The Blue Mile Foundation Inc. has hired Bryan Davis as coordinator for the Creek on the Blue Mile project, and the city of Statesboro’s intergovernmental advisory committee on the project met for the first time Tuesday.

Officially a nonvoting member of the committee, Davis led the meeting because a chair has not been named. Blue Mile Foundation President Keely Fennell and private Creek on the Blue Mile Commission co-chairs Doug Lambert, as the county appointee, and Andy Burns, as a second foundation appointee, are among the seven voting members of the advisory committee.

Previously property manager for Hendley Properties, Davis officially starts the Creek on the Blue Mile job next month. His role will be to keep the various aspects and organizations working together and should not be confused with the services of engineers the city is seeking to contract for the project.

“We have a lot of irons in the fire, as you’ve heard today,” Fennell said after Tuesday’s meeting. “So we just need someone who is full-time who can direct themselves to making all of these things happen, and we felt that Bryan had the experience with downtown Statesboro, experience with development in Statesboro, and not only that, he is good with the civic clubs, with the state agencies to kind of make this thing moved forward.”

Downtown experience

After growing up in Griffin and getting an associate degree from Gordon College in Barnesville, Davis came to Georgia Southern University in 2004 for his bachelor’s degree in business education and graduated in 2006. After starting in property management as a part-time job, he changed career plans and went full-time with Hendley Properties, becoming its property manager after a few months.

Hendley owns rental properties, including several small apartment complexes designed to fit into or upgrade in-town neighborhoods.

“I worked with Ray Hendley, helping manage his real estate portfolio for about a decade, and we focused on a lot of redevelopment in the downtown section of Statesboro and added about a hundred properties at that time for downtown,” Davis said. “So, during that process, I worked with the Blue Mile group and the Blue Mile Foundation.”

Now, as the Creek project coordinator, he will serve as “a liaison between the Blue Mile Foundation, the creek committees and the city” to see how the publicly funded side and the private investment side of the project can help each other, Davis said.

As part of local interagency agreements, the city agreed to provide the foundation $100,000 to cover the cost of employing the coordinator for one year.

From Mile to Creek

The Blue Mile Foundation, a nonprofit corporation created to receive Statesboro’s $1 million national third prize in the 2017 America’s Best Communities competition, oversees its use in the Blue Mile Plan for redevelopment of the South Main Street corridor. An older Blue Mile Committee still exits, and an overlapping group of volunteers formed the Creek on the Blue Mile Commission, which has plans for private investment around the central public development of a scenic creek and park spaces.

Working with the city of Statesboro and initially with the Development Authority of Bulloch County, the volunteers obtained a state commitment of up to $21 million for flood control aspects of the project. This includes a $5.5 million state direct investment to build the reservoir west of South College Street, and a $15.5 million, 30-year very low-interest line of credit for the creek channel under South Main Street and eastward.

The city has now assumed all responsibility for receiving the state grant and repaying as much of the line of credit as is actually used. But the city and committees are looking at other funding sources that may not have to be repaid and that can be used for economic development and recreational aspects of the project.

Advisory committee

Although titled the “Creek District Oversight Committee” in one of the local agreements, the committee that convened Tuesday will be limited to making recommendations to City Council, which will make final decisions. “Creek on the Blue Mile Advisory Committee,” was the heading on its agenda. The committee’s advisory scope includes the project’s development, as well as zoning and design standards for the “Creek District.”

The committee will have seven voting members.

So far it consists of City Councilman Jeff Yawn as the member designated by Mayor Jonathan McCollar; Fennell and Burns as the Blue Mile Foundation’s representatives; Downtown Statesboro Development Authority Executive Director Allen Muldrew; interim Assistant City Manager Jason Boyles as the city manager’s appointee; and Lambert as the Bulloch County Board of Commissioners’ appointee.

A seventh member representing the community is to be appointed by City Council.

Committee members are still working out a regular time for their monthly meetings, after Tuesday’s initial decision was found to coincide with another meeting for City Council members. The committee also will develop bylaws for itself, subject to City Council approval.

Herald reporter Al Hackle may be reached at (912) 489-9458.