Some might wonder if Eatonton Mayor John Reid is going down the wrong path.
The landscaping is still missing on a downtown sidewalk beautification project that turned into a two-year eyesore on North Jefferson Street but the mayor has jumped all over the possibility of a million dollar state grant to do repair work on other sidewalks in the city.
Spurred by an email he got a week earlier announcing the Rural Downtown Redevelopment Grant Program and subsequent discussions with the Georgia Department of Community Affairs, Reid added the item to the agenda at Monday night’s City Council meeting.
“We didn’t see any reason to leave that on the table since we’re already working on sidewalks,” he said.
The grant could be used for a number of city projects including major renovations of the Pex Theater, which recently saw the installation of a new marquee. But the Mayor and his wife, Councilmember Janie Reid, said the folks they talked to felt that grants for theater projects wouldn’t qualify.
“One of the reasons is that when you have events there and start charging, then of course, that would kick it out of the box,” Councilmember Reid said. “It’s not considered a permanent thing. When we started talking about planting trees, even that wasn’t permanent enough.”
The mayor thinks sidewalk repairs would be a concrete proposal that would give Eatonton a solid chance to get at least $1 million of the $17 million available for grants. City council agreed and authorized him to submit a grant application prior to the June 3 deadline.
It’s unclear if, by then, the grass will be planted and the orange barrels at the highly visible corner of the Eatonton town square will be removed. The Streetscape project was contracted at the same time people started wearing COVID masks in March 2020 and was to be completed in nine months but contractor delays and the unexpected discovery of underground pipes caused major delays. The mayor appears not to be concerned about a repeat of the debacle.
“I think we’ve gotten our most difficult sidewalks done downtown,” Mayor Reid said, “and these won’t be as expensive and won’t find as many surprises like we found under the ones that we’ve already done.”
Easy way is best
City Council also voted Monday to save City Administrator Gary Sanders from at least one headache. Under the Federal American Rescue Plan, $1 trillion was made available to people, businesses, organizations and governments that took a hit when the coronavirus shut down the economy.
At the end of this month, state and local governments must start filing reports that justify how they are spending the money.
Eatonton’s share was about $2.5 million. Even for a small town, proving that the money was spent to actually recover losses caused by COVID would be a time-consuming task. Uncle Sam is now giving governments a chance to instead claim a “standard deduction” for “government services.” The limit is $10 million, which well exceeds what Eatonton is receiving.
Also, Washington broadened the definition of “government services” to include construction of schools, hospitals and roads, purchasing fire trucks or police cars, administrative staffing and facilities as well as health services.
The council decided to take the standard deduction, which brought a sigh of relief from Sanders.
More at Monday’s Council meeting
Councilmembers heard a brief update on the revision of the City Zoning Code. The major overhaul of the plan is expected to be completed and approved by August.
Mayor ProTem Chip Walker announced that the mediation is continuing between City Council and the Putnam County Commission over how to share money from the one cent local option sales tax (LOST). For the past 10 years, the city has been receiving about 31 percent of the roughly $4 million brought in each year. It’s time for the two bodies to mediate the split for the next 10 years.
A new Yard of the Month award will be given to Eatonton City homeowners who show pride in the maintenance of their yard and exterior of their houses. An anonymous judge will be touring on May 9 and the winners will be announced May 13.
For those who trashed a bunch of items while in pursuit of the Yard of the Month award, or others who need another incentive, a community cleanup day will be held May 14. Homeowners will be notified that special curbside pickups will be made the following week for items trashed while cleaning inside and outside their home.
The council also approved a parade permit for a Car and Motorcycle Show Fundraiser on May 14 and appointed Tranell Moore to a vacancy on the Main Street Advisory Board.