Through an agreement with Carroll County, paving will begin Monday in the Dogwood Trace subdivision, where homeowners have been seeking the city’s help for several years regarding its roads and other issues associated with the developer’s absence.
“It’s been the desire of myself and the council to address these issues with roads that have not been topped for a long time,” Mayor J. Collins said. “We understand the frustration on the part of some of our constituents and we want our constituents to understand that what was created was the perfect storm where you had financial institution that went out of business, you had developers that went broke, bonds that were no good, some lapsed, some didn’t. It’s just been a variety of issues.”
City officials met with Carroll County Board of Commissioners Chairman Bill Chappell and Public Works Director Charles Pope to discuss the possibility of the county helping get some of the roads paved in these subdivisions. Chappell agreed to provide the equipment and labor in exchange for the city funding the asphalt and fuel costs associated with the paving.
A total of $127,000 was approved Tuesday by the council to be taken out of SPLOST funds that were earmarked for another project that will not be complete this year to finish paving the roads in Dogwood Trace — which the county has already agreed to do — as well as Bay Springs East and one road in the Reserve at Reid Plantation.
“We rode around the Dogwood Trace and Bay Springs East subdivisions with Chairman Chappell and his roads superintendent last week and checked out the roads that had not been topped off,” City Manager Larry Wood said. “Their roads superintendent got back with me after that meeting and told me their estimates for buying the asphalt. What they want us to do is pay for the asphalt and the fuel their equipment will use and they provide the manpower and equipment to actually spread the asphalt down.”
According to Wood, the Dogwood Trace project would have cost the city about $100,000 if it had been contracted out, but with the partnership with the county it will cost about $60,000 — a savings of 40 percent.
Collins said he’s also reached out to Douglas County Commission Chairman Tom Worthan about entering into a similar agreement to top the roads in the Northwoods and Southwoods subdivisions of the Mirror Lake community. Though Worthan had yet to agree, Collins said he did express interest in doing so and was planning to meet with his county manager and transportation director about the request.
“He expressed a lot of interest and he felt that Douglas County could do the same thing for our residents there,” Collins said.
If an agreement is indeed reached with Douglas County, the council approved using $120,000 for the Douglas County paving that would have gone into the city’s reserve account.
Villa Rica and the County should find the developer or their assets and get a full reimbursement for these road projects.
I can just see Miss Vicki screaming now that Fairfield Plantation's roads should be repaved next!
How can the Villa Rica City Council or anyone else decide to divert voter approved SPLOST funds from the voter approved SPLOST project list to projects that were not voter approved?
Also, isn't the repaving of roads considered an "operating expedeniture" as opposed to a "capital improvements expenditure" as is required for SPLOST funds?
Too often and in too many cases, elected officials are using SPLOST funds for operating expenses way different for which they were originally intended.
I think Villa Rica might be setting themselves up for a lawsuit here. They might want to reconsider these repaving projects entirely.
Though these repaving projects are needed; Villa Rica's disregard for the prior voter approved SPLOST project list is the very type of behavior that will now cause many voters to reconsider how they will vote on the upcoming T-SPLOST referendum July 31st.