County makes lake authority appointments

Following a work session held last week to finalize the membership, the Grady County Board of Commissioners took action Tuesday night to appoint the initial members of the newly created Grady County Lake Authority.
The authority was created with the passage of Georgia House Bill 201 and is being established to pursue the successful construction, planning and management of the Tired Creek Lake.
The new authority is composed of seven members, one of which is required to be a member of the Grady County Board of Commissioners.
During the work session last week each commissioner named their top pick which resulted in five members. The board appointed Commissioner Charles Norton as the authority member representing the board and then board members debated their second choice selections before narrowing down the selection to an additional authority member.
In addition to Commissioner Norton, the members of the Grady County Lake Authority approved Tuesday night are Edgar B. Smith III, LaDon Toole, Travis Bryant, Lee Gainous, Jeff Brown and Randolph H. Wind.
The members of the authority have a variety of backgrounds.
Smith is president of Citizens Bank of Cairo; Toole is the Grady General Hospital administrator; Bryant is the chief executive officer of Coastal Lumber Company; Gainous is the owner of Gainous Shade Trees; Brown is the director of the Jackie Robinson Boys & Girls Club of Cairo/Grady County; and Wind is the editor and publisher of The Cairo Messenger.
Terms vary from one to three years and all future appointments will be for three-year terms.