The most controversial part of that was the establishment of four-way stop intersections at Macon Road and County Line Road and South Sixth Street and County Line Road. The board voted 4-1 to set up the intersections, with Commissioner Bob Gilreath dissenting.
After County Manager William Wilson Jr. asked the board for direction about how to set up such intersections in the future, Gilreath announced his objections. He said Maj. Wendell Beam of the Spalding County Sheriff’s Office had not offered any reasons for why such an intersection was needed. He said the Georgia Department of Transportation had sent him a letter saying such things should not be done without an engineering study.
Lt. David Gibson of the Sheriff’s Office spoke in Beam’s stead, since Beam is on the firing range for the entire week. He said Beam made the recommendation after requests from Wilson and other county commissioners.
Gilreath said in 2008, there were no accidents at the intersection of South Sixth Street, so the four-way stop is not necessary.
Bobby Peurifoy, who serves on the Griffin-Spalding Area Transportation Committee, said he recommended four-way stops many times, particularly for County Line Road.
“That is a very dangerous intersection,” he said.
Gilreath said 4,580 cars use the South Sixth Street intersection every day and putting a stop there would inconvenience drivers. He asked Wilson how much the signs — solar-powered light-up signs — cost. Wilson said the four signs cost $1,700 each, for a total of $6,800. Gilreath repeated his criticism that this was done without a study.
“That sure is lax in my opinion,” he said.
Commissioner Eddie Freeman said Beam is qualified to make those kinds of recommendations.
“I think maybe we did the right thing,” he said.
Later, during the commissioners’ comments phase of the meeting, Gilreath suggested the $6,800 be removed from the Sheriff’s Office budget.
The commissioners also voted unanimously to create a school zone around Rehoboth Road Middle School in which the speed limit would be reduced to 25 mph from 7 to 8:30 a.m. and 2:45 to 4 p.m. The commissioners also voted to reduce the speed limit to 30 mph on Scott Avenue and Rosedale Street, reduce speed limits on parts of West Ellis Road from 35 mph to 25 mph, impose a 25 mph limit on Jonan Road, reduce speed limits from 55 mph to 45 mph on parts of Swint Road and impose a 25 mph speed limit on part of Timmons Drive.
The whole deal with putting them up and then taking them down, only to put them up again should be an embarrassment to the county commission but I guess they're used to that by now.