New emergency notice system and Rosa Parks work coming By JIM GAINES — jgaines@macon Hurrying through an election night meeting, Macon City Council passed all six of its agenda items in 14-0 votes, with little discussion.Councilman Lonnie Miley was absent.Under a resolution sponsored by the mayor’s office, the Macon-Bibb County Urban Development Authority will get two parcels of city-owned land, totaling about nine-tenths of an acre, next to the current site of the Tubman African American Museum at 340 Walnut St.The UDA already is slated to take possession of the old Tubman building within 30 days of when the museum moves to its new site on Cherry Street, perhaps in early 2015. Now all three parcels will be marketed together, with the UDA keeping 10 percent of any sale, and the museum and city getting the rest. If the lots are not sold for development within three years, ownership would revert to the city, the agreement says.Levee workCranston Engineering Group of Augusta won a $76,743 contract to design a fix for seepage under part of the Ocmulgee River levee, near the Schnitzer Southeast site at 950 Lower Poplar Road. Money for the design and eventual repair is expected to come from a fund established by the Macon Water Authority in 2011, which can only be used for closing the city landfill or levee maintenance.Alert systemEverbridge Inc. of Glendale, Calif., is to be paid $35,280 under a one-year contract for an emergency mass notification system, replacing the current system from CodeRED. The new system comes with unlimited minutes for automated calls and text messages, which would allow the city to send out announcements for more than emergencies, perhaps adding delinquent-bill alerts and community events, EMA Director Don Druitt said.Rosa Parks SquareThe council approved spending up to $13,265 on improvements to Rosa Parks Square: an identifying stone sign, about 100 shrubs to create two landscaped “rooms,” and a monolith honoring Parks herself. That amount is the cost for materials. Work is to be done by Central Services employees. The city is seeking donations to cover the cost and will only spend public money on any amount that can’t be raised privately.Land appraisalPeople seeking to buy land from the city -- unused road right-of-way, in most cases -- can now hire an appraiser from a city-approved list instead of waiting for the Bibb County Tax Assessor’s Office. The county office is busy, so hiring an outside appraiser may save several weeks, Assistant City Attorney Christine Helms said.RecreationThe council passed a resolution asking for a specific source of recreation funding from Jan. 1 to June 30, 2014, to be added to the budget. Macon now funds part of recreation, which is overseen by Bibb County, with 18 percent of the city’s local option sales tax revenue. After the Macon-Bibb consolidated government takes over Jan. 1, that specification disappears from the city budget because all LOST money will go directly to the same government.To contact writer Jim Gaines, call 744-4489. Read more here: macon/2013/09/17/2670129/macon-council-approves-land-transfer.html##storylink=cpy
Posted on: Thu, 19 Sep 2013 21:21:05 +0000