A group of community leaders gathered recently to discuss possible upgrades to Leesburg Landing. The meeting was held in the Leesburg FEMA building.
Included in the meeting were Leesburg Mayor Ed Mackey Weiss Lake Improvement Association President Carolyn Landrem, Cherokee County Chamber of Commerce Representative Joy Perry and Community Promoter Daphane Rogers
Also included in the meeting were Damon Abernathy with the Alabama Department of Conservation and Natural Resources and Shelia Smith with Alabama Power Company.
“There might be a slot available in 2015 if we so some things,” Mackey noted. “But right now, if they have a weigh in, they want everybody to take off from the same place and we don’t have provisions like we have been talking about and we want to see what we can do to work with Alabama Power to promote this project. That is the only way we are going to get it done. We have got to work together.”
“And tourism is our life blood up here,” said Mackey. “That is what makes everything turn up here. $18 million is what they project we receive from tourism and we want to try to take advantage of it. We have spent $180,000 on this pavilion and a bathhouse to support the camping area.”
Mackey said there had been some question about whether to gravel or pave the parking lot.
“If we don’t get this 2015 spot, more than likely they are going somewhere else,” said Mackey. “We’ve got the means to do the next part of this. We have been fortunate to have a little money, but we want to be sure we are all on the same page.”
Rogers said she had spoken with Alabama Bass Trail representatives and that safety was their main concern.
Daphane-We contacted Kay Donaldson about the possibility of doing the tournament. She said safety is their main concern.
She said they had discussed the possibility of accommodating 200 boats and that Alabama Bass Trail wants to see a commitment from Cherokee County.
Abernathy and Smith seemed to concur that a gravel parking lot would suffice for now.
“As far as financial help, we have money available and could pay for a good bit of that work, but the problem is it is not going to meet your time line,” said Abernathy. “We have already got things committed for a couple of years. We work two or three years in advance so to try to get anything done next year would not be possible to use our funds. That is not to say you couldn’t do whatever you needed to do, but to have our funds available to contribute to the project we would have to put that down the road for a couple of years. There might be some things we could do to help as far as designing the master plan. We have engineers on our staff. We could do that ahead of time but as for actually committing money we are not going to be available unless another project falls through and sometimes that happens.”
“There has got to be safe parking for 200 boats, a place to weigh in, which they are building with that $180,000, we have to have restroom facilities, power, water and lights,” said Rogers. “And most of it will be in place this year. So we just have the permission basically to open that up for parking.”
The group discussed possibility having a preliminary plan by May 1.
“I think Leesburg can make it happen and we are committed to doing that,” said Mackey.
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