December 1, 2025- Tri-County Meeting
12/1/2025 Tri-County meeting to discuss the proposed “Waycross Bypass” recap.
Nearly all local commissioners from Pierce, Ware, and Brantley Counties were in attendance, as well as County Clerks, and both State Representatives and State Senators, along with a GDOT engineer and regional Chairman for GDOT projects. I do not recall seeing Graham Raley from District 2 or Randy Dixon from District 3 (Pierce County), both of which have a significant impact to their district if this bypass is approved. I could be mistaken though. Note, this meeting was NOT for public discussion, however that didn’t last long. It was supposed to just be between the commissioners and other representatives. We didn’t let that happen.
The meeting was slow to start, as the Ware County room only had approximately 25 chairs in the room for the audience, and well over 150 community members attended the meeting (Maybe more, I could not see down the hallway and get a head count). They offered no microphone even though the room had a sound board in the back of the room, and speakers in the ceiling, which made it very difficult to hear. Representative James Burchett did an outstanding job attempting to calm early tensions and really controlled much of the meeting after Ware County Chairman Elmer Thrift was clearly overwhelmed and unable to control the crowd. Mr. Burchett invited as many people as possible in from the hallway to fill the room so they could hear better. Note: the Pierce County NFC meeting room would have been a MUCH better location, with more room, and a working sound system.
The meeting began with reviewing minutes from (what appeared to be) the initial tri-county meeting of the commissioners. I did not catch the date, but I believe it was in October or November of this year. During this initial meeting, a traffic study by “Atlas” was presented and discussed. The Ware County Manager stated this will be available on their government website soon, as it is currently “98% complete.” At the conclusion of the last meeting, a resolution was drafted, which all 3 boards voted and approved to be passed locally in their November board meetings. This resolution is what led to this current meeting of the tri-county board, as well as the GDOT and state representatives today.
Of note from this resolution which was signed by all counties, was a lot of “fluff” political langauge that sounded good on the service, but had no real meaning, about traffic congestion, the need for the bypass for economic growth, and the one I was most baffled by was that this would benefit first responders response time, and lead to “Quality of life improvements” as a result of this bypass. (I have requested the text of this resolution from the Ware County Clerk and will post it in full)
It was heavily reinforced that the map that is circulating online is “Conceptual” (evidently it was leaked and they had no intention of showing that map to the public. I thank God that someone had the courage to leak that map, or most of us would have never known about this proposal). They tried to claim “No one is going to come and take your property.” In fact, numerous times, numerous politicians in the room attempted to say “This isn’t happening tomorrow, this will take years to plan and construct” as if that is some sort of relief for those of us impacted by this bypass. Your property may not be taken next year, but maybe it will in 5 years was supposed to give the upset citizens in the room solace. Each politician in the room that repeated this only served to reinforce how tone deaf they were to the concerns of the room. I made a point of this out loud to Mr. Burchett after he continued to use this language about it not being something in the near future. They continued to reinforce that this route is not the only option available, but the part that I keyed in on and later asked for clarification is this:
GDOT WILL MAKE THE FINAL DECISION ON THE EXACT ROUTE THIS BYPASS WILL TAKE. YOUR COUNTY COMMISSIONERS WILL HAVE NO OVERSIGHT ONCE THIS PROJECT IS APPROVED AND SENT TO GDOT.
I specifically asked for this clarification much later in the meeting, which was confirmed. Your county commissioner or manager can talk all they want to about what land will and won’t be impacted, or they want to suggest an alternate route, but in the end it will be an engineer in Atlanta (or most likely an AI algorithm) who determines which homes will be bulldozed, and exactly what land will be stolen by the state in the name of “Progress.” Evidently, the map circulating online is one of multiple different route options, however to date, no other options have been seen online anywhere.
Ware County has quietly been working on this for 5 years (since Chairman Thrift took office according to several meeting attendees, and Mr. Thrift admitted he ran on the promise to build a bypass around Waycross). They paid $300,000 for the traffic study they continue to reference. Someone should really look into Mr. Thrifts family business, and see if this might be a potential reason he is such a strong advocate for this bypas…
Numerous times during the meeting, concerned citizens spoke out against the proposed bypass. Not a single citizen that I talked to or the dozens that spoke out were in favor of the bypass. Not one. This was a complete shock to Ware County Chairman Elmer Thrift, as he said he has only talked to 2 constituents who were against the bypass, and numerous that were for it. He said this with a straight face, and was immediately met with complete outrage from the entire room at the audacity of this statement. He stated he wished they had all showed up to the meeting as well. None of them evidently were.
The meeting was very…animated at times. With numerous people speaking over each other. At one point early in the meeting, the Ware County Manager banged the table in front of him violently out of anger in an attempt to calm people down. He then told one citizen “If you continue to talk you’ll have to leave. I’m tired of hearing your mouth.” Given the fact that this citizens home is on the proposed route, and would likely be bulldozed to the ground while she is paid pennies on the dollar for land she has worked hard all her life for, this seemed like a completely unnecessary and highly unprofessional comment to make. Given that no less than people’s family heritage and livelihoods are at stake, most commissioners, especially on the Ware County Side of things, expressed minimal empathy or concern for the consequences this bypass will have on the residents along this projected route. Many just stayed silent. It’s easy to tell people to calm down and keep their mouth shut when it isn’t your home, and your family land that is on the verge of being completely destroyed.
Most of the concerns voiced centered around losing family land, eminent domain, the lack of necessity for this project, as well as advocating for more overpasses in Waycross in order to deal with train traffic, not a bypass around the city which will harm businesses. One resident from the Hacklebarney area of Pierce County stood and told the public officials in the room that it is not right, and not fair to take away land he has worked for his entire life. That this land is where 7 members of his family live, and future generations hope to one day also live. He went on to say that while Pierce County residents love Waycross, and enjoy shopping and eating in Waycross, that ultimately this is a Waycross problem, not a Pierce County problem, and that our commissioners need to do what is best for Pierce County, which is very clear. Stop this bypass discussion right now and let this be a Ware County problem to deal with.
The GDOT chairwoman eventually spoke up and stated that the GDOT has no plans for this bypass at the time. She was just there as an invitation from the tri-county commission to discuss the possibility of a bypass. She stated that GDOT has no funding for this project, and that this is not high on the GDOT priority list. She then referenced even more studies conducted by GDOT and other sources concerning a number of things such as freight, trains, traffic, and other topics that didn’t really seem relevant to the concerns of the citizens.
One Pierce County resident asked Chairman Thrift numerous times (Which Mr. Thrift refused to answer) “What do you stand to gain from this? Why are you pushing this so hard?”
Well, I have the answer to that question, and look forward to sharing it at the Pierce County Commissioners Meeting on Tuesday December 2, at 6:00pm in the NFC building upstairs meeting room. To see the proof of exactly what Chairman Thrift stands to gain, please join me at this meeting.
MARK YOUR CALENDAR NOW!! There was a general consensus among the commissioners that on May 19, 2026 this measure is likely to be on the ballot for the residents of at least Pierce and Brantley Counties to vote on. Ware County Commissioners would not commit one way or another if they would put it on the ballot the way Pierce and Brantley did. Everyone that doesn’t want to divert Waycross traffic through Pierce County neighborhoods needs to show up to the ballot box in May, and stop this idiotic bypass. Everyone whose home is in the direct path, and will lose your home and property for this project, please show up to vote. Anyone with friends or family members who are impacted by this, and now have to live 6 months with this looming over their heads, please take a stand. Contact your commissioners today! Evidently, they have not been hearing from concerned citizens, so we need to make our voices heard. Call. Email. Leave voicemails. Call your state representatives and senators too. Ultimately, show up and vote with us in May to shoot this project down!
I have numerous statements and questions based on my own research that I intend to ask our Pierce County Commissioners since I was not able to ask these questions during this meeting. I will post a follow up after Tuesday nights meeting with their response. If you think I missed anything important from the meeting, feel free to comment below!
Edit: HUGE SHOUT OUT to whoever made the “NO BYPASS” signs. Please message me so I can give you proper credit!