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Town considers selling land to residents

by | Mar 19, 2025

The council voted to move forward with discussions on selling pieces of a parcel of land near the wastewater treatment plant. (Photo/Luke Christopher)

Renovation of Abdo properties coming soon

The Washington Town Council voted Monday, Mar. 10 to move forward with making a plot of town-owned land available for sale after three homeowners came forward with interest in sections of the plot. 

Nanette and Jerome Edwards are interested in purchasing a 0.2-acre section of a roughly 5.3-acre parcel behind their home at 481 Mount Salem Ave. Since the Edwards’ initial request, Mayor Joe Whited said, Drew Mitchell, owner of Avon Hall, also has come forward with interest in purchasing about 2.25 acres. 

Whited said he thinks the town should keep at least two acres that surround the wastewater treatment plant, which the parcel butts up to, for possible future construction. He suggested that the town also keep a section that the recently-approved walking path will cross. 

Council member Jeanne Goodine clarified that anyone in the town could place a bid on the property if it is put up for sale. She asked if the council could stipulate how the property is used by the purchaser, and Whited said yes, and that he thinks the town should. 

The council voted to continue discussions and start the process for approval of a sale of the land. A public hearing will be scheduled in the coming months. 

Packing shed update

Mayor Whited reported that businessman Jim Abdo, who bought the old packing shed on Porter Street last May, has hired a project manager to work with Zoning Administrator Steve Gyurisin, setting his plans of restoring the property — and others he owns — in motion. 

Whited said that by summer, he hopes to see “considerable motion” on the property that “has not received attention in a number of years.”

Whited also told the council that an assessment of the town’s water resources will be performed by Jerome Edwards, one of the residents who has requested to buy the town land. He said Edwards, who has experience in the field and volunteered to help, will provide an assessment of “where we think we are water-wise.” The assessment will include the available water resources and the results of a test of the town’s well pump recovery capability, which measures how much water the well can produce in a given time. 

Author

  • Ireland Hayes

    Ireland joined Foothills Forum as a full-time reporter in 2023 after graduating from the University of Georgia’s Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication with a degree in journalism and minor in music. As a student, she gained valuable experience in reporter and editor positions at The Red & Black, an award-winning student newspaper, and contributed to Grady Newsource and the Athens Banner-Herald. She spent three years as an editorial assistant at Georgia Magazine, UGA’s quarterly alumni publication, and interned with The Bitter Southerner. Growing up in a small town in Southeast Georgia, Ireland developed a deep appreciation for rural communities and the unique stories they have to tell. She completed undergraduate research on news deserts, ghost papers and the ways rural communities in Georgia are being forced to adapt to a lack of local news. This research further sparked her interest in a career contributing to the preservation of local and rural news.

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By Ireland Hayes

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Ireland joined Foothills Forum as a full-time reporter in 2023 after graduating from the University of Georgia’s Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication with a degree in journalism and minor in music. As a student, she gained valuable experience in reporter and editor positions at The Red & Black, an award-winning student newspaper, and contributed to Grady Newsource and the Athens Banner-Herald. She spent three years as an editorial assistant at Georgia Magazine, UGA’s quarterly alumni publication, and interned with The Bitter Southerner. Growing up in a small town in Southeast Georgia, Ireland developed a deep appreciation for rural communities and the unique stories they have to tell. She completed undergraduate research on news deserts, ghost papers and the ways rural communities in Georgia are being forced to adapt to a lack of local news. This research further sparked her interest in a career contributing to the preservation of local and rural news.