County applies for yearly GDOT Grant for Local Road Work, Identifies 2024 Road Projects
The Stephens County Board of Commissioners will meet at 6 p.m. tomorrow for a regularly scheduled meeting. The meeting will take place at the Historic Courthouse, 37 West Tugalo Street in Toccoa.
On the agenda for the meeting is Authorization for a grant application for the Georgia Department ofTransportation 2024 Supplemental Local Maintenance Improvement Grant, or LMIG, in the amount of $642,996.95. According to agenda documentation, this grant has no matching funds requirement. However, the grant application notes that the county has approved local funding in the amount of $49,940.45, to bring the total funding to $692,937.40 to be earmarked for FY2024 for local roadwork. The included projects specified on the grant application for completion with this funding include patching, leveling, resurfacing and restriping on four county roads with a total length of 6.63 miles. Specific roads included in the scope of work for this grant period include leveling and restriping of 2.08 miles on Bend N Hickory Road, patching, addition of a crack relief layer, and restriping on 1.58 miles of Jordan Road, patching , leveling and restriping on 2.74 miles of N. Holcomb Drive, and patching and leveling on 0.23 miles of Beechwood Trail, with work beginning in the spring of this year, and an estimated completion date of September 30.
In the past three years, LMIG grant monies have provided a significant portion of the funding for work on 2.01 miles of Yow Mill Road and 1.77 miles of Buena Vista Drive in FY2023, with $485,329 from GDOT, a 30% local match of $145,600, plus funding of roughly $95,000 in cost above projected budget; work on 3.97 miles of Defoor Road and 2.64 miles of Black Mountain Road in FY2022, with $480,751 from GDOT, a local 30% match of $144,225, plus funding of roughly $310,324 in cost above projected budget; and work on 3.37 miles of Avalon Road and 2.22 miles of Clary Connector in FY 2021, with $436,666 from GDOT, a local 30% match of $130,997, plus funding of roughly $147,214 in cost above projected budget.
Also on the agenda is consideration of the appointment of a county safety coordinator, who will be responsible, among other duties, for insuring county employee compliance with safety rules and regulations, coordinating safety meetings, coordinating and implementing safety rules, conducting periodic safety inspections of machinery, buildings, vehicles and grounds, review all employee accidents, and maintain safety records.
Approval of the Local Road Activity form is also on the agenda, providing required notice to the state of the paving of Infantry Drive, a dead-end road that branches off of Davis Road.
Members of the public are invited to attend the meeting, and are welcome to address commissioners during the Public Comment section of the meeting. Contact information for commissioners is available attached to this story on wnegradio.com.
For more information, contact county clerk Samantha Turner at (706) 898-5750 or County Administrator Christian Hamilton at (706) 886-9491.
Chair Tara Simmons, Post 1
(706) 244-5670
Commissioner Debbie Whitlock, Post 2
(706) 599-3419
Commissioner Dennis Bell, Post 3
(706) 391-0447
Vice Chair Chris Rickman, Post 4
(706) 244-5125
Commissioner Chuck Wright, Post 5
(706) 886-9491