A traffic hazard on Hwy. 211 could be resolved soon.
The Barrow County Board of Commissioners Tuesday night approved a paving contract and other project costs to complete the construction of a left-turn lane from the state highway onto Barrow Park Drive.
The intersection is at the entrance to the county’s new criminal justice center and jail, and it has been the site of numerous accidents over the past year and a half.
In most of the accidents, motorists had stopped their vehicles in the single northbound lane in order to turn into the county complex and were rear-ended.
In making his funding request Tuesday, county engineering manager Darrell Greeson told the board that he had been at the site daily for three weeks as county workers performed preliminary work for the project and “every day there have been squealing tires and near misses – every day.”
The BOC voted unanimously to approve an $88,712 paving contract with Baldwin Paving Inc. and to authorize a total expenditure of $108,305 for the project.
“I think we’ve saved $100,000 by doing (the preliminary) work ourselves,” Greeson said. “That’s money that the road department saved.”
He said if the weather remains favorable, he hopes to have the project finished by the end of October.
Commission chairman Danny Yearwood and commissioner Isaiah Berry both thanked Greeson and the employees of the Roads & Fleet Department for their work on the project.
The director of that department, Nat Dukes, is one of two county employees injured in recent wrecks at that location.
“I’m certainly proud of the fact that you jumped right on this and were able to get this done,” Berry told Greeson. “I think it’s going to be a major improvement for us. The best thing is we probably won’t have any loss of life like we would have. I’m very grateful to you.”
In other business, the board:
•approved a three-year contract with Four Paws Animal Hospital to provide veterinary services for animals being adopted from the county facility. The approved payment is $100 per animal.
•approved the demolition of the “cat house” off Barrow Park Drive because of the new feline accommodations at the new facility.
Director Jimmy Terrell invited the public to an open house from 3-5 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 14, and thanked county employees from roads & fleet and from buildings & grounds for assisting with the transition to the new facility.
•appointed Boyd McLocklin to replace Stan Coley on the Bioscience Joint Development Authority. Coley resigned due to potential conflicts of interest related to personal development projects along the Hwy. 316 corridor.
•adopted a resolution increasing from three to five the number of seats on the Barrow County Board of Tax Assessors. The resolution appoints Frank Clark to a six-year term ending July 1, 2016, and Beth Buchanan and Roger Wehunt to five-year terms ending Oct. 1, 2015. All future board members will serve six-year terms that will be staggered.
•amended a recent county reorganization plan in order to pay all employees out of the proper departmental budgets. The matter caused some fireworks between commissioner Steve Worley and the county chairman.
