Blackshear City Council discussed and/or voted on the following during their monthly regular meeting held on April 8.
Public Hearing-City Park Renovations: The Blackshear City council convened 15 minutes early for public comments regarding the proposed renovations to Blackshear City Park. Mayor Brooks called the hearing to order and silence reigned. Despite numerous comments on social media no one signed up to offer views for or against the proposed updates to the park. The special hearing was adjourned at 5:50pm for lack of participation.
LMIG bid awarded: The council unanimously approved awarding the Local Maintenance Improvement Grant (LMIG) project bid to the Scruggs Company as previously recommended by the city’s civil engineering firm, Hofstadter and Associates. The Scruggs Company bid totaled approximately $156,356.
New BPD firearms: The city council approved declaring the police department’s current model 17 Glock handguns as surplus units to be replaced by Glock 45 COA A-cut.
The new weapons will be purchased via no-bid state contract pricing from Ed’s Public Safety, Inc. of Stockbridge. Police Chief Chris Wright made the recommendation.
The total cost of the new weapons is $14,640. The surplus weapons will be used either as trade-ins toward the purchase of the new ones or sold to BPD officers for $275 each.
Surplus equipment: Various pieces of surplus equipment were unanimously approved to be listed for sale on the www.govdeals.com website. Items include an old forklift, two 2017 Ford Explorer Interceptors and an 18x21 metal shelter.
Department Reports Blackshear Police Dept. Report: BPD reported 19 vehicular accidents in the month of March, two with injuries. Ten warnings, 77 citations and four ordinance violations were recorded. There were also 15 arrests in March, 11 adults and 4 juveniles.
Blackshear Volunteer Fire Dept. Report: BFD responded to 38 dispatched calls in March. BFD workers and volunteers completed 276 cumulative total hours of activities and training. BFD responded to two instances of outside rubbish/ trash fires and issued warnings.
Public Works Dept: Last month, the department conducted two water and sewer locates, six water service repairs, five sewer service repairs and conducted 80 leak checks, locating 68. There were also 10 read checks, 13 close outs, 54 cut offs, 35 cut back on and 17 new customers connected in March.
The department replaced a meter, a meter box and a meter lid. One incident of consumer tampering occurred during the reporting period. Public works also performed weekly solid waste removal and disbursement at the landfill, replaced damaged street signs, conducted routine cleaning of storm drains, repaired potholes and performed routine grass maintenance at the cemetery.
Main Street Program: The Better Hometown (BHT) report recorded $10,516 in operational expenses for the month of March. Fifty volunteer hours were used for the Horseshoe Road Yardsale. Attendance at the yearly event was estimated to be approximately 1,000. One other event of note was the sale of O’Dean’s to Jason Hersey for $125,000 as the new home of the soon to be relocated J. Leonard’s fine dining establishment.
Attendance: Mayor Keith Brooks, city attorney Adam Ferrell and the entire city council with the exception of council member Corey Lesseig (District 5) were in attendance.
Next meeting: The council will hold its next work session 4:30 p.m. Tuesday, May 6 and its next regular meeting 6 p.m. Tuesday, May 13.
