THOMASVILLE — The Grady County Board of Commissioners received “productive” and “positive” news Tuesday regarding permitting Tired Creek.

The board (minus Commissioner Benny Prince, who could not find a substitute driver for his school bus route) met with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Savannah District Commander Col. Mark Held in Savannah for a pre-application meeting.

“We’re excited about what happened yesterday,” said Commissioner Bobby Burns of the hour-and-a-half meeting. “It was the most productive and positive meeting that we’ve had in all the years we’ve been going over there, and I’ve been there several times.”

Representatives from Congressman Sanford Bishop’s office (military aid Col. Robert Young and district representative Wallace Sholar), chief regulatory officials (Mirian Magwood, chief of the regulatory branch, and David Crosby, assistant chief of regulatory branch) and other decision makers also attended the meeting, much to the board’s approval.

“Col. Held couldn’t have been any nicer,” said Commissioner Elwyn Childs. “I think he wants to help us, and I think the people of Grady County owe Sanford Bishop a lot of support because Col. Young and Wallace Sholar were there with us and supported us 100 percent.”

County Administrator Rusty Moye said he was pleasantly surprised with who attended the meeting.

“We got to meet the people who are going to make the decision on the permit,” said Moye. “It was a very good response by the Corps of Engineers. I think they did their homework and gave us some good suggestions regarding information to be included.”

The application for a joint public notice (JPN) was not approved, nor was it rejected. Held asked the board to modify the application by including some additional information to clarify purposes and to head off questions that could be raised by interested agencies in the application process.

“We don’t need to redo everything, we just have some changes to make and should have a new, modified application book submitted within a week and a half,” said Moye.

Information Held asked the board to include was: information on spillway aeration (oxygen in the water); design technology (water going over spillways when more rain than usual); clarifying the main purpose for the lake (fishing); road closures and rerouting of existing roadways; and, bridge modifications.

Held also let everyone at the meeting know that the Tired Creek project had “command attention.”

“Col. Held made a commitment to see that this project gets moved forward,” said Commission Chairman Al Ball. “This means that every week the staff of the corps has to bring the project to his attention and update its progress. That doesn’t necessarily mean approval, but it does mean that, as long as we clean up our application and submit a new one adhering to the suggestions made to us, a JPN should be issued to various agencies that could be interested in the project.”

This meeting was scheduled after the board sent a letter to Bishop on May 18, asking him to become involved in the project’s application process. Bishop then had a member of his staff call Held to find out more about the project’s progress.

The idea of Tired Creek began in 1969 when local businessmen and the state decided Grady County was a great area for a state park. The Department of Natural Resources agreed and funding was acquired for the project. Since then, the recreational development has been in various states of development (also no longer a possible state park site but a proposed recreation area) and stagnation. For the past year, the board has been striving to get a permit for a lake and dam. It has spent more than $1 million, to date, on the process.

“We’re where we want to be at this time, where we wanted to be a year ago when it’s agreed to put out the JPN,” said Burns.

The JPN is expected to be issued in approximately 10 days to two weeks.

“We’ve got some amendments to do and, if everything goes well, I think the notices for JPN should be sent out in two weeks,” said Charles Norton, commission vice-chairman. “That sounds great to me. It’s just another step in the permit process, one more hurdle accomplished or got over. I was surprised at how positive it was and I felt good about it when we left.”

A decision on the permit is expected in five to six months.

“There should be an information hearing within 30-60 days of issuing the JPN in Cairo, based on the best case scenario,” said Ball. “Then, there has to be a cultural resource survey that will take 45-60 days to complete, and in 120 days the corps should be able to make a decision on the application.”