Ringgold has plans for renovation in 2024

RINGGOLD, Ga. (WDEF) — A new year is upon us, and the winds of change are blowing in North Georgia. The city of Ringgold is about to look a little different.

“We have a lot of beautifications going on in the city now, but also, it needs a facelift. It needed renovation,” said Ringgold Mayor Nick Millwood. “We had places that were sitting vacant for years and years, and we found great opportunities to turn some of this property around.”

One of the upcoming changes will be to the Benton Cole Building.

“This is right in the middle of downtown. So, we have a lot of events happening here. One of the great things going into the Benton Cole building is public restrooms. That’s going to be great for all our events, for our farmers markets, for anything we do out here,” Mayor Millwood said. “There is also potentially going to be a restaurant in that area, business places to go in for small business.”

Ringgold will also be adding more restaurants to the downtown area.

“Whenever we got our feedback from our community… it does this thing where it puts keywords together, and the bigger word was “restaurant.” So, that’s been a focus of this council, and we’re making strides in that direction,” the mayor explained.

But these changes will not come without plenty of green spaces, too.

“That’s a lot of renovations in other places downtown is, we put in sidewalks. We put in a lot of green areas to where it looks more natural as you’re going down the road as opposed to a cement scape,” Millwood said.

Another new feature will be a brand-new water tank.

“That’s going to be able to access our new well water,” the mayor said. “Right now, we are getting our water from the creek, and we are about to be able to connect well water, which is cleaner, requires less chemicals, and is cheaper for the city and our residents.”

And for the people of Ringgold, most of the improvements are paid for by grant money.

“We got massive grant money in order to do this stuff from the state of Georgia,” Mayor Millwood added. Quality grants, so we only had to match 10% and they provided 90% of the grant. It was like $1.4 million.”

Most projects should be done by then end of the year.