Wednesday, February 27, 2002
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Wednesday, February 27, 2002 |
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Beckett says hi from new post in Riverdale By DAVE
HAMRICK
Billy Beckett says hi, and he's doing fine. "It's a challenge every day," said Fayette's former county administrator of his new position as city manager just up the road in Riverdale. "But I have some good people to work with, and they seem to be proactive and want to do things to move forward." Beckett, who was Fayette's top executive officer for 15 years, and the current Fayette County Commission had philosophical differences and parted company a little over a year ago. Beckett settled into the Riverdale job recently, having made no secret of the fact he wanted to find work close to Fayette so he could continue to live here. Riverdale is "a different animal," Beckett told The Citizen in an interview last week. "The community is different, and of course the problems are different and the challenges are different," he said. Whereas Fayette is still a young county and growing, Riverdale is a fully developed, mature community, he said. "The key to Riverdale's future is in the area of redevelopment and annexation of vacant property," he said. Land use patterns are "pretty well set," he said, adding city leaders want to work some redevelopment plans into the city's comprehensive plan. That might be good news to Fayette commuters who drive through the city on Ga. Highway 85, often complaining of the uninterrupted strip of commercial development. Currently, residents of Fayette and other counties often use Riverdale as an example of how they don't want development to take place, but Beckett said that may change. "If we follow through with the visioning process like I feel we will, people will one day say, 'Wow, what happened to Riverdale?' We're having some really good dialogue about redevelopment," he said. Now that he is on the outside looking in at Fayette's political situation, Beckett admitted the current squabbling among city and county leaders bothers him. "I'm sorry to see all the acrimony ... it's a little disconcerting," he said, but added, "It's easy to second-guess when you're on the outside. I think they're doing what they think is right in every case." Life in general is looking up for him, Beckett said. His second career as a college sports official with the Atlantic Coast Conference is coming along well, he said. He recently received publicity back home as he helped officiate the Rose Bowl this year. "Tell everybody hi for me," he said.
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