Hall County is looking to contract with Gainesville firm Moreland Altobelli Associates to study a possible realignment of Howard Road from Ga. 365 to White Sulphur Road.
“We have been working with property owners up there to realign this road and shape the grade where big trucks (from area industries) can get up and down safer than what’s there now,” said Ken Rearden, Hall’s public works director at Monday’s meeting of the Hall County Board of Commissioners. Property owners “have allowed us ... to go in and do some surveying and further engineering to determine the costs of the realignment,” he said.
Also, Hall would “see if we can get some partnerships” with Gainesville and the Georgia Department of Transportation on the project, Rearden said.
Gainesville has been working with the DOT and RaceTrac, which has a convenience store at Ga. 365 and Howard Road, to make improvements at that intersection. A new traffic signal started operating there in late October.
Work on that project began after public outcry over multiple wrecks at the intersection.
The DOT had planned only flashing yellow lights and new lane striping because a study had shown the intersection did not meet any of the thresholds for installing a signal, officials said. But public interest in the intersection heightened after an April 28 crash that killed Anna Hermansen of Clayton.
Commissioner Scott Gibbs said Kubota Manufacturing Co., which sits off Ramsey Road and Ga. 365, and other industries just north of Howard Road “are going to try to require their (vehicles) to use Howard Road rather than Ramsey Road.
“So Howard Road will become the main artery out there.”
The contract with Moreland Altobelli would cost $65,296, with the county’s share coming from special purpose local option sales tax money. Project costs would be split with Gainesville.
“We’ve had a number of conversations with Gainesville and both the city and county understand the importance of trying to address those safety issues,” County Administrator Randy Knighton said.
The commission is set to vote Thursday on the contract.
Moreland Altobelli estimates “completion of the survey base map within three weeks,” according to an Oct. 31 document from the firm. “A preliminary design will be presented within an additional six weeks.”
Cafeteria opens on fourth floor of government center
Oakwood Occasions opened in the cafeteria on the fourth floor of the Hall County Government Center Monday morning and will serve breakfast and lunch Mondays through Fridays.
Danella Burnett, the business’ owner, said the cafe will be open
between 7:30 a.m. and 2 p.m. to Hall County employees and the public.
Oakwood Occasions’ cafe serves as an intern site for students enrolled in Hall County Schools’ “Project Success,” a program focused on implementing “employability and daily living skills to students with certain challenges,” according to a press release from county spokeswoman Katie Crumley.
One student from Lanier Charter Career Academy’s hospitality program also is serving as an intern in the cafe.
A daily menu will be available on the first floor of the government building.
The county’s lease with Oakwood Occasions will net the county about $12,000 a year, plus a $5,000 nonrefundable deposit.
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