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WEST POINT — Mayor Steve Tramell updated members of the West Point Rotary Club on what’s been going on in the city at the club’s weekly meeting, held at Johnny’s Pizza during the noon hour on Thursday.

He told them that a lot of activity will be taking place soon off Exits 2 and 6 on I-85. The answer everyone wants to know right now – when will the roundabouts be finished? – will still take some time. The current Georgia DOT schedule is for them to be completed sometime next spring, probably in March of April.

“They are starting to do some landscaping, and paving usually follows that,” Tramell said.

The city’s newest project will be taking place off Warner Road, on the east side of Exit 6. The city recently annexed a 24-acre site there that will be developed into a mixed-use project. A truck stop with a restaurant and a retail shopping area will be going in.

The Love’s Travel Plaza off Exit 2 is the company’s largest such facility in the U.S.

There’s a demand for other truck stops at Exits 2 and 6 to handle the traffic coming and going. Much of this is due to a federal law that requires truck drivers to take eight hours rest after every 12 to 14 hours they have been on the road.

The city will have to run a water line to the site on Warner Road that has been sited for development.

The TA truck stop on the west side of Exit 6 has been doing good business and will be joined by a Starbucks coffee business in the coming year.

A new development will be coming to the west side of Exit 2 as well. A major hotel will be going up on the former Coca-Cola site. Tramell said he expects the name of the hotel to be released by mid summer. “I think everyone will be pleased with it,” he said.

The new hotel will be going up on the backside of a 13-acre lot. The front side will have a restaurant and some retail businesses.

Land is being cleared off Kia Parkway where some new warehouses will be going up.

Some major growth for West Point could be coming behind Love’s. Some 600 acres has been annexed into the city. A developer plans to have both residential and retail business in the area.

A member of the club asked the mayor if all these plans will come to fruition. After all, much growth was expected after the Kia announcement in 2006 but not much of that came to pass.

Tramell said that it’s a different situation now. People who came to West Point to work in Kia’s first years weren’t all that convinced that if being here would work out for them in the long term. In many such cases, they were reluctant to move to the area, preferring instead to commute from places a good distance away from West Point. Many Kia workers are now inclined to relocate here. A growing retail segment in the local area will only spur this.

“We heard for years that Kia was going to close and be converted into a women’s prison,” Tramell said jokingly. “That was nonsense. It’s been here for 15 years now. More and more people are realizing that it is here to stay. People are moving here because of that.”

Tramell talked about some new businesses that will be coming to downtown West Point. They include La Familia Mexican Restaurant, a candle and soap shop, a coffee shop that will be locating near Karvela’s Pizza, a gift shop and an ice cream place.

One of the fastest developing places in West Point is across the Troup County line in Harris County. Lots of houses have been going up in the Harris Creek development.

West Point’s city budget is seeing some explosive growth. A 15-year tax abatement given to Kia expired in 2024. That is expected to bring in an estimated $2.8 million in revenue for West Point and more than $3 million for Troup County. West Point will be looking at a $28 million budget in the coming year.

A sore subject for the mayor is the county’s continuing tax policy. While West Point gives its taxpayers a break by lowering the millage rate every year, county government is not so inclined. “They want every penny they can get,” he said. “All we get from them is recreation and court services. It’s a big can of worms. We should be getting a lower millage rate from the county but are not. I would love to talk about this in front of a judge.”

Tramell said the county was even open to extortion tactics to get the cities to go along with what they were doing. He said that Hogansville had been threatened with the possible closing of a fire station and the pulling of recreation programs if they did not go along with the county’s tax plans.

The former site of the McCarthy Funeral Home could see a new future as an event center. It could become an ideal riverside setting for weddings and business meetings.

Some renovation work has already taken place at what will be known as White Chimneys. Photos can be seen at TheWhiteChimneys.com.

“It’s going to be really nice with ten-foot-tall pocket doors and a banquet room,” Tramell said. “A huge deck has been added to the back and 300 loads of dirt have been brought in to level the ground to the old West Point levee. We’d love to take the club out there for a meeting.”