Oakwood is gearing up to rebuild a 1-mile stretch of Old Oakwood Road between Mundy Mill and Mountain View roads.

The project will cost about $200,000, with the city using $45,000 in local maintenance grants from the Georgia Department of Transportation.

The city's 1 percent special purpose local option sales tax program will pay for the remaining cost, Oakwood City Manager Stan Brown said.

He discussed the project Tuesday morning at a meeting of the Gainesville-Hall Metropolitan Planning Organization's Policy Committee.

The project, which must be finished by April 30 and will end at the city limits, involves a "reclamation" effort.

"It's a lot more environmentally sensitive in that you're not disposing raw material," Brown said.
"You're basically putting the material right back in place."

He said, "We'll be glad to have others come take a look at the process."

In other business at the committee meeting, Srikanth Yamala, transportation planning manager for the MPO, updated the committee on the proposed 1 percent sales tax for transportation, which goes before voters July 31.

The committee meets quarterly and so, when the group met last, government leaders throughout the 13-county Georgia Mountains region that includes Hall were still putting together a final list for voters to consider.

That process officially ended Oct. 15, as required by the state law that enabled the referendum to take place.

The vote will take place statewide but will be approved or turned down in each of 12 designated regions.

If it is approved in the Georgia Mountains region, Hall County could receive $300 million over 10 years for regional projects.

Another $62 million would be distributed to Hall County and city governments to spend as they see fit.

Before the committee's next meeting on March 13, the MPO staff will work with the governments "to make sure we have a plan as to how (the $62 million) will be spent on transportation," Yamala told the committee.

"Remember, the (regional) project list ... has been locked (in) and no changes are allowed to be made," he said. "And right now, there is some campaigning and education going on (toward the vote)."

The Greater Hall Chamber of Commerce's board of directors voted last week to endorse the referendum and to promote its passage.