SUMTER COUNTY 

Americus ♦ Andersonville ♦ De Soto ♦ Leslie ♦ Plains

Transportation:  Sumter County is crisscrossed by 787 miles of roads, 75% of which

are paved.  US Highway 19 provides a primary north-south route, and US 280

provides a similar east-west route.  The county is responsible for maintenance of

526 miles of county roadway, portions of which are located in the Cities of Plains,

Andersonville, Leslie, and the Town of De Soto.

 

Recreation:  Public recreation is funded jointly by the City of Americus and

Sumter County.  A large city-county recreational complex, including a variety of

playing fields, is located just south of Americus on US Highway 19/State Route 3. 

A horse riding arena is located on Southerfield Road in northeast Americus; a baseball

field is located on the outskirts of De Soto.  Additional facilities are located in Americus (see Americus below).

Bicycle and Pedestrian Facilities:  Several walking trails and paths are located at parks and on the campus of Georgia Southwestern State University in Americus.

Natural Resources:  The Flint River and Lake Blackshear comprise the county’s western boundary.

Education:  The Sumter County Board of Education operates elementary, middle, and high schools for school-age  residents throughout the county.  All facilities are located within the city of Americus.  Two private schools, Southland Academy and Brooklyn Heights, are located near Americus’ east and west corporate limits, respectively.

Georgia Southwestern State University and South Georgia Technical College are located in Americus and provide post-secondary educational programs.

Land use:  Agriculture/Forest is by far the predominant land use in Sumter County, accounting for 84% of the total area.

Commercial establishments are located throughout the county, although approximately half of them are located within one mile of the Americus city limits.

Eighty percent of the county’s industrial acreage is comprised of the Mullite Corporation of America (Mulcoa) facility near Andersonville on the county’s northern boundary.  Additional industrial sites are located near Americus, Plains, and Cobb (unincorporated).

Park/Recreation/Conservation land use is primarily limited to Brickyard Plantation, a private golf course on US Highway 280 west of Americus, and a city-county recreation complex located south of the city on US Highway 19.

Public/Institutional land use is scattered across 61 sites in the rural area; half of the acreage is comprised of church property and cemeteries.  Additional facilities include county property and buildings, South Georgia Tech’s physical plant, and the University of Georgia’s Agricultural Experiment Station.

Residential use accounts for approximately 2% of acreage in Sumter County and is scattered evenly throughout the rural area.

Transportation/Communication/Utilities land use is almost entirely comprised of highway and railroad right-of-way and Souther Field near Americus.

Undeveloped/Unused land accounts for approximately 12.5% of Sumter County’s acreage.  Land in this category contains soils that are generally unsuitable for agricultural use or most other types of development.

CITY OF AMERICUS

Transportation:  Americus is crisscrossed by 99.48 miles of roads, less than a mile of which is not paved.  The city provides basic maintenance for city and county streets and rights-of-way.

Recreation:  Public recreation is funded jointly by the City of Americus and Sumter County.  A large city-county recreational complex with a variety of playing fields is located south of Americus on US Highway 19/State Route 3.  Within the City of Americus, the department maintains twelve parks, three swimming pools, five ball fields, and six tennis courts.  Additional facilities include a horse arena on Southerfield Road just northeast of the city. Walking trails are located at Rucker Street Park, Muckalee Creek Park, Barnum Senior Citizens Park, and on the campus of Georgia Southwestern State University.

Cultural Resources:  A large portion of the city is listed in the National Register of Historic Places. The Americus Historic District includes the city’s commercial center and adjacent historic neighborhoods.  A second National Register district, the Ashby Street Shotgun Row Historic District, is located northeast of downtown.

The renovated Windsor Hotel in downtown is one of a very few historic hotels still operating in the state, and is included among the National Trust for Historic Preservation’s “Historic Hotels of America.”  The restored Rylander Theatre, a circa 1920 performing arts and movie theater, maintains a regular schedule of events.  Americus is also home to Habitat for Humanity and the organization’s Global Village and Discovery Center.

Education:  Students attend either Sumter County Schools or private schools located in Americus. The two private school systems include Southland Academy, located just east of the city limit, serving grades K4 through 12, and Brooklyn Heights, the only church supported school in the city, serving grades K-12, and located on church grounds in west Americus.

Post-secondary institutions include Georgia Southwestern State University (GSW) and South Georgia Technical College (SGTC).  GSW has one of the smaller enrollments of the University System’s Senior Colleges, and the school offers a variety of undergraduate and graduate degrees and academic programs.  SGTC is a residential, vocational-technical school offering a variety of programs related to technical, business, and health-oriented occupations.

Americus is headquarters of the Lake Blackshear Regional Library System, part of the organizational structure through which the Georgia Department of Education dispenses state funds for public libraries and their operations.

Land use:  Land use categories in the city include Agricultural/Forest, Commercial, Industrial, Park/Recreation/Conservation, Public/Institutional, Residential, Transportation/Communication/Utilities, and Undeveloped/Unused.  Residential land use is by far the most prevalent land use accounting for 42% of the total area, followed by Undeveloped/Unused at 20%, and Transportation/Communication/Utilities at 16%.  No other land use represented more than 7% of the total area.

Related Projects:  The Americus bicycle and pedestrian corridor will provide a multi-use path linking downtown with outlying areas, and connecting points of interest within the city.  Multi-use paths on the campus of Georgia Southwestern State University will connect the central campus to facilities on the perimeter.

CITY OF ANDERSONVILLE

Transportation: There are approximately 7.7 miles of public roadway in Andersonville, 91% of which are paved.  The city provides basic maintenance for city streets; GDOT and the county maintain their respective roads and right-of-ways.

Recreation:  Andersonville owns and maintains three recreation sites.  Andersonville City Park, located on East Church Street, consists of a full length, lighted basketball court.  This recreation site also contains children’s playground equipment and a picnic table.  A lighted tennis court is located at the intersection of Ellaville and Oglethorpe streets.  A large, unfenced and unmarked adjoining grass field is available for softball, football, and other activities.  The third recreation site consists of a half-court basketball court, playground equipment, and picnic tables on West Johnson Street.

Cultural Resources:  The Andersonville National Historic Site and National Prisoner of War Museum, a unit of the National Park Service, is located immediately east of the city.  The site commemorates and interprets the legacy of the Civil War-era prison, Camp Sumter, and the experience and ordeal of American prisoners of war generally.

Education:  There are no school facilities in the community.  Students who live in Andersonville attend either the consolidated Sumter County school system in Americus or attend a local private school.

Land use:  Land use categories in the city include Agriculture/Forest, Commercial, Industrial, Park/Recreation/Open Space, Public/Institutional, Residential, Transportation/Communication/Utilities, and Undeveloped/Unused.  The largest proportion (43%) of the incorporated area is in agriculture/forest land use, followed by Undeveloped/Unused (29%), and Residential (11%).  No other land use represented more than 7% of the total area.

TOWN OF DE SOTO

Transportation:  De Soto has 4.3 miles of public streets, 97% of which are paved.

Recreation:  There are no recreational programs, activities, or services available in De Soto, but a county program is available.  A county recreation facility located in the vicinity of De Soto includes a lighted baseball/softball field with bleachers, a playground, and a hard surface basketball court.

Cultural Resources:  A surface well, supposedly dug by Don Hernando De Soto, Spanish explorer, is located less than one-half mile east of the current town limits.  No steps have been undertaken to preserve or interpret the site.

Education:  There are no school facilities in the community.  Students who live in De Soto attend either the consolidated Sumter County school system or a private school, both located in Americus.

Land use:  Land use categories in the town include Agriculture/Forest, Commercial, Industrial, Park/Recreation/Conservation, Public/Institutional, Residential, Transportation/Communication/Utilities, and Undeveloped/Unused.  The largest proportion (64%) of the incorporated area is in Agriculture/Forest land use, followed by Undeveloped/Unused (12%), and Residential (9%).  No other land use represented more than 7% of the total area.

CITY OF LESLIE

Transportation:  Leslie has almost 9.5 miles of public streets, 98% of which are paved.

Recreation: There are no recreational programs, activities, or services available in Leslie, but a county program is available.  A county recreation facility located in the vicinity of nearby De Soto includes a lighted baseball/softball field with bleachers, a playground, and a hard surface basketball court.

Cultural Resources:  The city is home to the Georgia Rural Telephone Museum, dubbed “the largest collection of telephones and telephone memorabilia in the world.”

Education:  There are no school facilities in the community.  Students who live in Leslie attend either the consolidated Sumter County school system or a private school, both located in Americus.

Land use:  Land use categories in the city include Agriculture/Forest, Commercial, Industrial, Park/Recreation/Conservation, Public/Institutional, Residential, Transportation/Communication/Utilities, and Undeveloped/Unused.  The largest proportion (73%) of the incorporated area is in Agriculture/Forest land use, followed by Undeveloped/Unused (8%), Transportation/Communication/Utilities (8%), and Residential (8%).  No other land use represented more than 2% of the total area.

CITY OF PLAINS

Transportation:  Plains has 6.61 miles of streets, all but 0.01 miles of which are paved.  The city makes minor road repairs and provides general maintenance.

Recreation:  The City does not operate any public recreation facilities, though the City Park is available for picnicking.  Recreation programs and facilities are provided in cooperation with Sumter County.

Cultural Resources:  Plains is home to former President Jimmy Carter, and a significant portion of the city has been acquired and/or designated as Jimmy Carter National Historic Site and Preservation District.  The National Park Service operates a museum in the old Plains High School building.  The downtown and adjacent historic neighborhoods have been listed in the National Register of Historic Places as the Plains Historic District.  A state-sanctioned welcome center is located on US 280 on the eastern city limits.

Education:  There are no school facilities in the community.  Students who live in Plains attend either  the consolidated Sumter County school system or a private school, both located in Americus.

Land use: Land use categories in the city include Residential, Commercial, Public/Semi-public, Agricultural/Undeveloped/Vacant, Industrial, and Streets & Public right of ways.  The largest proportion (40.3%) of the incorporated area is in Agricultural/Undeveloped/Vacant land use, followed by Residential (32.1%), Streets and  Public rights of way (9.8%), and Commercial (7.9%).  No other land use represented more than 7% of the total area.

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.