Doerun mural sends message the city is open for business

Oct. 8—DOERUN — Drivers making the trip from Albany to Moultrie are getting a new greeting in the small town of Doerun, with a cow and chicken highlighting a mural that spells out the city's name in brilliant letters.

Doerun, located some 20 miles southeast of Albany, is on a roll of sorts, with a new restaurant, a YMCA facility available for members to use 24/7 and a liquor store all locating there within the past year.

The mural is meant to catch motorists' attention and to send the message that Doerun is open for business, Mike Blair, a City Commission member and board member of the Doerun Development Association, said.

"We just want people to know they have the opportunity to come here and start businesses here and be very successful," he said. "We're looking to draw businesses, to show people (that) all that stuff on the mural is what we do here, except for the tobacco. We don't grow tobacco anymore."

The mural is painted on the side of another new business in the city, Naturally Cool Gems & Jewels, which sells rocks from all over the world at the downtown location on State Highway 133. It depicts some of the agricultural products raised locally and one from the past.

Anthony Michniak, co-owner of the store with Andrea Burgess, said he liked the concept.

Several other business owners have expressed interest in having murals painted on their buildings, he said. The mural was painted by Lee Mobley, a Valdosta resident who has done work in a number of other cities in southwest Georgia.

"We hope to do a few more, (including) the fire department, just something to change it up and get people to take another look at Doerun," Blair said.

Naturally Cool has attracted more people to stop downtown, he said.

"They get people to stop in Doerun from all kinds of places," the council member said.

The widening of Highway 133 also will bring more traffic through town, once it is completed, Blair said.

"He (Mobley) free-handed it and put it on the wall," he said of the artist. "Everybody really liked it."