Railroad crossing ire tops county agenda

♦ Commissioners also are slated to meet with state legislative delegates about priorities for the coming session.

Several Hall Road residents fed up with being blocked in by trains are slated to go before the Floyd County Commission Tuesday.

The Silver Creek crossing at the dead-end road has been a bone of contention for years due to the unpredictable and often lengthy stops of NorfolkSouthern trains.

Melody Harris and her daughter, Kasey Friday, want to publicly voice their concerns about the potential safety hazards and inconveniences.

The family couldn’t get out for Thanksgiving dinner at a relative’s house because a train was stopped for hours. And Friday, who recently gave birth, said access for emergency responders is a bigger issue, especially with elderly neighbors on the street.

County Manager Jamie McCord has said there are efforts to work with Norfolk-Southern on the problem. The county has looked at building a secondary access. However, the presence of wetlands and the absence of funding are affecting a resolution.

Commissioners are slated to hear from Friday and Harris during their regular session, set for 6 p.m. in the County Administration Building, 12 E. Fourth Ave.

The meeting and the 4 p.m. pre-meeting caucus at 4 p.m. are public, as is the swearing-in ceremony set for 3:45 p.m.

Three commissioners — Rhonda Wallace, Larry Maxey and Scotty Hancock — are slated to take oaths of office at the start of their new four-year terms. The board already voted unanimously last month to name Hancock as the chair for 2019 and Commissioner Wright Bagby Jr. as vice chair.

Tuesday is the first meeting of the year. The agenda includes a number of annually adopted resolutions confirming the county manager, county attorney, county auditor and banks of record.

Commissioners also are scheduled to take up a namechange for the Shannon Recreation Center and discuss the pricing of training center equipment at the Floyd County Jail. A multi-milliondollar expansion of the jail medical facilities is beginning with the relocation of the training center to new construction in front of the facility.

Much of the pre-meeting caucus will be a presentation of local priorities to the county’s state legislative delegation. All four lawmakers — Sen. Chuck Hufstetler and Reps. Katie Dempsey, Eddie Lumsden and Mitchell Scoggins — have been invited.

The Georgia General Assembly’s 40-day session starts Jan. 14.