Remerton is a unique place: A square-mile town surrounded by Valdosta. Remerton is literally a town within a town.

Its history stretches back to a time before Valdosta surrounded Remerton, back when Baytree was a dirt road and what is now the mall and numerous other stores and subdivisions were fields and woods.

Back then Remerton had a unique identity. It was a mill town, a company town to Strickland Mill. The houses that lined Remerton’s streets were homes to the mill’s employees and their families. Those families shopped at a company store, attended a Remerton church, and their lives revolved around raising families and working at the mill that towered over the small town.

That was then. The mill closed 30-some years ago. Over time, the houses which were once homes became shops. In the 1990s, fire destroyed the church which was replaced by commercial property. Unused land within Remerton’s square-mile was developed into residences or businesses until no space was left. Older, long-time residents were replaced by college students. The mill-house shops increasingly became bars, pubs and restaurants. Amidst all of these changes, Remerton became a historic district, meaning that it must maintain the look of once being a mill town though it had become anything but a mill town.

And that is the problem facing Remerton today: What exactly has Remerton become?

Remerton is a shopping center/business district. Remerton is a party town. Remerton is a historic district. Remerton is a residential area. That’s a lot of identities for a square-mile.

The problem is Remerton has become a place that tries to be all things to all people, which has left few satisfied. Remerton worked to attract restaurants and bars but the noise, drunkenness, and trash anger the town’s residents leading to noise ordinances and other laws which the bars see as hurting their business. Any business wishing to change the look of their property possibly cannot because Remerton is also a historic district.

In other words, how can you be a party town when loud music bothers the residents? How can you be a residential area when the partyers keep you awake all night? How can a new identity be established when things still resemble another era?

These are questions Remerton should have seriously considered 15 years ago, when town leaders should have weighed an even larger question: What does Remerton want to be? Instead, they allowed Remerton to become a schizophrenic town of multiple personalities within a small amount of space. As interests clash, the town’s essential question has only become more pronounced.

What does Remerton want to be?