One roundabout on hold; City of Moultrie approves 2 new ones

May 5—MOULTRIE — A "mini-roundabout" project the Georgia Department of Transportation planned for South Main Street has been paused, but the Moultrie City Council has decided to move forward on two others.

The Moultrie City Council discussed the projects during its work session Tuesday evening.

City Manager Pete Dillard introduced the roundabout construction to the council in August 2022. He said the two most dangerous intersections on a state route within the city limits were South Main Street at Fourth Avenue and South Main at Lower Meigs Road.

Greg Monfort, the director of the Moultrie Engineering Department, told the council at that time that the city and GDOT had been working for more than two years on plans for a roundabout at South Main and Fourth Avenue.

It was supposed to be a quick response project of $200,000 or less, Montfort said Tuesday, but due to the state's right-of-way requirements constructor plans have been postponed.

City officials are unsure when the South Main Street at Fourth Avenue roundabout project will progress, but they proposed two other roundabouts on city streets.

The City of Moultrie currently maintains seven traffic-light intersections. Monfort said those traffic-light signals could be replaced with roundabouts in the near future.

On Tuesday, council members approved a $457,486 bid from Green's Backhoe, Inc. of Thomasville to kickstart the project by creating roundabouts at two intersections: Fifth Avenue Southeast at First Street and Fifth Avenue Southeast at Second Street.

"When I realized that the state had to pull back on the South Main and Fourth Avenue at First Baptist, we went ahead and proceeded with our plan to get these first two started," Monfort said after Tuesday's meeting.

After the two roundabouts are installed, the city plans to review traffic response before moving forward with the other five city-managed roundabout installations, Montfort said.

A large roundabout is on Spence Field, dating back to its days as a military base. Three other roundabouts have been built in Moultrie since 2010: Fourth Avenue at Rowland Drive and County Farm Road; North Main Street at First Street and Sylvester Highway; and Highway 37 East at Cool Springs Road and Industrial Drive.

Other actions taken

Dillard asked the council to consider a potential alcohol ordinance change.

"Our current ordinance says you can serve [alcohol] until one o'clock [a.m.], and everybody has to be out at two o'clock [a.m.] but everybody's pushing it. I would like to change the ordinance to that we serve until midnight and have everybody out by one [a.m.]," Dillard told the council.

The council did not vote on the matter but gave City Attorney Mickey Walker permission to begin the drafting process.

Council members considered final approval of two other ordinances.

In the first, the council approved an amendment to the "Cross-Connection Control and Backflow Prevention Ordinance." Electric Department Director Elvira Gibson told the council the change was to ensure language suggested by the Environmental Protection Agency was recorded.

The second ordinance finished the council members' vote to remap the city's voting districts. Council members and city staff initially discussed the redistricting Tuesday, Sept. 20, after the city received a recommendation from the Southwest Georgia Regional Commission.

The 2020 Census showed population changes in each of the city's three districts. None of the changes alter how many representatives each district has, but it will change what areas each council member represents.

"We have a population decrease in District 1, a population decrease in District 3 and an increase in District 2," City Manager Pete Dillard said following the April 18 meeting.

The city voting districts are involved only in municipal elections. Three city council seats and the mayor's post will be up for election in 2023.

The council approved the following items in a consent agenda with a vote 6-0:

* The consideration of an annual memorandum of understanding with the Colquitt County Archway Partnership.

* A review of the Georgia Municipal Association District 10 Officers for the 2023-2024 election ballot.

* The implementation of the Moultrie Reserve Policy as recommended following a credit analysis from S&P Global. The private banking company headquartered in Manhattan, New York, assigned an "AA-" rating to the City of Moultrie based on its existing revenue bonds.

* A funding consideration in the amount of $312,500 for the Spence Field Runway Rehab Phase 2. The project is funded by the SPLOST 2019 and the TSPLOST 2022 funds along with Colquitt County contributions.

The next scheduled council meeting is Tuesday, May 16, at 6 p.m.