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Forest Hill Road |
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Macon, Ga Please
help support our Forest Hill Road Neighborhood |
CAUTION
Macon
Macon-Bibb.com
Macon, Georgia
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Forest Hill Road |
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Macon, Ga Please
help support our Forest Hill Road Neighborhood |
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| A Citizen representative of 6 Neighborhood Associations requests that Bibb Commissioner - Elmo Richardson - should recuse himself from any votes concerning Forest Hill Rd or Stantec. A few minutes later, Elmo voted on the Forest Hill Road mediation issue which included the stipulation that ROW acquisitions continue..(ROW). | ||
 "click" above to see Elmo's Ethics Complaints. |
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We are requesting that the Forest Hill Road project be halted. I have presented to you the traffic counts from the last 9 years which show no growth in the traffic on the road. These traffic counts were completed by GDOT and were done in years when the mall was in its heyday, and in the past few years when it has been in decline. In all of these years, there has been no change in the traffic counts. We do know that GDOT projected huge increases in traffic in these years, and their predictions have not proven to be correct. Not even close. If, as some have suggested, there has been a change in the purpose of the road, then it must be studied and a new purpose and need statement must be prepared with supporting documentation. It is not OK to change horses in midstream, because the same assumptions do not apply to a different destination.
We are playing fast and loose with tens of millions of the taxpayers dollars and we are endangering the integrity of our community. Saturday night I attended a lecture by Dr. Kim Coder from the UGA school of forestry. He talked about having a passion for trees. He praised the foresight of former residents of Macon for taking the time to plant the trees in our community. At the end of cotton farming times there were no trees here. After talking about how important trees are to our quality of life he said “if you want your community to be in the future as it was and is today, then we must act NOW! Ignorance about trees is its own reward, and we are being well rewarded for our stupidity. It is our children who will pay the real price for our ignorance.
We are requesting that Commissioner Richardson recuse himself from all votes in which Stantec has an interest. I am not a lawyer, and I do not know if it is legal for Commissioner Richardson to vote on these issues, but I do know that it is not ethical. We have had a bellyful of “gray area” ethics in Bibb County, and it is only right that he recuse himself. |
A few minutes later, Elmo voted on the Forest Hill Road mediation issue which included the stipulation that ROW acquisitions continue..(ROW).
Over 970 Macon-Bibb
residents and the entire body of five (5)
Neighborhood Watch Groups
are
in
oppositon to the current FHR (Forest Hill Road) plan based on
their deeming it unsafe for the elementary school children in the two
area schools.
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| Bibb Commissioner, Joe Allen is now (8-16-07) on-board to help support the citizens wishes for Forest Hill Road design!!! |
Mediation
Fails 8-20-08 (here)
Macon
reasserts itself with Resolutions about Road Programs 3-18-08 (here)
Meeting with
Chairman Bishop - October 30, 2007 (here)
Mediation or Smoke-Screen? (here)
Appeal for Help with Mediation
(here)
Lost Minutes, Records and
Roaring Tapes (here)
13WMAZ.com - TV - R.Savage
Reports on Elmo Richardson - Ethics
Challenged (here)
Recent Letters and Editorials here
Ga Rep. Allen Peake "Blows
Smoke" from a Backroom at GaDOT 9-17-07
Compromise ideas and feedback:
here
Demonstration
and meeting at Bibb Courthouse 9-18-07
Meeting at Museum of Arts and Sciences 9-10-07.
MATS Policy Committee meeting 5-31-07
almost saves Forest Hill Road
Mayoral Candidates comments 7-12-07
about Forest Hill Rd
Roundabouts
reduce speeding, calm traffic, save money, lives and trees...
Trees
Are
Being Marked
Far Outside the Rights Of Way
Example - design option model in
Haworth, NJ.
Please call the 2 Commissioners above and ask them to change the
proposed design of FHR.
This is a MUST!
Charles
Bishop: cell (478)
361-4471 or office: 621-6345
Elmo
"Stantec"
Richardson: cell
747-9476 or office 474-6100 or home 477-3115
these two men are 100% responsible for the continuing grief. They
are delaying a resonable design for Forest Hill Rd.
Do not let these 2
Commissioners tell you: "It is out
of
our hands ... It is up to GaDOT leaders
now to do any redesign ..." This is not true. The
fact is that these two Commissioners control the votes to initiate any
changes in this project.
[Note that Mr. Wallwork
has written a letter [here]
to the Commissioners explainig how GaDOT can Save Money with a
redesign]
Read the latest
BLOGs about Forest Hill Road:
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click on image below |
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| Tie
A Yellow Ribbon, Forest Hills Road style article and song at here http://www.wmccnews.com/ |
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Our state
legislators were invited to meet with
Forest Hill
Neighbors on
Wednesday, Dec. 13, 4-5 p.m., in Council Chambers. A letter of
invitation went out to the Delegation, and courtesy copies to the
Mayor & Council members, Commission Chair &
Commissioners. The attendence was disappointing. Full
report later. Thanks.
The Forest Hill Rd
- win-win - Houston Avenue
connection here
was used by
GDOT and the Bibb Commissioners Act to
defeat the desires of the Neighborhood. GDOT showed it has enough money
to do any project "it" desires. Taxpayers need to speak up.
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Forest Hill Road --
Petitions and Ribbons! |
13WMAZ.com -->> "The Department of Transportation says they're moving forward with the Forest Hill Road project , but some people living on the road say they're not going to let it happen without a fight. Saturday people lined Forest Hill Road holding up signs that asked drivers to honk if they love trees. Last month, D.O.T. marked thousands of trees up and down the road with blue spray paint. Project manager, Van Etheridge, said some of those trees may have to come down to accommodate the road widening project. People opposed to the project tied yellow ribbons around the trees with blue markings on Saturday. They say they want people to realize how many trees they could lose. CAROL LYSTLAND, FOREST HILL RESIDENT: "The main thing I personally do not want is to see our neighborhood torn down. They are wanting to, I feel like, destroy our neighborhood, to destroy our trees. CHRISI OGLES, FOREST HILL RESIDENT: "If they would take the money that they're planning on using to widen the road and just repair it, everybody would be so much better off." People opposed to the project also expressed concerns about traffic increasing. They say the current design for the road is too big, and they want it scaled down." Pics Pics
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| Meeting at the
Museum of Arts and Sciences on Forsyth Road Sunday, August 27, 2006 2-3pm  |
| Update on design status. Who
can change the design? New Roundabout videos.
Maps. State Historic Review reports. Review the West Paces
Ferry Rd (in Atlanta) model. Meet several attorneys who have
successfully dealt with Ga.DOT issues like rights-of-way condemnations,
construction nuisances, maintenance negligence and design
liabilities - Chris Clark and Jarome E. Gautreaux of http://obclawfirm.com Where to go from here. |
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- - Forest Hill Road - - is already "...20% Safer than Ga Staewide Average..." - Harvey Keepler, Ga DOT Environmental/Location Engineer (here) |
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Citizen Involvement |
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50 Neighbors meet on September 20th, 2005 at St Francis Church on Forest Hill Road to discuss a new plan for improving Forest Hill. They reach a consensus: - 95% of Forest Hill Road can remain 2-lanes by using Roundabouts at Ridge, at Wimbish, at Lokchoppee at Old Lundy (<-See Visual Preference Design Concepts) and at Forest Lake Drive - Newport Road. 1. Roundabouts are markedly safer. 2. They move traffic faster by not holding it up at stop lights, especially when there is no intersecting traffic to justify the delay. 3. They tend to slow traffic between intersections by curving into the roundabout. 4. They are less expensive to maintain than traffic signals. 5. They reduce auto emissions -- Macon is already in trouble with EPA over air quality. 6. In this case the overall cost of the project would be dramatically reduced. 7. Grassy Swales will remain to better handle runoff - water is quicker to leave the roadway, then it is slowed and filtered before entering local streams - from which Bibb County derives its drinking water. Forest Hill
neighborhood personality should be preserved, Macon Telegraph
articles
on
water runoff, traffic projections, voting members of the road policy committee,
Flooding causes Detention
Pond Failure and Leads to Lawsuit of Bibb County by Homeowner.
Macon Council
Disrespected by GDOT, Macon City
Coucil Resolution to modify road design, and another
Resolution to have ultimate authority over road designs in the
City. Review
- 2001 GDOT Deceptions Project is Enlarged
over original size published in "Program Management Services Agreement
signed between Tom
Moreland's
Moreland-Altobelli and Bibb County on 2-1-95. 1999
detailed concerns , Air Quality Issues (click) Minutes
and Meeting with GDOT on April 14, 2005
Flaws
in the Environmental Assessments,
Over 200 Citizen and Neighborhood Comments from 2001,
Meeting with GDOT on May 31 2002,
Notes
from 2004,
Visual
Preference Design Concepts at Old Lundy and Lokchoppee and at Ridge Avenue , Flawed - Traffic_Count_Projections
, What does the real Accident Data show (here) Roundabouts in North Carolina , Macon Telegraph graphics
of
projected new footprint between Vineville
and
Wimbish, and
between Wimbish
and
Northside Dr.
4-21-06 the Bibb Commission votes
to let GDOT begin to aquire ROW. More ROW
data and parcels. Video (click)
of
fatal accident that could have been prevented by a
Roundabout. New
Proposed Resolution before City Council: A RESOLUTION
ESTABLISHING A REVIEW REQUIREMENT FOR MACON-BIBB Petitions
- Signatures
collected in October 2006 of citizens who want a new design.
264 citizen
signatures here [pdf].
And
330 more citizen
signatures plus 23 duplicates here [pdf].
And
here are pages 28-45 {pdf - 3MB]
Video: |
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Mr Michael
Wallwork, PE.- International Road/Traffic Design Expert:
Mr Michael
Wallwork, PE. undertook some analyses at Forest Hill Rd and Forsyth
Rd. He discovered a very good level-of-service with a two lane roundabout that only has one lane
in each direction for the
His reason
for the three lane is that the traffic volumes are at the stage where
getting in and out of the street becomes difficult and more unsafe.
Increasing volumes will exacerbate the situation. By adding a third
lane with medians, medias are a must, then left turn becomes safer and
easier, trees are added to beautify the street and the median make road
crossings by pedestrians much safer, they also fit better with
roundabouts. The FHWA
project engineer in Atlanta should undrstand how roundabouts would save
lives, and reduce right-of-way, construction costs and maintenance
costs and how these cost reductions will pay for the minor redesign
many times over. FHWA can consider the use of roundabouts with the
addition of landscaped medians within the center turn lane. Here is text
RTF
or DOC
of letter to Bibb Commission Chairman, Charles Bishop.
It describes the advantages of changing the Forest Hill Road
design. It details how to save Money and Time, Who to contact,
What to say to accomplish the change.
Michael
Wallwork Alternate Street Design, P.A. (904) 269-1851
www.roundabouts.net |
Roundabouts Meeting at City Hall on January, 31, 2006. report:
Mr Michale Wallwork spoke about the modern uses of roundabouts to economically smooth the efficient and safe movement of traffic. See his website at www.roundabouts.net
The next morning, Mr Wallwork spoke to the Policy Committee of the Macon Area Transportation group. There was general interest and some specific locations discussed to utilize roundabouts. Mr Wallwork said that Forest Hill Road could be redesigned to benefit from roundabouts. This would save time, money and it would use a smaller footprint, thus be friendlier to the neighborhood. He later wrote a letter to Bibb Chairman, Charles Bishop - that letter can be viewed here - page 1 and 2.
Stakeholder Meeting report - December 12, 2005
GDOT - Forest Hill Road
stakeholder meeting was
on Monday, December 12, at 6pm at St. Francis Church located at 432
Forest
Hill Road to discuss landscaping and lighting concepts.
It was a
waste
of time because. the neighborhood still has not accepted the basic road
design...
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