City Manager Pete Pyrzenski holding a sign with the new vision and mission statement for the City of Tifton.

TIFTON — City Manager Pete Pyrzenski has a list of plans he wants to accomplish during 2018

Pyrzenski said that the focus in 2017 was on completing things that had been pending so that in 2018 the city could move forward with beginning new projects.

One major work in progress for the city will be coming up with a water and sewer master plan.

Pyrzenski said that the infrastructure under the downtown is approximately 100 years old.

“Infrastructure is a huge issue,” he said. “The only way I’m going to be able to steer (improvements) is though design, research, mapping and pure engineering work.”

Additionally he wants to look at improving service delivery for the city.

Pyrzenski also wants to bring more economic development to Tifton.

“The most important thing is that we’re working hand in hand with the Chamber (of Commerce) and the development authority.”

He gave the old Harvey’s Supermarket on 3rd Street as an example of an area where the city could work with a property owner and encourage planned growth.

“We have a grocery store chain gone and all the residents lose that service. Here we are with a 15,000 square foot building that someone owns.”

What he wants to do is show the owner what the community needs and offer incentives to open up something that would help the surrounding community.

“I want to keep the small town charm, but at the same time smart growth is very important for our tax base,” he said.

Pyrzenski wants to work with the fire department and police department to begin citizen academies. He also wants to add a third academy to show residents city services from the inside.

The Tifton Police Department will hopefully be getting a canine unit and will be applying for state accreditation.

The city plans to upgrade the outdated software for the city that will allow customers to do more things online, such as paying bills.

Pyrzenski wants to increase walkability within the city limits and do more with the Tift Theatre for the Performing Arts.

One main focus will be looking at and updating the Land Development Code, zoning and code enforcement.

“We’re going to be looking at what we have been doing and our documents that steer us as a local government,” he said. “We have to be prepared to be a little more business friendly, to make sure we’re doing things that preserve the city. We have to make sure we’re not dealing with outdated information.”

He said that while the citizens will not see these changes, they will see the city putting more emphasis on code enforcement, such as how the city deals with dilapidated houses.

The idea isn’t to create more red tape but to create an atmosphere where the community is being improved through ordinances, he said.

“There are some areas that really need some attention,” Pyrzenski said.

“That’s going to be a huge undertaking because it’s massive in size. It’s very complicated.”

Pyrzenski used the current zoning map as an example.

“If you look at our zoning map it looks like a fully loaded pizza. That’s not good. We’re jumbled and over time it has created this mess that is now our zoning. We have to live with that.”

He said that he wants to clean up the city’s zoning to bring consistency to the zoning and preserve neighborhood integrity.

“One of the priorities of the mayor and council is making sure we have a clean community,” he said. “There’s things that we do to address these issues through our codes and through our zoning to make sure we’re on top of this.”

“It’s not an iron fist and coming out and telling people what to do with their property,” he said. “It’s collaboration and working with our codes and homeowners.”

Pyrzenski also said that redevelopment of the area around Matt Wilson will get underway in 2018.

“We’ll balance it,” Pyrzenski said. “We can’t conquer everything but we will be addressing each thing.”

Follow Eve Guevara on Twitter @EveGuevaraTTG.