Bryce Ethridge | The Valdosta Daily TimesIn this file photo Valdosta Mayor Scott James Matheson, City Council and Central Valdosta Development Authority Chairman Daniel Bayman break ground at what will be the site of the downtown amphitheater park. The amphitheater is now nearing completion. 

VALDOSTA – Mayor Scott James Matheson and Valdosta City Council broke ground on the planned city amphitheater late Thursday. 

Work won’t start for a few more weeks, a city official said.

When driving by, the only thing a person might see at the future amphitheater park, located on North Lee Street, is a mound of dirt.

That’s because the park is still in the design phase, said Ashlyn Johnson, city public information officer.

“We’ve got a lot of people working right now to design the actual amphitheater so they can make sure all the plans are correct, get them through the process they need to go through,” she said.

Then the actual groundbreaking can begin.

Daniel Bayman, chairman of the Central Valdosta Development Authority, said he didn’t help design the amphitheater but was there to encourage its creation.

Bayman took the chairman seat in January, and alongside Ellen Hill and Rachel Thrasher, the Main Street director and program coordinator respectively, brought it to City Council.

For a few years, Bayman said, Hill and Thrasher have had their boots on the ground doing the work to get the amphitheater passed.

On Feb. 11, the work came to fruition via City Council’s approval.

“I’m excited for it to be completed in the fall,” Bayman said. “Over the last five years, we have hosted 2,500 events in Downtown Valdosta. This just gives us another opportunity – another space – to host events for our community.”

They hope to attract not only locals but tourists too. The city wanted to give residents a taste of what’s in store for them in hosting the first-ever City Expo and Ice Cream Social.

The event allowed residents to survey an area that city officials hope the public will be using regularly in the future, Johnson said.

“This is going to be a high-traffic area, so we wanted to make sure we got people in it,” she said.

It also allowed residents to get to know the city’s departments in a way they’re not used to: a game of walkaround bingo. By visiting a select amount of booths, getting their stamp of approval, residents could get free ice cream.

But the event was a bridge builder, too. Johnson said it gave office-based departments a chance to interact with the community.

Case in point the Finance Department. Mina McMillan, a finance customer service employee, said it was a nice opportunity. She said it’s definitely a different interaction than she’s used to.

“Most of the time people are yelling at me because their water’s been turned off,” she said.

Having a booth at the expo gave her the opportunity to educate residents on any confusion or worries they might have on new water meters.

“Once they’re all installed and the portal gets set up, they’ll be able to see how much water they use per hour,” she said. “We’re going to change from units to gallons – because people understand gallons better. Once everything’s in place, that’ll help the customer understand what they’re doing.”

For instance, if a customer is using an excessive amount of water at 1 p.m. in the afternoon, she said, they’re going to be able to see that and judge how they want to change things.

This was the exact point of the expo, Vanassa Flucas, neighborhood development director, said.

“A lot of times, people have bias and they classify the City of Valdosta as one way because they only interact with one department,” she said. “We wanted to give people an opportunity to see what we all do.”

City Council also participated in the concept by holding its meeting outside at the expo.

The event was the culmination of National Community Development Week.

Normally, a ribbon-cutting for a home rebuilt with government funds would occur, too, but Flucas said the home isn’t ready yet.