CAIRO- A $1.7 million contract agreement for purchase of land at Tired Creek Lake in Grady County should provide future financial success for the county’s residents, believes Mike Binion, director of Tired Creek Lake.
“It’s important because it gets stuff going on out there, development, and hopefully, it’ll start bringing money into the county and get the lake and everything off the taxpayer’s back. The taxpayers are paying for this thing, been paying for it, and the only way to get the bonds paid off is through development and people building things out there,” said Binion said.
Murphy Talmadge of Cairo Grady Development LLC signed an agreement with the Grady County Lake Authority to purchase the land at Tired Creek. The 960-acre reservoir is located just west of the city limits, halfway between Cairo and Whigham. The agreement is for 200 of almost 3,000 acres that comprise the property.
The idea behind the agreement is for future development of an RV-style campground which would attract tourists to South Georgia. It appears to be a smart financial investment considering the current interest in camping and the outdoors.
“These investors are wanting to do an RV resort where you can rent RV slips and also maybe have some cabins out there for rental,” Binion said. “Camping went through the roof, especially since COVID. There’s just so many people that are camping now that some campgrounds you have to book a year out. Camping is just booming right now.”
This purchase could spark a flurry of activity that has been absent at the lake. At least that’s the hope shared by Grady County leaders.
“Just a few years down the road it’s going to be exciting. There’s all kinds of things that can happen out there at the lake. If you get one person to build something out there, one development group, it’ll open the door for more things to come, we hope,” Binion said. “That’s all you can do is hope. This is the right direction. It’s not costing the county money.
“Rome wasn’t built in a day. We knew it wasn’t going to happen overnight.”