By Stephanie Johns
Staff Writer

The Downtown Development Authority (DDA) of Madison held a special called meeting last Thursday morning in part to discuss and make progress on its depot project.

The DDA is in the process of receiving a historic Central of Georgia Railroad Co. train depot and moving it across the railroad tracks in exchange for a replacement building for the railroad company.
Members of the Depot Committee, made up of members of the DDA, Historic Madison-Morgan Foundation (HMMF), and Madison Historic Preservation Commission (HPC), met following the DDA’s called meeting.

During the DDA meeting DDA directors voted to allow officers to sign the bill of sale as well as a lease agreement.

DDA Director Everett Royal said the lease calls for a $100 per year payment due April 1. There is no termination date in the agreement but it does allow 30-day notice by either party to terminate the lease.
DDA directors also voted to sign two contracts: one with Georgia Civil, Inc. for engineering needs and another with Hall-Smith Office for architectural needs.

The $11,000 Georgia Civil contract includes stormwater, utilities, grading and permitting plans.
Joe Smith, a member of the HPC and a preservation architect with Hall-Smith, said the $20,000 Hall-Smith contract will be in two phases.
Phase one will cost $5,000 to record the existing condition of the building and to stabilize it so it is ready to move.

Foundation of plant is underway, and workforce training begins

By Stephanie Johns
Staff Writer

Construction at the Baxter International site is “progressing right along,” according to Alan Verner, chair of the Joint Development Authority of Jasper, Morgan, Newton and Walton counties.
Verner said they have the concrete batch plant in place and were set to start testing it last Friday. Once the plant is ready they will start pouring footings for the buildings.
“It’s quite a lot of activity there now,” he said.
He explained that there used to be five or six cars and some construction equipment but now there are cars lined up on both sides of the parkway.
“It really, really looks great,” he said.
He added that the Newton County Water and Sewer Authority has been working on the sewer line and getting the rights of way cleared.
“All of that’s on schedule,” he said. 
As for the design of the new Baxter building, Verner said that they are in the final stages of determining what it will look like.

“I’m really looking forward to that,” he said. “It’s been very interesting to see the drawings come around.”
He added that it will “be quite an impressive building going in there.”

Verner said that he attended an event in Jasper County just last Thursday night. During that event he had the chance to learn about a bioscience class at the high school there.

“About 30 students volunteered to take this course,” he said, noting that students do not get credit for it. “It’s exciting to see young people who see there’s hope down the road and opportunities for a great job in their future close to home.”

By Stephanie Johns
Staff Writer

Members of the 911 Advisory Board discussed a recently completed radio system consultant report, according to Bill Crew, Morgan County 911 communications supervisor.
Crew said the report, done by Tusa Consulting Services II, LLC (TCS), showed the good, the bad and the ugly.
“Basically our radio system is showing its real age,” he said. “We’re trying to get something that’s going to last.”
He added that they are averse to a band-aid for the system.
Right now, Crew said the board is “still in the exploration stage” as far as radio options, costs and questions about effectiveness go.
The new Power Phone Total Response Call Handling System is moving, he said, just slower than they expected.
“We have three different vendors,” he said. “We’re trying to get all our ducks in a row; logistical issues have come up.”
As to their 911 Center updates, Crew said that over the past three months they have updated different aspects of it.
He added that they have updated the phone database they get from AT&T.
“We do that about once every year or so to make sure we have accurate information,” he said.

Printed in the March 21, 2013 edition

By Stephanie Johns
Staff Writer

The Rutledge City Council had a chance to view proposed landscaping for the revitalized North Rutledge Community Park.
Molly Lesnikowski, president of the Rutledge Beautification Committee, shared a couple of drawings as well as a landscaping plan for the park.

“These are just ideas at this point,” she said, adding that everyone is proud of the new park.
Lesnikowski suggested that the council add curbing to finish and define the area: “This would anchor the floating basketball court to the front landscaping.”

Mayor Spencer Knight explained that parking surrounds the basketball courts right now.
Lesnikowski noted that the committee is not asking the city for funding – a recent soiree the committee held raised “several thousand dollars” for this project.

“We’ve had a couple of bids,” she said. “It’s doable.”
Knight said he would talk to Marty Boyd, the engineer for the park updates, regarding Lesnikowski’s suggestions.

Council members then heard about lift station cleaning – Knight told them that it will cost between $12,000 and $15,000 to have the city’s two lift stations and sewer lines cleaned.
“It’s budgeted,” he said. “We do it every few years. It’ll help everything.”
City Clerk Debbie Rutherford added that they need a bar screen for their sewage pond.

In other news:
- City Clerk Debbie Rutherford celebrated eight years with the city on Monday.
- Council approved a business license for Christian Ike, who will locate his Rutledge Pharmacy and Medical Supplies at 126 Fairplay St.

Printed in the March 21, 2013 edition

By Stephanie Johns
Staff Writer

The Madison Greenspace Commission (GSP) has been awarded a $100,000 trails grant by the Department of Natural Resources.
The grant will require a 20 percent match.

GSP Chair David Land told the Madison Mayor and City Council in November that the match could come from existing activities, including the GSP’s tree plantings and the city’s piping drainage ditch that is in part of the proposed trail.

The trail, as Land described during a December GSP meeting, would start with one leg of the informal cemetery trail and finish near the Confederate graves. 

Madison Planning Director and GSP Staff Monica Callahan informed Mayor Bruce Gilbert and council members during that group’s work session Friday morning that the GSP had received the grant.
“We’re very excited about this,” she said.
Land later echoed her sentiments.
“We’re exceptionally pleased,” he said. “We’re thrilled.”

He said they are looking forward to working on this project and that they anticipate getting the funds sometime this summer.

Land said the last comprehensive plan was a 2005 county-wide greenprint plan with a trail system.
“There were no details about Madison,” he said, noting that the plan did have trails starting or ending in the city, though.
In 2008 there was a greenprint and concept map addendum that included the Madison greenprint and conceptual map.

Then in Jan. 2012 the GSP developed its parks, greenspace and greenways conceptual plan for 2012 through 2017. They updated this plan in Oct. 2012.
Land said this plan guides the GSP as it expends Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax and other public funds.