Milledgeville City Council met April 22 to discuss traffic lights and hear budget presentations.
City Manager Hank Griffeth stated solar-powered Rectangular Rapid Flashing Beacons were suggested to the council about two years ago and he has been going back-and-forth with the Georgia Department of Transportation (GDOT) since then. Griffeth went through GDOT because they did a safety pedestrian audit a few years ago and will be paying for the signs on East and West Hancock Streets. The city will bear the cost of North and South Wayne Streets.
“We will be installing each 100th block on North Wayne Street, South Wayne Street, West Hancock Street, and East Hancock Street. All four of those areas have a mid-crosswalk in those blocks so we felt like we needed to do a better job letting vehicles know when pedestrians are in those crossings,” said Griffeth. “The lights will flash once a pedestrian presses the button.”
Council heard resolutions for these additions on the 100 block of West Hancock Street and the 100 block of East Hancock Street. They were both adopted unanimously.
In addition, Griffeth announced that some of the engineering for crosswalk lights on Franklin Street has been paid for by the school zone speed camera money. Georgia Military College will be purchasing the lights and installing them. The college also has an interest in installing lights on Greene Street in front of its leadership center. Griffeth will bring this for discussion during the May 13 meeting.
The council heard the first reading of an ordinance amending the Land Development Code to allow for special use located at 206 Roberson Mill Rd. to add four diesel fueling bays with canopy and parking, which will include 24 semi-truck parking spaces. It was referred to the Planning and Zoning Committee.
Moving into the budget, Sandra Witherspoon, the city’s human resource director, gave a presentation on her budget request. In 2023-24, HR had a total of 192 employees and that has increased to 197 employees, with 32 vacancies city-wide. The turnover rate for the department has decreased from 14 percent to 11.7 percent. According to Witherspoon, the department has been continuing or completing objectives presented last year.
“As far as our budget requests, at this time, the HR department does not request any increase in its budget. We will keep it rolling as is,” said Witherspoon.
Ed Barnwell, Milledgeville’s planning and zoning director, stated that the division has mostly remained standard with a few increases due to inflation. The main areas of increase were training for himself and the building inspector.
“The only major expansion I’m asking for is a vehicle to drive in because I am currently using my personal vehicle to go to multiple job sites. Everything else is pretty much standard.”
Code Enforcement Director Fred Morgan requested two code enforcement officers, one full-time staff member, for part-time code enforcement staff to go full-time, and a new vehicle.
“One person cannot govern with how the city is growing and monitor each district as we go along. As for my budget, the only thing increasing is the salary and training.”
As the presentations concluded, Griffeth noted the budget will be adopted during the first council meeting in June.