Cohilas points to millions in recovery funds, future development as justification for third term

Alan Mauldin, The Albany Herald, Ga.
·3 min read

May 10—ALBANY — While Dougherty County Commission Chairman Chris Cohilas isn't a native of the area, he has warmly embraced the community where he came to start a career as well as a family.

Cohilas, who is seeking his third term as chair of the commission, faces two challengers in the May 24 primary election. The Rev. Lorenzo Heard, minister at Greater 2nd Mt. Olive Baptist Church, and former commission member and owner of contracting company James Unlimited, Harry James, are seeking to unseat the incumbent.

"I came down here, fell in love with Albany, Dougherty County," Cohilas said. "I fell in love and had four children. I fell in love with the community."

Cohilas, a former Dougherty County assistant district attorney, left a position at an Atlanta law firm to get the job he wanted and hasn't looked back.

"I went to law school to be a prosecutor," Cohilas, who grew up in College Park, said. "I'm the first person in my family to go to college. I worked my way through college and law school.

"Short version is, I worked in Atlanta in a civil law firm. My passion was to be a prosecutor. I got a chance in Albany to get hands-on experience."

While now in private practice as a partner in the Watson Spence firm, Cohilas said he has retained his passion for the rights of victims after his experience helping people, some of whom were at the low point of their lives.

"I spent seven years prosecuting crimes against women and children," he said. "I held the hands of hundreds, if not a thousand victims, from the beginning of the case until they testified in court. Ninety-nine point nine percent of my victims lived below the poverty level. I took great pleasure in being their voice in the courtroom."

After two terms on the commission, Cohilas said there are still things he wants to accomplish. When he was elected in May 2014 he had plans for improving the lives of residents.

Some of those plans became a reality, and some are yet to come to fruition. Some were derailed, at least temporarily, by a series of natural disasters and COVID-19, which struck the Albany area hard early during the pandemic.

For Cohilas, who formerly worked in Dougherty County District Attorney Greg Edwards' office, the tornadoes and Hurricane Michael were horrendous disasters, with a January 2017 tornado killing five residents in the Radium Springs area.

Much of his and other leaders' energies went into recovery from those disasters and more recently COVID.

"I feel like there's a lot of good work to be done," the chairman said. "Despite the fact we've been through four presidentially declared natural disasters and COVID-19, we've been blessed. I've been blessed to fight for millions of dollars for this community."

His efforts included multiple trips to Washington, D.C., and Atlanta to lobby for funds.

The result has been millions of dollars for the county that will fund recovery and future projects for the community, he said. Radium Springs has been a focus of much of these efforts, with the state awarding money to refurbish the Spring Run bridge along the trail that starts at the former golf course and will be a corridor that extends through the Albany State University campus to downtown Albany.

Last month, U.S. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack announced funding of $12.5 million for trail paving, conservation and an amphitheater at Radium Springs.

Another project that the chairman said he takes pride in is the relocation of a Georgia Bureau of Investigation office from Sylvester to Albany.

"That would not have happened without the county's involvement," he said.

If re-elected, Cohilas said he will work with fellow commissioners to move the county forward.

"I'm going to continue to advocate for the millions of dollars this community needs to build it to a place where it's bigger and better and stronger than ever, with better amenities, a better quality of life," he said.