Toccoa Continues Planning on Street Project

The city of Toccoa continues to work on plans for a street re-surfacing project next year.

City commissioners discussed the latest on those plans with staff at a work session last week.

Toccoa City Manager Billy Morse said that the Public Works Department has gone and put together a proposal right now that would take care of necessary work on about 26 or so city streets next year using a combination of Local Maintenance and Improvement Grant money from the state and SPLOST VI money from local coffers.

According to Morse, about $126,000 will come from LMIG and up to $1 million will be available in SPLOST VI by next August.

The proposal presented last week would cost the city about $1 million.

Morse also said the city would request using KCI Technologies to oversee the project at a cost of 7.5 percent of the total project cost.

According to Morse, the estimated cost for the road work is based on DOT contractor figures.

He said that Stephens County has shown interest in perhaps taking on the work if possible with its road crews, which could save the city money.

Meanwhile, Toccoa City Commissioner Gail Fry also asked about the flexibility of the start date.

The available money cited in last week’s proposal was based on starting next August.

Fry said she would like to start it sooner if possible.

“If we wanted to do some of these projects earlier than August instead of waiting for the money, could we forward fund?” asked Fry.

“Sure,” said Morse.

Morse said that staff will continue to work on finalizing the proposal.

Among the streets on this proposal are Lovell Road and Lovell Circle, which were brought up by city residents at a recent meeting as roads that needed work.

Morse went on to say that another phase of road work is planned down the road to cover streets that would not be in this phase as more SPLOST VI revenue comes in.