By Taelor Rye
The City of Eastman will hold an informational session on a potential roundabout for the city at city hall on Monday, December 14, city manager Bea Edge announced at the November 23 meeting of the Eastman City Council.
The informational session is not scheduled for a particular time yet, as the council is waiting for the Georgia Department of Transportation (GDOT) to inform them of a time that would work for its representatives. However, at 6:00 p.m., the council will have a regularly scheduled city council meeting.
The proposed roundabout would take the place of a caution light that currently sits at the intersection of Griffin Street and Legion Drive, beside the Dodge County Hospital.
Community response to the proposition has been mixed so far, as some citizens have shown support for the move while others have expressed hesitation and trepidation at the idea.
Eastman citizen Freddie Dwozan congratulated Edge and council member Milton Johnson for arranging the informational session but asked whether the GDOT was actually involved in the project.
Ultimately, Johnson responded that the project is a city project using state funding but not necessarily a GDOT project. Because of this fact, the informational session is not mandatory, but Johnson and the rest of the council felt as though still holding the session and involving the GDOT would prove beneficial.
Right now, because the proposed roundabout is still in very early stages, there are no specific plans or information regarding the roundabout.
Additionally, the informational session is purely an informational session and will not include a question-and-answer session from audience members, given that the plans for the roundabout have little development.
City council member Prince Dawson stated his own feelings on the roundabout, which were originally much different than they are now. Specifically, Dawson provided an anecdote about his own recent experience driving through a roundabout.
Humorously, Dawson relayed that, while visiting Liberty University in Virginia, he accidentally found himself at a roundabout, initially confused about the flow of traffic. However, once he was actually in the roundabout, he found that everything flowed smoothly.
“My perception and conception changed from having experienced it. The next day, I went back through it again, and the first time, it was like, I didn’t know—it was confusion. But the second time, it was so smooth. It was very easy,” Dawson stated.
He further opined that, once citizens experience going through a roundabout, they would find similar ease and understanding.
The city council meeting also saw the approval of occupational tax license fees for 2016.
Edge relayed that Eastman will have 379 business licenses for a total of $79,200.00 in taxes.
Beer and wine fees amount to $15,000.00 while bar cards total $6,000. Together, all three amount to $100,200.00, down $6,725.00 from the year prior.
All fees will remain the same for now, and Edge reported that the decrease was due to loss of business.
Johnson recommended to the rest of the council that the city reduce the fees for alcohol licenses, therefore encouraging more businesses to pursue that endeavor.
Johnson said, “Changing the price does not change any of the requirements for it. All it does is making more people potentially pursue it. If you’re trying to start a restaurant in order to sell alcohol, there are going to be a lot of folks who don’t make it too long” under the current fees.
The council agreed to think on this idea, and city council member Bobby Slye said that he thought that it was worth bringing it up again.
This lack of development statement and thus no public Q&A - from past presentations of development drawings appears to be inconsistent - Esp in light of the 12.09.15 same paper article that the size had been changed and there would be Q&A but nor public?