Residents ask county for help with road repairs in Graysville subdivision
Residents in Graysville’s Stonebrooke subdivision have asked Catoosa County commissioners for help with much-needed repairs of their private roads.
During the Jan. 21 Board of Commissioner’s meeting, resident Bill Will, who lives on Georgetown Drive, spoke on behalf of the Stonebrooke Home Owner’s Association (HOA) about not only the road upgrades needed in the neighborhood, but also the fact that a lot of folks living in that community were unaware that they would need to keep up the road when they moved into the subdivision.
“We’re a neighborhood of about 50 households of fixed income — mostly retirees or new homeowners,” Will said. “There are about 30 kids in our neighborhood, most of which go to Graysville Elementary. We love Catoosa County and want to keep it one of the best places to live in the area, but we’re finding ourselves in a pickle. The original developer of our neighborhood did not fulfill his obligation and properly pave our roads to county specifications.”
Will claims he and several others in the HOA were not informed of their responsibilities related to the upkeep involved with private roads.
“When we bought our homes, we didn’t understand that our roads were private, meaning that each homeowner was responsible for maintaining the roads,” Will said. “At our closings, some of us weren’t even aware that we had to join an HOA. Now, we find ourselves with a very modest amount of money in our account and more potholes and alligator cracks and loose gravel than we can possibly fix on our own.”
Will said local developer and businessman Rodney Waters did some work on the roads, but that there are more trouble spots that need to be addressed.
“Rodney Waters went the extra mile at his own expense and paved the roads in front of his lots up to county specs,” Will explained. “Commissioner Cutler has helped us piece together how we got here in the first place and guided us on how to present our case to you all and we’re thankful for that.”
Will added that the HOA has plans to discuss the matter with local developer Emerson Russell to see if there’s any way he can advise them on this situation.
Because Will’s request for help was part of public appearances portion of the meeting, and not a planned agenda item, commissioners didn’t immediately have any feedback on the situation, but did say they would be in touch with Will and his HOA regarding the matter.
“It may be that we find ourselves before you again imploring you (commissioners) to help us repair the roads of Stonebrooke,” Will said. “You might be our greatest ally of all.”
The city of Fort Oglethorpe recently approved the contract for its annual city audit and announced a change on when it will pick up brush and bulk items from residents.
During the Jan. 13 City Council meeting, Interim City Manager Mike Helton explained the city’s annual audit regarding the finances for 2019.
“The city of course has its financial practices reviewed by a professional audit firm,” Helton said. “That firm for a number of years has been Johnson Hickey & Murchison. Staff does recommend that that firm be allowed to conduct our audit again involving 2019 financial practices of the city.”
Helton explained that the agreement is a pretty standard contract, and that the cost will be the same as it was in 2019 for the 2018 audit.
“They did not increase the amount this year, it’s the same as last year, and that is not to exceed the amount of $21,600,” Helton said. “Those funds are budgeted for yearly in your budget.”
The council unanimously approved the agreement. Afterwards, Helton also spoke about changes made to the city’s brush and bulk trash pick-up schedule.
“A number of citizens, approximately 1,800 households, were notified in late
December with a notice in the mail,” Helton said. “A good number of citizens saw it and have been calling in asking for clarification. We wanted to make sure that citizens knew that some dates have changed when it comes to their trash and brush — not necessarily their household garbage can trash, but the other items that you would pick up on the side of the road, the larger items.”
Helton said all the new information has been placed on the city’s website, and that calendars have been drafted to let the public know when pick-up will happen for each street in the city.
According to the schedule, the pickup for brush and bulk items will run once every other week on a rotating basis.
The notice also identifies items that will not be picked up via the service, such as: tree limbs over five feet in length or four inches in diameter, stumps, chemicals, paint, items in liquid form, tires, batteries, box springs, mattresses, roofing shingles, building rubbish, and refrigerators or freezers with compressors on them.
Helton said the details of the change and the calendar schedules are also on the website at fortogov.com under services.
“Just so people are aware — the changes are there on the website if you want to look,” Helton said.