Lavonia Planning Health and Wellness Events

Lavonia Mayor Courtney Umbehant says he and the City Council are in the process of planning a series of health and wellness events.

At their meeting Monday night, Umbehant said the idea came about at their annual retreat last weekend.

“We decided in conversation that we were all in favor of a health and wellness initiative in Lavonia,” he said. “One of the barriers to economic development in Franklin County is that we have very poor health in the County. And you don’t have to look very far. We have a lot of smokers. I’m not a smoker but I enjoy eating. And we could all stand to be a little more healthy.”

The Mayor said the City is working on a number of different events.

“Depending on our staff to help us plan a number of different events and exactly what that is going to look like,” Umbehant explained. “Our goal is for this to be a spring and summer project that we will finish up (this initiative) by the fall. So, we’re going to do some events. We’re going to try to make it fun and interactive. We want to challenge everybody to participate with us to try and improve the health of our citizens.”

Umbehant said he and the City Council would like to expand the health and wellness initiative into the county.

“We’d like to get our economic development score up that makes our workforce more attractive to companies that come in,” he said.

The types of events are still in the planning stages and will be announced at a later date.

In other business Monday evening, you may have noticed the new turn signals at Lavonia’s busiest intersection, Highway 17/Augusta Road and Highway 59/West Ave.

City Manager Charles Cawthon in his announcements thanked the Georgia Department of Transportation for working with the City on that.

“We’d like to thank G-DOT for this upgrade to our intersection and their willingness to listen to our concerns. It was an 18-month project. I appreciate them and I appreciate them working with us,” Cawthon told the Council and Mayor.

Cawthon also said the Lavonia Fire Department has run a record number of calls lately.

The City Manager thanked them for the job they do and encouraged citizens to also thank them for what he called one of the most dangerous volunteer jobs there are.