While taking intense political heat for many of his decisions regarding the day-to-day operation of the county government, Barrow County Commission Chairman Danny Yearwood is managing to score some behind-the-scenes victories in other arenas.
In an interview last week, the embattled chairman said – and other parties have confirmed – Barrow County is poised to receive $2.5 million in state and federal funding for transportation projects and $500,000 in grant funding for a sewer project to serve a $50 million facility a German company plans to build in the town of Carl by the fall of 2010.
Funding opens up for Barrow roads, sewer
In addition, Yearwood said U.S. Rep. John Linder in May made an appropriations request on the county’s behalf in the U.S. House of Representatives for $17 million in federal funding to build the first phase of the long-sought-after West Winder Bypass. The funding would pay for the design and construction of a bridge over Hwy. 8 and the CSX railroad. Future appropriations would be required to complete the project.
To shore up support for the appropriations request, Yearwood last Thursday met privately with representatives of senators Saxby Chambliss, Johnny Isakson, and Linder, plus state representative Terry England, the district engineer for GDOT, and the district representative on the State Transportation Board.
He declined a request by the Barrow Journal to attend the meeting, saying the parties had agreed that no media would be involved.
But in a statement Tuesday to the newspaper, Linder confirmed that he made the appropriations request.
“When Barrow County became part of the 7th Congressional District in 2006, I made it a priority to visit with all of the county, city and community leaders,” he said in an e-mail. “In each visit, the same urgent need was discussed: there must be a bypass built around Winder.”
The congressman said while the needs for the bypass are evident, “there is not one more convincing for me than the safety hazard the current situation creates.”
He said he has been working with the project in some shape or form since 2007, and “the Surface Transportation Authorization Act of 2009 presented an excellent opportunity to kick start the project, and I decided it would be prudent to make the request.”
Linder’s Duluth spokesman said Linder made the request in May.
Spokesmen for the Georgia Department of Transportation and the Atlanta Regional Commission also confirmed the new funding for other projects.
Teri Pope, a spokesperson for GDOT’s District 1 office, said her agency now has the Ed Hogan intersection project in the state Transportation Improvement Program.
“We have money set up in fiscal year 2010, which starts July 1,” she said. “Sometime in the fiscal year, the preliminary engineering and design of the intersection improvement will begin. DOT has $90,000 put aside for review and supervision of those plans.”
After the county purchases the right-of-way for the intersection, GDOT in 2012 will provide $767,550 for construction of the intersection, Pope said.
Yearwood said negotiations with property owners and CSX Railroad have been under way for some time.
Mayor George “Chip” Thompson III said this week that the new railroad crossing at Ed Hogan Road is at the top of the city’s list of priority transportation projects because of the traffic relief it would provide for downtown Winder.
The crossing would provide a path for trucks and other vehicles to travel from Ga. 316 to Hwy. 211, and then onto Interstate 85 while completely bypassing the city.
City administrator Bob Beck said the city plans to extend sewer service to the area impacted by the transportation improvement. He said that will open up for future economic development the area all of the way to the new Barrow County Criminal Justice Center.
Jim Jaquish, senior communications coordinator for the ARC, said the funding for the new railroad crossing at Ed Hogan Road is from the $1 million in funds earmarked by his regional planning agency for Barrow County since 2005.
In addition, the ARC has designated $1.5 million in federal stimulus funds for other Barrow County transportation improvements.
Jaquish said the new funding is from the final $27 million in stimulus funds that his agency is disbursing.
Yearwood took a huge amount of political heat a couple of months ago, when as a member of an ARC transportation committee, he voted with the rest of the members to allow $25 million in stimulus funds for the region to be awarded to MARTA for operations.
Local critics said the money should not have been given to MARTA, because Barrow County needed all of the transportation funding it could get.
Jaquish said MARTA since has given $25 million of other capital funds to the jurisdictions in its service area – Fulton, Atlanta and DeKalb – and the transit agency’s reciprocal action freed up the remaining $27 million in stimulus funds for disbursement to other jurisdictions.
The only other nearby county designated to receive any of the money from the ARC’s final pool of stimulus funds is Walton County, whose chairman, Kevin Little, also voted to give MARTA the earlier funding.
Yearwood said the county already has submitted information on transportation projects that could be improved with the additional $1.5 million from the ARC. The list includes road surfacing and bridge repair and maintenance.
In addition to the new transportation funding, Yearwood said the county this month was notified that it will receive a $500,000 state grant for construction of a sewer project to serve a new facility that the German-based Schutz Container Systems plans to build and operate in the town of Carl.
“That means the world to Barrow County,” Yearwood said. “It’s jobs for the future.”
He said he had met with the owner of the company and last talked to him a month ago.
“He told me that he’s got all the engineering people in place, and they’ve got a plan on the table and they want to be in that plant by the end of September 2010,” Yearwood said.
“He’s hoping in five years they can double the capacity of that place. We’re talking about 500 jobs in five years.”
To shore up support for the appropriations request, Yearwood last Thursday met privately with representatives of senators Saxby Chambliss, Johnny Isakson, and Linder, plus state representative Terry England, the district engineer for GDOT, and the district representative on the State Transportation Board.
He declined a request by the Barrow Journal to attend the meeting, saying the parties had agreed that no media would be involved.
But in a statement Tuesday to the newspaper, Linder confirmed that he made the appropriations request.
“When Barrow County became part of the 7th Congressional District in 2006, I made it a priority to visit with all of the county, city and community leaders,” he said in an e-mail. “In each visit, the same urgent need was discussed: there must be a bypass built around Winder.”
The congressman said while the needs for the bypass are evident, “there is not one more convincing for me than the safety hazard the current situation creates.”
He said he has been working with the project in some shape or form since 2007, and “the Surface Transportation Authorization Act of 2009 presented an excellent opportunity to kick start the project, and I decided it would be prudent to make the request.”
Linder’s Duluth spokesman said Linder made the request in May.
Spokesmen for the Georgia Department of Transportation and the Atlanta Regional Commission also confirmed the new funding for other projects.
Teri Pope, a spokesperson for GDOT’s District 1 office, said her agency now has the Ed Hogan intersection project in the state Transportation Improvement Program.
“We have money set up in fiscal year 2010, which starts July 1,” she said. “Sometime in the fiscal year, the preliminary engineering and design of the intersection improvement will begin. DOT has $90,000 put aside for review and supervision of those plans.”
After the county purchases the right-of-way for the intersection, GDOT in 2012 will provide $767,550 for construction of the intersection, Pope said.
Yearwood said negotiations with property owners and CSX Railroad have been under way for some time.
Mayor George “Chip” Thompson III said this week that the new railroad crossing at Ed Hogan Road is at the top of the city’s list of priority transportation projects because of the traffic relief it would provide for downtown Winder.
The crossing would provide a path for trucks and other vehicles to travel from Ga. 316 to Hwy. 211, and then onto Interstate 85 while completely bypassing the city.
City administrator Bob Beck said the city plans to extend sewer service to the area impacted by the transportation improvement. He said that will open up for future economic development the area all of the way to the new Barrow County Criminal Justice Center.
Jim Jaquish, senior communications coordinator for the ARC, said the funding for the new railroad crossing at Ed Hogan Road is from the $1 million in funds earmarked by his regional planning agency for Barrow County since 2005.
In addition, the ARC has designated $1.5 million in federal stimulus funds for other Barrow County transportation improvements.
Jaquish said the new funding is from the final $27 million in stimulus funds that his agency is disbursing.
Yearwood took a huge amount of political heat a couple of months ago, when as a member of an ARC transportation committee, he voted with the rest of the members to allow $25 million in stimulus funds for the region to be awarded to MARTA for operations.
Local critics said the money should not have been given to MARTA, because Barrow County needed all of the transportation funding it could get.
Jaquish said MARTA since has given $25 million of other capital funds to the jurisdictions in its service area – Fulton, Atlanta and DeKalb – and the transit agency’s reciprocal action freed up the remaining $27 million in stimulus funds for disbursement to other jurisdictions.
The only other nearby county designated to receive any of the money from the ARC’s final pool of stimulus funds is Walton County, whose chairman, Kevin Little, also voted to give MARTA the earlier funding.
Yearwood said the county already has submitted information on transportation projects that could be improved with the additional $1.5 million from the ARC. The list includes road surfacing and bridge repair and maintenance.
In addition to the new transportation funding, Yearwood said the county this month was notified that it will receive a $500,000 state grant for construction of a sewer project to serve a new facility that the German-based Schutz Container Systems plans to build and operate in the town of Carl.
“That means the world to Barrow County,” Yearwood said. “It’s jobs for the future.”
He said he had met with the owner of the company and last talked to him a month ago.
“He told me that he’s got all the engineering people in place, and they’ve got a plan on the table and they want to be in that plant by the end of September 2010,” Yearwood said.
“He’s hoping in five years they can double the capacity of that place. We’re talking about 500 jobs in five years.”
Where did this "funding" come from and what happened to the "we're in trouble" and the "we are running out of money"?!? Oh wait, you took all of the employees pay, thats where it came from! Good thing your making these deals, I wonder where your going to find the workers to get it going for the County.