Commissioners will take up the issue at their Tuesday meeting.
The new employees will work for the county Department of Transportation, primarily to work on sidewalks that are part of the 2011 SPLOST program, said Dan McDuff, deputy transportation director.
The total budget item will cost the county $602,000 per year. Bill Shelton, Cobb DOT road maintenance division manager, said that includes salaries, equipment and concrete.
The six workers will be paid between $21,000 and $31,000 annually, not including benefits, Shelton said. The money is being transferred from SPLOST funds into the DOT’s operating budget.
McDuff said the county is hiring the workers to build sidewalks because it will save money. McDuff said using county workers will cost around $125,000 a mile, compared to $300,000 for contractors. This will allow the county to install nine more miles of sidewalk over the four-year SPLOST.
Still, the county is not abandoning contractors for the sidewalk projects. McDuff said it plans to spend $8.4 million on contractor-led projects, compared to $2 million for sidewalks using county crews.
Certain jobs require contractors, McDuff said.
“If there are lots of walls, lots of grading, things like that, we would certainly like to go to a contractor,” he said.
The county will also have a public hearing on the closure of Turner Road east of Barrett Parkway, located off Macland Road in west Cobb. Commissioner Helen Goreham, who represents the area that includes the road, said West Cobb Funeral Home is asking the county close and abandon the public right-of-way on the road in order to expand, possibly adding a parking lot.
“It’s needed from a development standpoint,” Goreham said. “That part of Turner Road is not functional and doesn’t connect to anything.”
McDuff said Turner Road basically became a dead-end street once it was split up due to the construction of Barrett Parkway. At one point, the part of Turner Road that’s up for closure had mobile homes located on it, but the trailers are now all located west of Barrett Parkway.
“There’s really no purpose to the road,” he said.
Public hearings are required any time a county road is closed, McDuff said.
The Board of Commissioners meeting is scheduled for 7 p.m. Tuesday in their second floor meeting room at 100 Cherokee St. in Marietta.
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BUT i am totally against the TSPLOST because it is a boondoggle...Cobb County got the short end of the stick and frankly the project list is a rip off for much of metro atlanta. VOTE No on it in July...and also vote TIM LEE OUT too.
Do yourself a favor and look elsewhere.
If Splost money can be used as salaries to the same end, which is a transportation department project, and it can be done through a series of tranparent and legally correct motions, I think it is worth moving the money out of the 'per se splost budget' and into into the salary budget. If it is an example of the county ultimately saving taxpayer money, then government should be applauded for creatively, and legally and tranparently doing so.
If it can be done in the case of sidewalks, (again legally and as fiscally sound means to a taxpayer savings end), THEN THE COBB COUNTY SCHOOL BOARD SHOULD TAKE NOTE AND DO THE SAME! CCSD should get that $300K manuevered back to the teachers' salaries.
Cobb county citizens whose homes are not protected due to retention ponds not in compliance... maybe also a group of people who will work diligantly to protect homeowners from developers like DDR who come in, rezone areas that should not be rezoned, and then take advantage of the laws that Cobb county commissioners should be following when approving these rezonings.... OR maybe even spend the money on a watchdog group that makes sure the commissioners are voting on things that have been FULLY disclosed and not misrepresented. (ie Sandy Plains Village shopping center) District 3.....
program.
Whenever possible, developers will be encouraged to construct sidewalk along the right-ofway abutting their developments. The pathway program takes pedestrian access one step further by
providing safe, convenient access to activity centers such as schools, park, and shopping centers in an effort to encourage pedestrian and non-motorized vehicular travel.
translation: get of your fat butt and drive less
Some of us enjoy getting out for a good, safe walk!