Oconee County Plans To More Than Quadruple The Miles Of Roads Resurfaced Next Year

***TSPLOST Providing Bulk Of Funding

Oconee County plans to resurface 30.27 miles of roadway in the county from March to September of next year, more than four times what it has been resurfacing in the typical calendar year.

The road work will be paid for with a $742,287 Local Maintenance Improvement Grant (LMIG) from the state, $2 million from the county’s Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax, and $5.7 million from the Transportation Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax approved by voters last November.

County Administrator Justin Kirouac informed the Board of Commissioners of the resurfacing plans at its short agenda-setting meeting on Tuesday night.

The plans were before the Board because the state grant to the county actually exceeded the amount in the Fiscal Year 2024 county budget by $62,290, and Kirouac, on behalf of Public Works Director Jody Woodall, was asking the Board to approve a budget amendment. 

The Board agreed to the change tentatively, putting final action on its consent agenda for the Oct. 3 meeting.

The Board also put on its consent agenda an agreement to spend up to $260,000 to bring the two elevators at the Courthouse up to state code and approval of two agreements with the Northeast Georgia Regional Commission (NEGRC).

The county is agreeing to spend $8,384 in matching funds as part of a $195,239 aging services contract with NEGRC and to provide NEGRC with transportation services for eligible Department of Human Services consumers.

Resurfacing

Kirouac provided the Board with an alphabetized list of 64 resurfacing projects scheduled to be completed in calendar year 2024.

Kirouac (Left), Responding To Harden (Right)
Commissioner Chuck Horton And Chair John Daniell
In Between

“If you notice, there’s a lot of roads on there as opposed to previous years,” Kirouac said.

Included were 5,409 feet of resurfacing on Bouldercrest Circle, 9,022 on Broadlands Drive, 15,411 on Carson Graves Road, 5,976 on Greene Ferry Road, 9,930 on Kirkland Road, 22,444 on Mars Hill Road, and 14,984 on Old Salem Road.

“We believe this is the appropriate paving program for calendar year (20)24,” he said. “They’ll be coming back with the balance of the four years for the TSPLOST.”

The new 1 percent transportation sales tax went into effect in April of this year.

The Board of Commissioners rolled back the property tax by more than the promised 1 mill to offset the implementation of the consumption tax.

Commissioner Amrey Harden asked “of the 30.27 miles that you’re estimating, what would it have been if we did not have TSPLOST?”

“We typically hit around seven miles, seven or in that in that range,” Kirouac answered.

 To spend the LMIG grant funds, Woodall had told the Board in a memorandum of Sept. 18, the county has to approve the change to its adopted budget.

Other Consent Agenda Items

The Board tentatively approved the proposal by TK Elevator with offices in Atlanta to install Door Locking Monitors and related components for the Courthouse elevators at a cost of $227,543.

Ancillary items not covered by the TK proposal could bring the total cost to $260,000, Kirouac said.

Senior Center Director Merry Howard told the Board in a Sept. 8 memorandum that the Aging Services Contract for Fiscal Year 2024 with the Northeast Georgia Regional Commission are designed support and allow elderly recipients to continue to live independently in the community.

The federal government will be providing $107,524, and the state will provide $79,330.

Howard said on Tuesday that the county has been receiving $25,000 for providing the transportation services covered by the second agreement with NEGRC but “I’ve recently received information that we’ll be discussing it further for an increase.”

Video

The video below is on the county’s YouTube channel.

Kirouac presented the TKE proposal to the Board at 2:08 in the video.

Howard began her comments to the Board at 4:43 in the video.

Kirouac began his presentation on the road resurfacing at 7:30 in the video.