Dodge County commissioners voted unanimously to stop construction of the new Dodge County boat landing on the Ocmulgee River at their meeting on Monday, September 20. They had previously voted to go forward with the project at their meeting on August 16 and also voted to go ahead with the project at a previous meeting.
Commissioners said the reason they stopped the construction was because they needed a survey, estimate of costs to complete the job, copies of all plans and permits, and bids for work to be done.
The only other time the commissioners had asked about costs was in January of 2008 when they approved a bid from Statewide Engineering for $3,500.00 to work on the project.
At the last board meeting, Dwayne Conley came forward and wanted to know why the county was not bidding out work that was being done at the site. Also, Frank Wathall, whose land the easement (road) to the landing is being used, came before the commissioners and asked them to stop working on the project until the county could provide him with paperwork and a plan of how the road to the landing was to be built.
The reason a new boat ramp is needed is due to the low level of the water during many times of the year. (See top photo at right) The water level is low due to a cut through (see map on page 12A) that allows most of the water flow to bypass the ramp, and dry weather conditions. At the present time, the water at the ramp is approximately six to eight inches deep. No boat can be launched there. The photograph was taken from the middle of the river looking back at the boat ramp.
The second photo (bottom right) was taken from where the new boat ramp is being constructed. The water at this part of the river is seven to eight feet deep.
Dodge County Manager Kelly Bowen stated that the soonest construction would probably begin again would be the spring of 2011.
History
After the floods of 1994, a small channel developed connecting two portions of the Ocmulgee River together, which left a loop or oxbow which each year received less and less water to the loop of the river which contains the Dodge County Landing. As the years went on, the channel got larger and wider and the amount of water flowing in the larger loop got smaller and smaller and eventually this began to affect the ability of people to use the Dodge County Landing to get their boats in and out of the river during low water times.
The Dodge County Sportsman’s Club, headed primarily by Curtis Peacock, began approaching public figures, such as Senator Van Street and the Dodge County government, in an effort to resolve this problem.
An opportunity presented itself when the Heart of Georgia Regional Airport Authority was required to purchase some lands in mitigation of wetlands that they had disturbed in extending the runway for the Heart of Georgia Regional Airport. As a result of this, the airport authority had to buy some wetlands from Southern U.S. Timber Properties (Albert Glass) and as a condition of sale for the mitigated wetlands, Southern U.S. Timber Properties required them to buy and additional 25 acres of land adjoining the river. The Airport Authority was approached with the idea of conveying a portion of the additional lands, not involved in the wetland mediation, to Dodge County for the purposes of a boat ramp.
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