A number of residents of The Pines subdivision were back at the City of Gray’s meeting last week objecting to another proposed development off Highway 18 East, again citing traffic issues.
Mayor Ed Barbee called the March 18 meeting of all city committees to order, and the first committee report was from Councilman Terrell Fulford, who is the chairman of the Finance Committee. Fulford said the city has collected $1,014,858 in 2023 property taxes, representing 87.34 percent.
He said the uncollected balance is $52,247.
City Superintendent Cheyenne Morgan reported for the Water and Sewer Committee. He said treatment plant unit 2 was online and unit 1 had been drained and pumped out.
He said the diffusers needed to be replaced in that unit and could be paid out of the project’s work allowance. Morgan said the estimated cost was $100,000, which would leave $158,000 in the account.
He said they are continuing site work for unit 1. The project is estimated to be completed in the fall.
Plan Committee
Mayor Pro Tem James Collins, chairman of the Plan Committee, said a group from the city and county have been meeting to look at rebranding the city, county and chamber of commerce.
He said the group had presentations from three different companies to help with the rebranding.
Main Street Director Ashley Roberson said they are not just talking about a new logo but a way to tell the story of Gray and Jones County across all agencies.
“The first step is tapping into the tourism aspect,” she said.
Councilman David Tufts said the city has tried different festivals that did not work as well as they would have liked.
Collins said there was one company they preferred, and they want to invite all interested parties to look at it.
Roberson said the rebranding process takes from nine months to a year, and the consensus is to share the cost among the entities.
Collins said he would like to set up a time for a joint meeting.
Roberson passed out a booklet with before and after pictures of several city projects and pictures showing the need for a curbing project at the downtown intersection.
Streets
Councilman David Tufts chairs the Streets Committee. He talked about streetscape lights from the courthouse to the crossing intersection.
“We need to put it on the next meeting agenda with all the numbers,” he said.
Roberson said the cost was $2,200 per month to lease the lights and $160,000 to purchase them.
He asked if the lighting could be put on the Transportation SPLOST project list.
The project list was the next item on the agenda, and Morgan gave council members a preliminary list of city TSPLOST projects. The list included maintenance for West Clinton Street within city limits and paving and repairs of dozens of other city streets. The list also included sidewalks and drainage projects. The total cost for the projects was $3,095,000.
City Attorney John Newberry said with the 75-25 split for the TSPLOST collections, it was estimated that the city’s portion would be $4 million.
Morgan said the biggest ticket item for the projects was East and West Clinton streets, and the attorney suggested the cost of the projects needed to exceed the estimated collections.
Newberry said he was working with the county on an intergovernmental agreement for the TSPLOST that hopefully could be passed by council at the city’s April 1 meeting. The attorney asked council members if they were considering bonds, which would allow them to start on projects as soon as the TSPLOST was approved by voters.
Newberry discussed several options for the bonds, but council members ultimately agreed not to pursue the bonds. He said the TSPLOST funds could come directly to the city and not go through the county.
The superintendent talked about a new source of money for road repairs that had been announced. He said it is the Local Road Assistance fund, and Gray’s portion was calculated at $71,131. The fund requires no matching funds.
Morgan said the city could use that money for repairs to Dolly Street, and LMIG funds could be used for repairs to the intersection.
Councilman Terry Favors said the Autumn Ridge drainage project had been completed and the $87,000 cost paid.
“But it doesn’t seem to have helped at all,” Favors stated. “The engineers that designed it should come at their own expense and fix it.”
Favors said there was a 50-foot drop-off.
Morgan said he would look at it and thought something could be done to correct it in-house.
Favors said the problem was huge, and the water was eating away at the property. Morgan said he felt the city could address the ditches causing the problem.
Miscellaneous
Erin Thrift with Simple Grants gave council members a presentation of her company and how it could help the city with identifying and applying for grants. Thrift said from listening to city projects, she already had ideas of grants that would be of interest to the city.
She said there are grants for streetlights and sidewalks.
“We find grants that align with your goals and needs,” Thrift said.
Collins expressed interest and said the idea would be discussed at the next meeting.
Developer Brett Jackson spoke to the council about final plat approval for Windsong at Nature’s Walk. The approval had been tabled at the March 4 meeting to be brought back to committee.
He said the development had been approved several years ago.
Newberry said it was approved in 2009 as a Planned Unit Development, which allows multifamily units.
The map of the development showed 16 townhomes that would be built on 1.9 acres on Nature’s Walk. Newberry said the plat approval would be voted on by council at the April 1 meeting.
Two representatives spoke against the final approval of the plat. Don Johnson spoke as the president of the HOA for The Pines. He complained they received no notice and no signs posted.
Unlike zoning issues, signs and notice are not required for final plat approval.
Jones read sections of the zoning code that he felt the project violated for several minutes before Barbee called time.
The meeting was adjourned to enter closed session for real estate and personnel.
