Received today; he sent it to all the Commissioners. -jsq
James Manes 107 Shiloh Rd. Ray City, GA 31605
Regarding Regular session held Jan 22, 2013; Agenda 7 B, a request for road abandonment, I would like to state my opinion.
The road abandonment was to close a section of County Road 16 Old State Road. I feel this issue is not a open and shut case.
The county has determined “the road has been ceased to be used by the public”, and has no “substantial public purpose”.
I am aware the law (32-7-2 a) states “The department must confer with the governing authority of the county’s or municipalities (Unincorporated Naylor GA.), and give due consideration to their wishes in such abandonment.”
I have not been able to find any public records of
road usage monitoring, and I strongly feel that the local community was not asked their opinion on this matter.
Regarding “Usage by Citizens”
This road is used by numerous citizens of Naylor GA., and citizens of the surrounding communities as it dead ends into the Alapaha River.
A local petition gathered almost 250 signatures in a matter of days to keep this road open.
This is the only public road in Lowndes County with Alapaha river access.
Regarding “Substantial Public Purpose”
I have reviewed the audio / video tape of the Jan 22 meeting, and on record council members were regarding the road as “dead ending into a stream”.
As stated above, the public road leads to the “Alapaha River”.
This “river” meets the requirements to be a protected river by GA law 391-3-16-.04 section (i), as the river annually flows more than the required 400 cubic feet per second (This fact is documented by US Geological Surveys), and section (m) should have a county maintained 150 ft. buffer or “protective corridor”, from the tops of the riverbank horizontally on both sides of the river.
This road is used for access to the river by local citizens for family and outdoor recreational purposes in this protected area.
With the amount of concerned citizens having already signing the petition only a matter of days, (and this is the winter, most people who use the road for river access use it in the spring and summer and may not even realize it is about to be closed), and the evidence documenting the importance of this “RIVER”, I hope Lowndes County Board of Commissioners will reconsider closing this road.
Thank You,
James Manes
Lowndes County Tax Payer.
Update 2013-02-27: Fixed name in headline.
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