The Putnam County Board of Commissioners met on March 19 and the public question period drew comments from Barbara Vargo, asking commissioners to consider allowing additional structures to be built on a property without requiring an exemption request, so long as the property is large enough to accommodate them.
“I would like somebody to consider instead of the size of the house, the size of the property,” she said. “Some of us definitely need more storage and I don’t want to keep the storage units going.”
Vargo was immediately followed at the public podium by her husband and former District 1 commissioner candidate Bill Vargo, who said with the present three-minute time limit for each public commenter, sometimes not enough time is available to cover all concerns – especially if several issues exist within a given proposal or action.
“It really should be broken down by issue. If I want to talk about four issues in Chapter 28, I should be able to have three minutes to speak about each one in Chapter 28,” Vargo suggested. “If we’ve got six issues in (Chapter) 32 we want to talk about, we should be able to talk six times.”
Vargo was referring to proposed changes to Chapters 28, 32, and 66 of the Putnam County Code of Ordinances, which address development trends and an attempt to simultaneously get in front of some new uses taking place in the county, as well as modernizing existing fire safety regulations.
His suggestion of three minutes to address each item was not very popular, mostly based on meeting time constraints; however, Vargo did receive some support from an unlikely source when Steve Hersey, who won the District 1 seat over him last November, expressed support followed by a suggestion.
“I am in full agreement with Mr. Vargo in that there is a lot of material here. There are a lot of changes in different areas,” Hersey said. “To me, either we need to amend the rules and allow people to speak to each agenda item in that public hearing, or as an alternative, I would suggest that maybe we have more than one public hearing.”
Commission Chairman Bill Sharp then called for a verbal vote for an amendment to schedule two public meetings dealing separately with Chapter 32 and another for Chapters 28 and 66, which passed unanimously, but dates have not yet been established.
Next, Putnam resident Mike Judy addressed the commission, asking for a speed limit reduction from 55 mph to 45 mph on Parks Mill Road in the northeast part of the county. Judy claimed the road has essentially become “a north-south thoroughfare,” with a lot of sand-and-gravel and other construction-type trucks using it as an alternate route to I-20 and destinations in Morgan County.
Putnam County Sheriff Howard Sills then explained the commissioners have the ability and authority to lower the speed limit; however, he and his deputies may not be able to enforce the lower limit.
“If you do lower the speed limit, we have to ask DOT to add that on our license and sometimes they won’t because they determine that the terrain and the angles and the curves and things like that are unsuitable for radar enforcement,” Sills said.
“I just want people to understand that (lowering the speed limit) is not going to be a panacea because one, our ability to enforce it may not even happen until DOT approves and I’ve been waiting on DOT for four months just to approve Flock cameras,” the sheriff added later. “You’re talking about the state government here and it can be a slow roll.”
The commission eventually decided to authorize County Manager Paul Van Haute to station a solar-powered Speed-OMeter alongside Parks Mill Road to conduct a multi-week study to gather average speed data before moving forward with any speed limit changes.
Next to speak was Karen Garrett, among the leading proponents for the repair and resurrection of Jimmy Davis Park, who pointed out that despite expressing sincere interest she was left off a citizens’ committee for addressing park issues going forward.
“You want to have your say now when we’ve gotten to the point where there is something to talk about and we’ve achieved something,” Garrett specifically told Commissioner Daniel Brown, who assembled the committee. “But I would also like to be on the next bit where the board now has those opportunities again to give that input and to say what it is that we managed to achieve during that time and how much we want it to go further.”
After describing the work already put into Jimmy Davis Park, Brown named his personally selected advisory committee, including Patricia Hurt, Annie Bishop Lacoy Brown, David Vester Jr., and Eatonton City Councilwoman Janie Reed.
“The people involved have really done an excellent job in getting us to this point that we are currently in with Jimmy Davis Park, and I am so proud I can see all that I desired for Jimmy Davis Park materializing,” Brown said in announcing the committee.
The commission will hold a public hearing at 10 a.m. April 5 to address the proposed adoption of changes to the Putnam County Code of Ordinances, Chapter 32, Fire Protection and Prevention.