Felon or visionary: Should Riverwalk be named for Ed McIntyre?
AUGUSTA, Ga. (WRDW/WAGT) - Augusta’s Planning Commission held three hearings for a few name changes, the most controversial: renaming the Riverwalk after former Mayor McIntyre.
He was convicted of extortion and left office, but people still think he should be honored as the man who came up with the idea.
“McIntyre was a convicted felon, but he also was a visionary,” said Patricia Jeter.
McIntyre is Augusta’s first black mayor, and the man some believe should be honored for starting one of Augusta’s most popular year-round attractions.
“Mr. McIntyre’s reputation, his credibility through out this state was not tarnished. It was only tarnished in this community,” said Rick Johnson in of the name change.
William Venoy said: “He made a mistake, we all make mistakes, but I don’t think that the mistakes that he made should interfere with him being honored.”
But for some, it’s a matter of keeping Augusta’s reputation clean and keeping names out of it.
“We’ve just renamed Fort Gordon. We’ve just renamed the Freedom Bridge. We’ve removed the Sammie Sias designation from the street because he is now in jail. I just don’t think we should go down this road again,” said commission regular, Dan Funsch.
Arline White said: “I think that we should refrain from renaming our buildings and other places with people’s names.”
A legacy etched in stone that could come down to city leadership’s vote in less than two weeks.
About 25 people were at the hearing, with several speaking on both sides of the issue.
One person in said: “We’re about to have a convicted felon for a president, so we should honor someone who only had one mistake. We shouldn’t focus on that one mistake.”
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A commission regular we previously interviewed, Dan Funsch, said we just got done renaming Sammie Sias Way after he was convicted, and that this decision would be ignoring the lessons we just gained from Sias’ federal trial.
The application for the renaming was being submitted by the former mayor’s son – who wasn’t at the hearing.
On the Planning Commission, there were three votes in favor of the renaming and four against.
A final hearing and vote will take place Sept. 19 at the Augusta Commission meeting.
Mayor Garnett Johnson was at the hearing but had no comment.
A new name would be among several changes for the Riverwalk.
The Augusta Parks and Recreation Department has spent thousands so far on improvement projects this year.
Through an open records request, News 12 has found the city’s spent more than $850,000 on the Riverwalk this year, but it still looks pretty rough with broken brick, graffiti and defaced monuments.
With potentially a little more than $400,000 left in the budget, many are wondering if it’ll be enough.
“I think it really behooves us to make sure that thing shines, and it doesn’t,” Funsch told News 12 a few weeks ago.
“I think we need to maintain this much better than we do. It needs to be a priority in my opinion,” said Funsch. “It looks shabby.”
In other matters
Also on the agenda for the Augusta Planning Commission meeting at 3 p.m. Wednesday were:
- Public hearings on renaming the utilities building for former Director Tom Wiedmeier and the Diamond Lakes baseball field for former Commissioner Andrew Cheek.
- Rezoning requests for 3306 Old McDuffie Road, 2300 Milledgeville Road and 1062 Claussen Road. A convenience store is proposed for the old McDuffie Road address.
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