpin for economic development near and along the Savannah River, was struggling financially.
In December 2020, 13 of the properties were sold in a tax sale. The owner, Greenstone Properties, Inc. of Atlanta, had one year to satisfy the debts and keep ownership.
Bob Pettit, Williams’ predecessor, as his final act as mayor, announced that the outstanding taxes, special assessments, penalties and interest for the tax year 2019 in the Municipal Improvement District were paid and for tax year 2020, outstanding city taxes and special assessments were collected. The total of $1,961,106 was paid on April 30, 2021.
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However, more than half a dozen parcels remain undeveloped.
“The two main parcels, the parcel that is to the left of the parking deck of Crowne Plaza. And then right when you come in down Center Street, those two need to be developed,” he said, adding that area is zoned as a planned development. “So, I think the most realistic will be some type of residential, some type of apartment, what does that look like on that side? That’s probably the easiest and most effective for a developer to do.”
Williams is particularly interested in expanding the Greeneway and promoting North Augusta as a destination spot for tourism. The city will soon unveil a new website focused specifically on tourism. Williams wrote a blog for the site and it made him realize what all the city has to offer.
“I said, ‘my goodness, this is amazing community; we’re here, I want to visit myself,’” he said. “There’s a lot more here than people think and we’re going to start promoting that. So, I think tourism, I think that’s going to be huge. I really want to start making progress on the Greeneway piece. I think the carpet property, that when that becomes the connection piece, I’m telling you, that’s a game changer.”
He also wants to stimulate more economic development similar to what is happening at the exit five area.
“What we’re seeing is it’s growing toward the east, where Palmetto 520 is,” he said. “Then exit one is really the next shoe to drop, in my opinion, because it’s just a normal progression as you’re coming this way, the migration moving this way. I’m telling you, in the next within the next 10 years, we realistically will probably have some form of growth and development in different phases at every one of our gateways.”
He cautions, however, that growth can not come at the expense of the core of North Augusta, its downtown.
“That downtown is the heartbeat. If we don’t make that a destination, if we don’t make that where you want to hang out for a couple hours, where you want to go, that’s walkable, there’s green space. If we don’t do that, protect the history of the community, we’re going to be nothing more than just a suburb of growth.”
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Williams used the May 2 regular council meeting to reflect on his previous year with something he called Council’s Accountability Review.
He highlighted each of the priorities set a year ago. First, communication.
“This priority was really about giving people a voice, an opportunity to share, an opportunity for us to listen, to ensure we were transparent. A big part of that was changing the study sessions to off Monday nights from council meetings. The other game changer was the Public Power Hour, a time each month for citizens to come in front of council in an informal setting to share issues,” he said.
On the second priority, he called making downtown a destination place critical for the future, including developing a connection between the downtown, Riverside Village and the Greeneway.
As for tourism, the third priority, Williams pointed to the hiring of tourism director Randy DuTeau and the soon to be active website devoted to showing off the city’s tourist attractions.
Williams also highlighted some of what has already been completed, including $70,000 to install LED lighting, $30,000 for trash cans, park benches and bike racks, Pedestrian Crossing signs on Georgia Avenue at Pine Grove Avenue and formation of the mural design review committee.
“Can we do more? Yes. Can we do better? Yes. However, we have set a good foundation for us to move forward into this year,” he said.
Dana Lynn McIntyre is a general assignment reporter for The Augusta Press. Reach her at dana@theaugustapress.com
