County can’t find home for dumpsters

Grady County residents accustomed to dumping household garbage at a dumpster site located at the intersection of GA Hwy. 112 N. and Wilder Road will soon have to drive a little further to drop off their garbage.
Earlier this year the owner of the property where the dumpsters have been located for many years requested the county find another suitable site. County Administrator Rusty Moye told commissioners Tuesday night he has not been able to find another site for the dumpster to be moved.
Moye says the county will temporarily erect signs notifying residents of the nearest dump sites and will likely have to maintain the right-of-way there for some time until residents become aware the dumpsters will no longer be placed there.
In other business Tuesday night, the commissioners:
•Approved a suspension of the collection of the $30 fee called for in the county’s new business license ordinance. The county will not charge the fee for 2011, but the commission approved a suspension, not a deletion.
•Approved the purchase of a four span, 80 foot prestress bridge from Southern Concrete Construction of Albany for a total cost of $128,111. The new bridge will be installed on Lower Cairo Road to replace failed metal pipes. District 3 Commissioner Charles Norton recommended the county raise the road to prevent some of the flooding of the road during heavy rain events. Moye said he and Road Superintendent Yancey Maxwell would investigate the cost of raising the dirt road and would report back to the board. The county administrator said the bridge project could go forward regardless of whether the county decided to raise the road or not.
•Authorized the expenditure of $10,000 to buy a four-month option on a 258 acre tract in south Grady County owned by Kraft Farms to be used as wetland/stream bank mitigation property for the Tired Creek lake project. The decision to purchase the option was made following a brief closed door meeting with County Attorney Kevin S. Cauley. The board negotiated a four-month option so that similar options the county holds on other tracts in the county would all expire at the same time.
•Heard an update from Tired Creek consultant and project manager Wm. Thomas Craig’s office that he has transmitted the final updated version of the University of Georgia fishing study, which includes letters from the South Carolina and Georgia Department of Natural Resources chief of fisheries, to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. The Corps will now incorporate the study into the case document on the county’s lake permit application and will then send it to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency for final comment. County officials are hoping to have a decision on the Tired Creek permit application within the next four months.
•Approved the purchase of portable radios for both the Grady County Sheriff’s Office and the Volunteer Fire Department. The VFD equipment was tabled last meeting until it was determined if the radios would be functional once the new communications standards that require a narrowing of radio band width is implemented. The equipment for both the sheriff’s office and VFD are reprogrammable, according to Moye.