The Oconee County Board of Commissioners on Tuesday night took a big step toward creating its new park on Rocky Branch Road when it gave initial approval to spending up to $1 million for a design firm contract and related services for the first phase of the project.
The plan is to utilize 50 acres out of the 240-acre site for sports fields, parking, restrooms, and a gymnasium that contains four basketball courts with restroom facilities and staff support areas.
Also included in Phase 1 of the project is a field services building for the county’s Water Resources Department’s field operations, for the Road Department, and for Fleet Maintenance.
The Board put on its consent agenda for its meeting on Aug. 6 the awarding of a $975,000 contract to Lose Design of Duluth for services as a construction manager at risk for the project.
The Board also tentatively authorized spending an additional $25,000 for geotechnical surveys and inspections related to the construction.
The 240 acres currently are being used for the county’s Land Application System water treatment operation, which is scheduled to be phased out by the end of 2025.
Also at the meeting on Tuesday, the Board tentatively approved a contract with Backbone Infrastructure LLC of Sugar Hill, also in Gwinnett County, for $2.4 million for construction of the Hog Mountain Road Multi-Use Path.
The eight-foot-wide cement path will run on the north side of Hog Mountain Road from Mars Hill Road in Butler’s Crossing to U.S. 441.
Dawson Park
The Board of Commissioners on July 11 of last year approved master plans for the county’s parks as well as for a new trail system.
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Master Plan From Bid Documents Phase 1 Outlined In Black Lines (Click To Enlarge) |
Included was a plan for the Rocky Branch Road Park that featured two gymnasiums, an athletic field with a track around it, six soccer fields, a dog park, walking and bike trails, a playground, a picnic shelter and pavilion, and a variety of other sports field.
A month later, the Board named the park the Wendell and Betty Dawson Park to honor the former commission chair and his wife.
In the request for proposals issued on March 19 of this year, the county asked for design and related services for a component of that master plan that included one of the gymnasiums, two lacrosse fields, a playground, five multi-use fields, a multi-use half field, parking, and the field services building.
Access to the park facilities will be from Rocky Branch Road. Access to the field services building will be from Plantation Drive.
County Finance Director Melissa Braswell, who gave the report on the bids to the Commission on Tuesday, said financing for the $1 million requested spending will come from Capital Fund Assigned Fund Balance.
The Board on Feb. 6 approved transferring $1.9 million from the sale of the Annex and $1.6 million from the sale of the Library to the Capital Fund designated for the Dawson Park.
The Finance Department recommended Lose Design from seven bidders for the construction management at risk contract. The county has not yet released the tabulation of the competitive bids.
Trail Plan
The trail plan approved by the Board with the park master plans had three components.
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Trail Plan Norther Part Of County Initial Segment Covered By Contract Shown In Blue (Click To Enlarge) |
The top priority is a box-like trail in the north of the county, running along Hog Mountain Road, Daniells Bridge Road, Mars Hill Road, Malcom Bridge Road, and Rocky Branch Road. Total length will be 15.2 miles.
The plan labels this as an “Off-street path improving connectivity of populated areas to schools and local parks.”
When completed, the path will connect both of the county’s high schools, two of its three middle schools, three of its six elementary schools, its only primary school, and three of its five parks, including Dawson Park.
The Hog Mountain Road path approved by the Board on Tuesday forms a part of that box with an included extension to Presbyterian Homes, linking that facility to shopping in Butler’s Crossing.
Other components of the Trail Master Plan include a hoped-for paved trail following the Athens Line railroad and water trails on designated segments of the Middle Oconee, Oconee, and Apalachee rivers.
Funding And Right Of Way
Funding for the Hog Mountain Multi-Use Path comes from the Transportation Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax (TSPLOST) approved by voters on Nov. 8 of 2022, which included $3 million for new multi-trails in the county.
The request for proposals for the Hog Mountain Road project calls for construction to begin after awarding of the contract and to be completed in six months.
The county was able to use existing right of way for the path, with two exceptions.
The county purchased additional right of way from one property at the northwest corner of Hog Mountain Road and Arrowhead Road from another further west on Hog Mountain Road between Arrowhead Road and Bouldercrest Circle.
According to an email from Public Works Director Jody Woodall on Thursday (8/1/2024), in areas with curb and gutter, the path will be 5 feet from the back of curb.
“This is a standard GDOT design,” Woodall said, referring to the Georgia Department of Transportation.
“In areas where curb is not present or will not be installed, the path will be on the backside of the ditch, or on the backside of the right-of-way, to provide as much separation as possible,” he continued.
The Hog Mountain Path will be in right of way abutting two segments of the University of Georgia’s J. Phil Campbell Sr. Research and Education Center farms, where cattle often are grazing and a historic, no-till field currently is being used for cotton.
Backbone Infrastructure submitted the low bid among four firms submitting bids.
Other Board Action
In other action at the short agenda-setting meeting on Tuesday, the Board agreed to spend $92,820 for 12 thermal imagers for the county’s Volunteer Fire Department. Braswell said the existing imagers have become outdated and replacement batteries are no longer available.
The Board also agreed to spend $65,000 for an upgrade to the fire pump system at the Courthouse in Watkinsville.
The Board approved a request by C.J. Worden, EMA Director for the county, to spend $77,154 for six electronic message board units to be used to regulate traffic in the case of emergencies.
The county already has two such electronic message boards, Worden said. A grant from the Georgia Emergency Management Agency/Homeland Security will reimburse the county for $57,866 of the cost.
In response to a request from Woodall, the Board authorized an amendment to the Fiscal Year 2025 Budget to spend an additional $6,310 on resurfacing of county roads because GDOT is granting $756,310 as part of its contribution to local road resurfacing rather than the budgeted $750,000.
Total spending in Fiscal Year 2025 for resurfacing 31 miles of county roads will be $8.7 million, with $2 milling from the Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax (SPLOST), $6 million coming from the Transportation Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax (TSPLOST), and the $756,310 from GDOT.
In a separate request, Woodall told the Board that the Fiscal Year 2024 state budget provided the county with $919,305 in Local Road Assistance Funds. The Board had previously approved using these funds for shoulder widening and patching of Colham Ferry Road.
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Woodall Before Board 7/30/2024 |
Woodall asked, and the Board approved, spending that money as well as $942,426 in TSPLOST revenue for a two-foot shoulder widening and for patching on Colham Ferry Road from the county line with Greene County to Greene Ferry Road just south of Watkinsville.
Adam Layfield, Director of the Water Resources Department, asked the Board to delay payment of the $25 million Georgia Environmental Finance Authority loan for the ongoing Calls Creek Upgrade to April 1, 2026, at the latest.
This delay corresponds with completion of the project in December of 2025, Layfield said.
Layfield said construction of the doubling of the plant to 3.0 million gallons per day and of the transmission line from the expanded plant along U.S. 441 and to the Middle Oconee River will be completed by the end of 2025 and the facility will be operational by no later than January of 2026.
All of these items, as well as approval of the contracts for Dawson Park and for the Hog Mountain Road, were put on the consent agenda for final approval at the meeting on Aug. 6.
Video
The video below is on the Oconee County YouTube Channel.
The meeting starts at 9:10 in the video.
Braswell began her comments about Dawson Park at 10:46 in the video.
Woodall began discussion of the Hog Mountain Road multi-use path at 12:57 in the video.
The still image above of Woodall and the Commission comes from the video I recorded at the meeting as a backup.
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