County approves widening of Old Northcutt Road
Featured News, Featured Stories November 2, 2021
ELLIJAY, Ga. – Approved for a wedding and events venue in the past, Old Northcutt Road is still seeing more construction in the area and a need for widening to support the traffic on the road.
In a special called meeting, the Gilmer County Board of Commissioners addressed the issue as Planning and Zoning Director Karen Henson said the county approached representatives of Carlota, LLC. to discuss widening the road “because of the project that they are putting in.”
Estimates from Jim Smith, Director of Public Works, indicate that the road widening could cost about $18,000. This only includes a little over 500 feet of road, but the county is looking to have this done by the time colder weather prevents completion of the project.
This “sum certain,” as County Attorney David Clark called it, is the agreed payment and now the approved amount for Chairman Charlie Paris to sign. However, if estimates come back higher than this, the county will have to revisit the project in a later meeting.
Some discussion came as to whether the county would be performing the work or if a contractor would be called in to widen the road. Currently, the county is in the middle of paving, and Smith said that the county could supervise the work of a contractor. Both Post Commissioners Hubert Parker and Karleen Ferguson agreed saying that the county road department is on a schedule and did not want to give priority to this road over others on the list that have waited.
However, neighbors and citizens have been requesting help with Old Northcutt Road for a while and are hoping to receive relief for the issue. Negotiating with the LLC, the county is now looking to have them pay for the project, with the county as a “middle-man” to supervise since it is a public road.
With the contract assuming that both prep work and paving would be handled by the contractor that the LLC chooses, the county will not have to pull any department resources or equipment to the location. Carlota, LLC. is putting in the wedding and events venue on the opposite side of Highway 515 as White Path Distillery, another wedding and events venue established on Old Northcutt Road that extends across 515.
The county is looking closer and zoning requests in the future as Smith expressed his desire to have Public Works voice opinions to both the Planning and Zoning Director and Board about the road conditions and infrastructure on conditional use permits.
Road Department sees progress despite a rough October
News November 10, 2020
ELLIJAY, Ga. – Public Works Director Jim Smith offered comments at the Board of Commissioners November Meeting with optimism as he said he was “amazed” at the amount of work the road department has accomplished in October.
These comments come as the department is still recovering from two major hits during the month. This most recent and obvious being the damage and debris left behind by Tropical Storm Zeta. According to Smith, the other major hit came as the Road Department Offices and the maintenance shop were shut down for two weeks of the month in quarantine due to a COVID-19 positive test and hospitalization of an employee.
Amid the fallout of Zeta, Smith said the Road Department has focused on clearing the roads and getting them open for traffic as soon as possible. However, in doing this, they have left a lot of debris alongside the roads. Both Public Safety Director Keith Kucera and Public Works Director Jim Smith are set to attend webinars today as FEMA (Federal Emergency Management Agency) is delivering information on the storm and the decision of declaring Gilmer a disaster area.
Smith said that all indications point to the declaration coming, but he wouldn’t know for sure until the webinar. That webinar will also set plans in motion for disposing of the debris left from the storm. The plan could include options for contracting the work as well. Smith said that the county have cleaned over 350 trees that were six inches or larger in diameter.
Public Safety does have recovery plans set and has been operating on these plans until now. But as the county looks ahead to the next steps, they will be adjusting these to follow these plans that could see financial aid as well as more closely following state and federal regulations.
With Public Works still recovering from the storm, they finished wrapping up their Amnesty Tire Month in October with 2,362 tires collected and hauled away. This was planned for October as a make-up since the program was cancelled earlier in the year due to the virus. The storm and quarantine delays also didn’t stop the department from paving Pleasant Gap Circle and Sherri Leigh Estates and early preparations as the Road Department is now moving to Turniptown Road. Paving originally had nine roads planned for 2020, but Smith gave an early warning to the Commissioner this month that it may be that they request two roads be extended into 2021.