{"id":69571,"date":"2024-04-25T18:00:29","date_gmt":"2024-04-25T22:00:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.maconbibb.us\/?p=69571"},"modified":"2025-07-22T17:29:58","modified_gmt":"2025-07-22T21:29:58","slug":"sotc2024","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.maconbibb.us\/sotc2024\/","title":{"rendered":"\u201cWe are betting on us. We are all in.\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><span style=\"font-size: 24pt;\"><em><strong>Mayor credits people of Macon-Bibb<br \/>\n<\/strong><\/em><em><strong>for moving community forward together<\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-69574 alignleft\" src=\"https:\/\/www.maconbibb.us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/SOTC-Close.jpeg\" alt=\"\" width=\"428\" height=\"285\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.maconbibb.us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/SOTC-Close.jpeg 2048w, https:\/\/www.maconbibb.us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/SOTC-Close-300x200.jpeg 300w, https:\/\/www.maconbibb.us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/SOTC-Close-1024x683.jpeg 1024w, https:\/\/www.maconbibb.us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/SOTC-Close-768x512.jpeg 768w, https:\/\/www.maconbibb.us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/SOTC-Close-1536x1024.jpeg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 428px) 100vw, 428px\" \/>&#8220;It\u2019s a great day\u2026a new day\u2026thanks to each of you,\u201d Mayor Lester Miller told more than 700 people gathered at the Macon City Auditorium for the annual State of the Community, hosted by the Greater Macon Chamber of Commerce. \u201cJust like you can\u2019t ignore the sunrise and the promise of a new day that it brings, you can\u2019t ignore the progress we\u2019re all making and the impact it will have on our future. <span data-ccp-props=\"{&quot;201341983&quot;:0,&quot;335559740&quot;:360}\">\u201c<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/youtu.be\/vQE1igKoeLA?si=GGASrD-NMzmXlzX0\">To watch the the video highlighting the previous year, click here.<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The State of the Community is a chance for the Mayor and Chamber and Mayor to look back on the work of the previous year and set the stage for coming projects and improvements. This year, the Mayor focused on making sure the community realizes that it\u2019s our people that make us strong, are the ones making the projects (both big and small) successful, and are creating a new day of opportunity and success for all people.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;You can\u2019t ignore the people of our community. The ones who live here, who call this place home, who raise their families here, who go to events here, who patronize our businesses and restaurants, who help and support others in need,\u201d he said. These are \u201cthe people who understand our history. Who know our strength and potential. Who understand our challenges and know the solutions to overcome them. <span data-ccp-props=\"{&quot;201341983&quot;:0,&quot;335559740&quot;:360}\">Who know each of us and our <\/span>shared story, and how we are working together to take advantage of this new day.\u00a0<span data-ccp-props=\"{&quot;201341983&quot;:0,&quot;335559740&quot;:360}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p>Mayor Miller pointed out the success of many projects that required people to work together as a team, including:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>advancing the chance to have Georgia\u2019s first national park,<\/li>\n<li>the historic drop in homicide rate thanks to Macon Violence Prevention,<\/li>\n<li>the revitalization of the Macon Mall around government offices, Rhythm &amp; Rally (the world\u2019s largest indoor pickleball facility), and the already successful Atrium Health Amphitheater.<\/li>\n<li>three years and 700 demolitions of the Bliht Fight,<\/li>\n<li>increasing pay and budgets for public safety,<\/li>\n<li>building new affordable housing,<\/li>\n<li>major industrial developments,<\/li>\n<li>the thousands of people served by the Brookdale Resource Center and Macon Mental Health Matters, and,<\/li>\n<li>significant increase in tourism.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Looking ahead, he announced the beginning of a new facility at the airport, pay raises for all government employees, new developments in East Macon, a full rollout of the Paving the Way program to repair all roads, an increase in sports tourism, and more.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s a new day in Macon because we are betting on US. We are investing in ourselves and our homes. <strong><em>And we are all in,\u201d <\/em><\/strong>he announced.<strong><em> \u201c<\/em><\/strong>It\u2019s a new day in Macon-Bibb because we\u2019re looking inward&#8230;into ourselves and into the people around us, to the people who live here&#8230;for solutions to our challenges and to help keep us on the best path forward.<span data-ccp-props=\"{&quot;201341983&quot;:0,&quot;335559740&quot;:360}\">\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p>He thanked the gathered group and public because without their input and support, none of the successes the past year or three years would\u2019ve been possible. The thanked them for caring for their home and being willing to do whatever it takes to make people\u2019s dreams a reality and the impossible, possible.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThese are our lives&#8230;our future&#8230;and the future for so many children. We are investing in ourselves and each other because we live here. This is our home. We know what\u2019s needed, and we\u2019re strong enough to make it happen.<span data-ccp-props=\"{&quot;201341983&quot;:0,&quot;335559740&quot;:360}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/youtu.be\/vQE1igKoeLA?si=GGASrD-NMzmXlzX0\">To watch the the video highlighting the previous year, click here.<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-69572\" src=\"https:\/\/www.maconbibb.us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/SOTC-Wide.jpeg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2048\" height=\"1365\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.maconbibb.us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/SOTC-Wide.jpeg 2048w, https:\/\/www.maconbibb.us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/SOTC-Wide-300x200.jpeg 300w, https:\/\/www.maconbibb.us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/SOTC-Wide-1024x683.jpeg 1024w, https:\/\/www.maconbibb.us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/SOTC-Wide-768x512.jpeg 768w, https:\/\/www.maconbibb.us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/SOTC-Wide-1536x1024.jpeg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2048px) 100vw, 2048px\" \/><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Mayor credits people of Macon-Bibb for moving community forward together &#8220;It\u2019s a great day\u2026a new day\u2026thanks to each of you,\u201d Mayor Lester Miller told more than 700 people gathered at the Macon City Auditorium for the annual State of the Community, hosted by the Greater Macon Chamber of Commerce. \u201cJust like you can\u2019t ignore the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":69573,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3296,2477,2866,2867,2735,2872,2869,2871,284,3566,2865,2676,1806,2884,8,2737,2868,2736,2870],"tags":[2376,3306,3307,1072,3308],"class_list":["post-69571","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blightfight","category-board-of-elections","category-code-enforcement","category-comms","category-ecdd","category-ema","category-facilities","category-firedepartment","category-gcaps","category-hr-hr","category-hr","category-mwm","category-mayor","category-mlk-event","category-news","category-pbd","category-public-works","category-pard","category-smallbusiness","tag-teammaconbibb","tag-great-day","tag-new-day","tag-state-of-the-community","tag-team-macon-bibb"],"author_name":"Chris Floore","featured_image_url":"https:\/\/www.maconbibb.us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/SOTC-Commission.jpeg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.maconbibb.us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69571","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.maconbibb.us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.maconbibb.us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.maconbibb.us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.maconbibb.us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=69571"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/www.maconbibb.us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69571\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":69732,"href":"https:\/\/www.maconbibb.us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69571\/revisions\/69732"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.maconbibb.us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/69573"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.maconbibb.us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=69571"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.maconbibb.us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=69571"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.maconbibb.us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=69571"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}