City swears in three for new council terms
Oakwood swore in one new councilman and two veteran council members to four-year terms Monday night.
Todd Wilson has started his first term on the council, taking the place of longtime former councilman Gary Anderson, who decided not to seek re-election Nov. 8.
Wilson won the seat without opposition.
Montie Robinson, who has been on the council since the 1970s, and Martha Collins, who joined in 2000, also took the oath of office. They also were elected without opposition.
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The new Georgia Poultry Laboratory Network headquarters won't be built off Oakwood Road in Oakwood as has been long planned.
Oakwood City Manager Stan Brown said Monday that he received an email around Christmas from a project manager saying that the planned $13.5 million building wouldn't be built on the site and that the state wanted a refund of sewer connection fees.
"I told them that as soon as I tally up how much we've already spent (on the sewer project), we'll have a conversation," Brown said, speaking after Monday night's City Council meeting.
The council didn't discuss the matter during the meeting, but Brown had noted in his written monthly report to the council that the city was awaiting access to property from Audubon Crest Apartments as part of the sewer project.
Brown said he doesn't know the poultry lab's new location.
Work was set to start in August on the new laboratory on the same site as the current building, which opened in the early 1960s.
The plan was to demolish part of the old building, with employees working out of the rest of the old building until new offices were completed. The new building was expected to be finished in the fall of 2012.
The current building, which is close to the recently opened four-lane Thurmon Tanner Parkway in Oakwood, has 29,000 square feet.
But as of August 2010, when plans of the new building were revealed, the building was using only 19,000 square feet. At the time, much of the remaining space, saddled with several structural and other issues, had been condemned.
Brown said that despite the change in plans, the city plans to go forward on extending sewer to the site.
"At some point, there'll be a need for sewer for that property. If it's not (the poultry lab), it'll be somebody else," he said.