It is sorta like the crew of the Titanic backing the ship up to run over the iceberg a second time.
In this case it was the Engineering Committee doubling down and attempting to vote to approve the work on Broad Street that had already begun. I say “work,” but what they are really doing is clear-cutting down virtually every tree on Augusta’s main drag and reducing the number of parking spaces by at least 170 spaces.
No one, it seems, consulted the business owners or the public at large before they brought out the chain saws and paving equipment. The Engineering Department insists they held meetings and no one came; but, they are loath to admit that said meetings were never publicized, so the business owners likely didn’t know the meetings were being held.
A quick check of our main email box for The Augusta Press shows no press releases sent notifying of a meeting being scheduled.
When asked why so many parking spaces were being removed, when people are already parking on the median islands and having to walk four blocks to get to their destination, Augusta Traffic Engineer John Ussery gamely stated that even without the bike paths, the city would still lose around 170 spaces because cars are much bigger than they were 40 years ago.
I beg to differ.
Modern cars or SUVs may seem bigger than they were in the past, but a new Ford F-150 truck measures 209 inches, meanwhile a 1975 Chrysler Imperial measured 232 inches with a width of virtually the same; otherwise, using Ussery’s logic, Calhoun Expressway, which was built in the 1970s, should be obsolete because cars are too big to fit in the lanes.
When it came to the new bike lanes, Ussery admitted he was from California and didn’t understand why the public wasn’t supportive of adding bike lanes to the detriment of parking spaces.
“People are not going to ride their bikes from Hephzibah, where I live,” Commissioner Wayne Guilfoyle said during the meeting.
It may come as a cultural shock to Ussery, but most Southerners prefer grits over granola, Subarus over Schwinns and we have laws against using the public sidewalks as a campgrounds and public toilets.
Commissioner Jordan Johnson, whose district includes Broad Street stated he was getting angry calls and emails from business owners that road construction downtown has already gone on for years and the Engineering Department can’t settle on a completion date.
Johnson’s suggestion was that crews work day and night, around the clock, until the work is finished.
I’m sure that the folks in Olde Towne will be just fine with chainsaws and jackhammers going full blast outside of their windows as they are turning in for the night.
Of course, no one on the dias asked how much all of this was costing the city. The upshot is that, earlier, the commission wrote the Engineering Department a blank check to go along with the state funding for a project that seems to change week-to-week with no end date in sight and they are just getting around to asking questions.
Before the vote to accept the plan could occur, Commissioner Don Clarke suggested that the commission talk to the business owners before putting on a stamp of approval.
While this certainly seems like a good idea, I might remind the commission that by the time they are able to vote on the matter, which is the end of May, the Broad Street trees will be long gone, and any changes made to the number of parking spaces will mean change orders that will only cost the taxpayers more money.
Actually, removing the trees has placed into view things most people haven’t noticed before because of the canopy. An unobstructed view shows just how neglected some of the buildings on Broad Street have become with some buildings having trees growing out of the rooftops.
It is also noticeable that the same Engineering Department in charge of the current debacle felt it necessary to place six, yes six, one-way warning signs on one city block alone.
Someone would have to be blind in one eye and drunk as a Billy goat with their headlights on dim to miss those signs, and this, I remind, was for one block.
The Engineering Department is also cutting corners in areas that make the entire plan look like an ametuer effort.
The “improvements” to the sidewalks in Olde Towne include sections that have been painted to look like ornate red brick work. Rather than look classy, it looks like the background on a child’s coloring book and will likely look even worse in a year when the sun bleaches out the paint.
All the city needs to do next is demolish the houses in Olde Towne and replace them with double wide trailers, so that Augusta can truly be known as the redneck capital of the South.
The passing of Rep. Ben Harbin
My condolences and prayers go out to the family of former State Rep. Ben Harbin, who passed away last week.
Harbin has been off of the political front pages for several years after accepting a lobbying position in Atlanta, but when he was in office, he was a legislative powerhouse.
Fifteen years ago, I approached Harbin after I learned there was a statute of limitations on child rape in Georgia. The statute called for a seven year cut off for prosecution of child predation.
Harbin realized that this was a change in law that could not wait the usual three to five years to wind its way through the legislative process and found a way to get the language added to the Judicial Reform Act of 2010.
This change in law has meant justice for thousands of victims and might give predators pause that the crime they are attempting to commit has no end date for prosecution.
A lot of what Harbin accomplished was done outside of the glare of news cameras, he was a true public servant and he will be missed.
Scott Hudson is the Senior Investigative Reporter, Editorial Page Editor and weekly columnist for The Augusta Press. Reach him at scott@theaugustapress.com
