CRISP COUNTY

Arabi ♦ Cordele

Transportation: Crisp County is crisscrossed by 695 miles of state routes, county

roads, and city streets, 60% of which are paved.  The county provides maintenance

for all county roads and the city streets in Arabi, which account for 76% of the road

mileage in Crisp County.

 

Recreation: Crisp County and the City of Cordele jointly fund a recreation

department operated by a four-person city staff. The department offers 38 different

programs providing active and passive recreational opportunities and maintains seven

parks, three pools, three ball fields, four tennis courts, and a gymnasium, all located on twelve

sites in the city. The programs offered range from softball and basketball to aerobics and pottery classes. In addition, there are also softball and baseball leagues in Cordele and three golf courses located in the county.  Lake Blackshear, an 8,500 acre impoundment of the Flint River, affords opportunities for boating, fishing, skiing, and swimming. There are five county parks on the lake.  Interest has been expressed in the preparation of a recreation master plan. The last such plan to be prepared is out-of-date.

The state operates Georgia Veterans Memorial State Park and museum. This park offers a golf course, a museum with displays of military history, medals, aircraft, combat vehicles, and weaponry, and two nature trails. This park regularly records the highest visitation of all of Georgia’s state parks, and consequently is a valuable economic resource for the community and region.

Bicycle and Pedestrian Facilities: State Bicycle Route 15 follows US Highway 41 through the county.  Walking trails are located in Cordele at Crisp County Hospital, the County Recreation Center, Harmon Park, and Turner Park.  Two nature trails are located at Georgia Veterans Memorial State Park (see above), including the one mile Yucca Trace Trail and the half-mile Lake Shore Trail.

Cultural and Natural Resources:  Georgia Veterans Memorial State Park is located on the county’s western boundary at Lake Blackshear.

The SAM Shortline, a tourist-oriented scenic railway, connects the City of Cordele and Georgia Veterans Memorial State Park, both in Crisp County, with the Sumter County cities of Leslie, Americus, and Plains.

Education: The Crisp County Board of Education is accountable to local residents for operation of five county schools, all located within the corporate limits of Cordele.

Land Use: Agriculture is by far the dominant land use in Crisp County. Forty-six percent of the land area is classified as prime farmland, a resource distributed throughout the county.

Housing is distributed throughout the county with the greatest number of dwellings found in the northeast quadrant. The largest concentrations are found on the perimeter of Cordele and along Lake Blackshear.

Public/semi-public land uses are also dispersed throughout the county, a majority of which are churches and cemeteries. Other public/semi-public land uses include the State Farmers Market, a state-operated fish hatchery, five fire houses, the county jail, road department, airport, and sanitary landfill.

Five industrial sites are located in the unincorporated portion of the county.

Commercial land uses in the unincorporated portions of the county are primarily single-site, highway-commercial developments near the City of Cordele. They developed along the major traffic corridors at intersections of major roads and in small communities in the county.

Five county parks and Georgia Veterans Memorial State Park comprise the recreational land use within the unincorporated area.

CITY OF ARABI:

Transportation: Arabi has 14.73 miles of streets, 81% of which are unpaved. The majority of streets are residential in design.

Recreation: The city is devoid of public recreational facilities; there is a need.

Education: There are no schools in Arabi. Children attend schools located in Cordele.

CITY OF CORDELE:

Transportation: Cordele is served by four major highway systems. Primary access to and through the city is provided by U.S. Interstate Highway I-75 which runs north and south near the municipality’s eastern corporate limit.. US Highway 41 also travels a north-south route and passes through the city’s central business district. A third major highway, US Highway 280, travels east-west through the city providing access to Americus, west of Cordele. State Route 300 is located on the city’s south-side and provides four-lane access from I-75 to Albany, Georgia.

Parks and Recreation: There are ten parks within the City of Cordele. In addition to the typical list of recreational activities and facilities, the city offers a wide variety of educational and craft programs to satisfy the recreational needs of all age groups. Walking trails are located at Crisp County Hospital, Harmon Park, and Turner Park.

The 1975 study,  A Comprehensive Master Development Plan for Outdoor Recreational Facilities in Cordele and Crisp County, Georgia, provided an inventory of existing facilities and made specific recommendations for achieving a well-balanced park system capable of providing for the varied needs of the county and community. To a large extent, little appears to have been done to implement the proposed improvements and goals set forth in that study.

Cultural Resources:  The city contains three designated National Register of Historic Places historic districts, including the downtown Commercial Historic District, the Gillespie-Selden Historic District, and the O’Neal School Neighborhood Historic District.  The city’s U.S. Post Office is individually listed in the National Register.

A SAM Shortline Railway stop and platform are located in downtown Cordele.  The tourist-oriented scenic railway connects Cordele to Georgia Veterans State Park, Leslie, Americus, and Plains.

Education: The Crisp County School System provides oversight of the five public schools located in the City of Cordele.  South Georgia Technical College offers Adult Education classes and instruction in post-secondary technical programs on the satellite campus.

 

The Middle Flint Region is characterized by rural, agricultural counties with relatively small, compact community centers.  The region is crisscrossed by a network of federal, state, and local highways and roadways that provide access to the area’s various communities and cultural and natural resources, and good inter- and intra-regional access.  The region has an abundance of cultural resources; the Flint River and Lake Blackshear provide the area’s primary natural resource attractions.  Schools are variously located in towns or in less accessible rural locations.  Because of acreage needs, recreational facilities also tend to be developed in less accessible locations.  Existing facilities generally do not incorporate pedestrian elements.

As an agricultural region with a relatively small population base, the Middle Flint area does not suffer from traffic congestion and, therefore, pedestrian and bicycling activity are, and are likely to remain, primarily recreational and fitness activities.  Nonetheless, cycling and walking should be encouraged and developed as viable transportation alternatives for those who desire additional mobility choices.  For example, cycling and walking are sometimes the only transportation modes available to the young, the elderly, and the poor.  Beyond providing a cheap and efficient means of getting around, these transportation alternatives also provide significant health benefits.  As obesity rates continue to increase nationally and represent mounting future public health costs, cycling and walking, whether for transit or pleasure, provides important exercise activity for communities. Promoting cycling and walking will require education programs that explain both the benefits of those activities as well as safety concerns for its participants and the general public.

As much of the cycling and pedestrian activity is likely to be recreational in nature, regional partners should also encourage tourism development for riders from outside the area.  The region’s abundant cultural and natural resources provide a unique opportunity to connect a large number of resources within a relatively small area.

Generally, the region lacks significant bicycle and pedestrian programs or facilities.  The development, promotion, and implementation of any programs and projects will represent significant progress toward the meaningful inclusion of cycling and pedestrian interests in area transportation planning, recreational enhancement, and economic development.