The Augusta Commission weighs in on a new convenience store, naming city facilities for former leaders, converting a condemned motel to apartments and more at its Tuesday meeting.
The commission is scheduled to consider:
- Mayor Garnett Johnson has issued a proclamation to honor Raven Allen Tuesday for her silver medal in kayaking at the Berlin Special Olympics.
- Subdivision plats adding 37 townhomes by Diamond Lakes Regional Park and 74 lots at Wedgewood subdivision on Peach Orchard Road.
- Rezoning 210 Reservation Way, the former Ramada Augusta Fort Gordon, to convert the 150-room motel to studio apartments. The motel was condemned in 2019 based on crime and unhealthy conditions.
- Construction of a Parker’s Kitchen convenience store at the site of the former Wells Fargo Bank on Wheeler Road, by Doctors Hospital. Commissioner Catherine Smith McKnight has questioned the proposal.
- Naming the Augusta Utilities building at 452 Walker St. for former Utilities Director Tom Wiedmeier, who died of COVID-19 in 2020.
- Naming a baseball field at Diamond Lakes for former Commissioner Andy Cheek, who died in March.
- Holding a work session with “every department that participates” in any type of right-of-way maintenance, including the Richmond County Correctional Institution, which provides prison labor, and Augusta 311, which refers maintenance requests.
- McKnight’s requests to add hiring a city arborist to the workshop discussion and to replace the irrigation system in the Henry Street median.
- Hiring Pond Maintenance to take on right-of-way maintenance currently assigned to Augusta Parks and Recreation. Owned by Allen Odom, Pond was the second-lowest of two successful bidders for the work, expected to cost $400,000 annually.
- Awarding a contract to Developmental Associates LLC of Chapel Hill, N.C., to manage the search for Augusta’s next administrator.
- Approving the Augusta Economic Development Authority’s issue of up to $275 million in revenue bonds for Wellstar to build and equip medical facilities owned by the university system.
