Winder projects discussed

Planning director Barry Edgar said bids for the demolition of the Granite Hotel would be opened at Winder City Hall at noon Thursday and then presented to the Winder Downtown Development Authority at a rescheduled monthly meeting Nov. 22. The DDA’s recommendation regarding the contractor would go before the city council in December, he said.

Edgar said a traffic engineering consultant recommended that the city not make East Athens Street a one-say road in order to accommodate angled parking in front of restaurants and businesses not far from city hall.

He said the engineer did recommend the addition of stop signs at the T intersection of King and Athens streets in order to improve the flow of traffic.
The city also will post flashing signs in both directions on Athens Street to alert motorists of the change in the traffic pattern, he said.

Winder Police Chief Dennis Dorsey said motorists running the stop signs would be warned during the first 30 days after the signs are erected.

Edgar said GDOT also plans to close a portion of West Athens Street near McNeal Road and Horton Street from 9 p.m. to 6 a.m. from Nov. 22 to Dec. 2 for work on that intersection improvement.

In addition, public works director Ken Chalker updated the council on some recently completed sidewalk improvements along Center Street, Park Avenue and Candler Street. He said other sidewalk improvements are on the drawing board.

The city administrator also cleared up some in-house confusion over the cost of the recent improvement of a project on Jackson Street near city hall. He said the cost overrun was $1,785 due to the extension of some of the paving.