Last Friday morning, during the first of two regularly scheduled meetings this month, Putnam County commissioners heard from several residents of the Thunder Valley neighborhood concerned about commercial development in the area.
Thunder Valley borders Lake Oconee on the east side of Hwy. 44, across from the Silver Moon restaurant and extending to the bridge crossing the lake beyond Scott Road. It falls within District 3 Commissioner Steve Hersey’s jurisdiction.
First to address the commission was Thunder Valley Owners Association President Renee Bergdorf, who said she and her neighbors are concerned about the potential negative impact to their community from commercial development.
Bergdorf began by acknowledging the land in question has been zoned for commercial use since 1995 and everyone understands, “it’s going to be developed.” She then pointed out, however, that the original development agreement stipulated “limited access off of Clack Circle and no access to Riverside Drive and Thunder Road.”
She added that she and her neighbors are now alarmed at a proposed site plan “posted by the current developer of the commercial land [that] clearly violates this.” She said the proposed plan calls for a new road to begin on Thunder Road and extend into Riverside Drive.
“In addition, the Scott Road extension feeds all the way into Riverside Drive as well. You now have two commercial roads dumping into Riverside Drive,” Bergdorf told the commission.
“That’s a total of three exit entryways into the roads of Thunder Valley, which clearly violates the rezoning conditions.
“We want to be able to live in harmony and in safety,” she continued.
“There are ways that this commercial property can be developed while minimizing the impact to the residents and our private road, not privatepublic roads for our neighborhood. But first the commissioners must step up and approve and review and have some discussions. Let’s talk about this before it’s too late.”
Also speaking in support of Bergdorf’s cause were Thunder Valley residents Tom Parham, Lisa Peterson, Connie Johnson, and Sherry Donovan. Parham reminded Hersey and Commission Chair Bill Sharp of past support, both electorally and financially, in recent elections from Thunder Valley residents.
“The equipment has already been delivered into Thunder Valley for these road extensions.
Time is of the essence to review and it doesn’t meet current zoning,” Donovan later declared. “We need the commissioners to do a full review before it proceeds. You have the power, and we need your help.”
Also addressing the commissioners were several local pickleball enthusiasts, asking for the county to build new courts to support their new-found passion.
“We need dedicated pickleball courts, covered resting areas, water stations, and bathrooms,” District 4 resident Ellen Littleton said. “As a fulltime resident taxpayer and senior citizen of Putnam County, I’m not aware of any exercise activities being offered through the recreation department that meet the needs of active senior citizens.”
Later, Hersey questioned the wisdom of holding a meeting and voting by the commission on an employee benefits package in Savannah.
“First, I think it was maybe legal but inappropriate to hold that called meeting in Savannah at a location and time that was inconvenient for members of the public and probably for most of the employees to have comments on the upcoming or adopted health insurance programs,” he said. “The second comment is simply that I was not in attendance at that meeting and therefore will recuse myself from any vote on approving the minutes.”
The commission also watched a 10-minute video about land use assessments presented by George Kelecheck, founder of the EYE of the Taxpayer Association.
The video stressed the importance of promoting and creating walkable, livable, mixed-use neighborhoods similar to traditional downtowns over car-centric developments that wind up as a drain on taxpayer resources.
“The smarter you plan, the better off we will be and be able to keep our taxation for our citizens that are here and coming to this county,” Kelecheck said upon the video’s conclusion.
Finally, Putnam County Fire Chief Thomas McClain addressed the commission, explaining the county’s ISO fire rating recently improved from 5 to 4, representing a positive impact on county insurance rates.
The chief described a complicated evaluation that takes into account various factors such as fire department apparatus, staffing, training, and response times, as well as where its units are placed in accordance to the hazards of buildings within the county.
“There are 48 buildings in Putnam County that ISO identifies as three stories or higher or have a required fire flow of over 3,500 gallons a minute.
And we’re absolutely graded on what proximity to those buildings our engines and ladder apparatus are and what our response times are in both of those groups of vehicles to those target areas,” McClain explained.
The chief added that some factors can be improved upon only by adding to the fire department’s facilities, equipment, and personnel.
“We’re geographically challenged in the fact that we cover 345 square miles out of four fire stations. So, you can imagine that response time is the largest hurdle that we face,” McClain told the commission. “We can get out of the station faster, we can process the calls faster, but we can’t overcome the geography or what the travel time is going to be unless we add more.”
The commission thanked the chief for his department’s efforts and his work in leading it.