City, county near agreement on Bright Star Road Connector
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The city council discussed two resolutions at its legislative work session Thursday night, one of which would authorize Mayor Mickey Thompson to sign an agreement with Croy Engineering, the city’s consulting firm, to design the intersection of Bright Star Road and the connector to include a three-way traffic signal and a left turn lane for south bound traffic on Bright Star Road.
Construction of this option is preliminarily estimated to cost between $278,000 and $320,000, which is lower than was previously presented because Croy Engineering made changes in the plans to achieve a lower cost estimate, Osborne said.
The other resolution would authorize Osborne to advertise for sealed bids for the construction of the project, as designed by Croy Engineering.
The city is ready to move as soon as an agreement is reached.
The two governments have been at odds since the city opened the connector to traffic on June 1 with a one-way stop sign at the intersection of Bright Star Road and the connector. The county responded by shutting it down the next day for safety reasons, placing barricades on the Bright Star Road side.
The intersection has been closed since, while city and county officials have met over the last few weeks to iron out their differences.
Douglas County Commission Chairman Tom Worthan and Mayor Mickey Thompson initially met, but have turned negotiations over to Douglasville City Manager Bill Osborne, County Administrator Eric Linton, City Development Services Director Jeff Noles and County Transportation Deputy Director Kerry Lord.
After the group’s July 26 meeting, Osborne said Linton and Lord thought the changes would be acceptable to the county government.
“Basically, we did not try to identify who would pay for what, but looked at trying to reach an acceptable low cost which could be split equally,” Osborne said.
The county had originally indicated it would contribute $100,000 to the project, according to 0Osborne.
The city’s funds could come from two places — the Fiscal Year 2009-2010 budget or the city’s reserves, he said.
Both governments will meet this week. The city council’s voting meeting is Monday at 7:30 in City Hall. The commissioners’ work session is Monday at 10 a.m. on the third floor in the Board of Commissioners conference room and the voting meeting is Tuesday at 10 in Citizens Hall.
I can see Mayor "Floyd" and Commissioner "Gobber"
at the table and Barney Fife trying to keep peace.
DUH?!
Nice job, guys. More of the same.
Opening the road was a ploy by the City to avoid having to pay anything for the obviously needed improvements. The plan was to let the County have to deal with it - once openned there would be no leverage against the City.
The attitude of the City has been that the Bright Star intersection would not require anything other than a stop sign on their "Connector". This is either:
1) An admission of the fact that the "Connector" is not a road designed for traffic relief, only retail frontage development.
2) Attests to the fact that the City has no idea how to design road projects.
3) An outright lie.
4) A combination of all the above.
Maybe they should have named the road "Strip Center Blvd."
I wish that the County would make the City pay for it completely: the City ceated the problem, the City should pay to fix it.