Newspaper Page Text
LOCAL
THURSDAY, MAY 10 -16, 2018 • Page 10
The $6.5 million streetscape project is expected to be completed in 18 months. Photos by Carla Parker
Clarkston elected officials, both past and present, held a groundbreaking at Milam Park for the city’s
streetscape project
Clarkston breaks ground on streetscape project
BY CARLA PARKER
carla@dekalbchamp.com
Twelve years after receiving federal
funding for a streetscape project,
Clarkston broke ground for the project.
Clarkston elected officials, both past
and present, held a groundbreaking
ceremony May 4 at Milam Park
to officially start its $6.5 million
streetscape project. In 2006, Clarkston
became eligible to receive up to $4
million in federal funds, administered
through the Atlanta Regional
Commission (ARC). City Manager
Keith Barker said Clarkston City
Council authorized city staff to begin
the process to acquire the matching
funds for the project in 2011.
“This has been a long process and
a long time coming,” Barker said. “We
are beginning the project now, which
will have a tremendous and dramatic
impact on the city of Clarkston.”
The project is expected to be
completed in 18 months. Once
Mayor Ted Terry
completed, the city will have wider
sidewalks, newly paved streets,
landscaping, street lighting, gateway
amenities, a pedestrian bridge,
underground utilities along Market
Street, new storm water infrastructure,
new MARTA bus shelters and bus pull
outs, street arbors and other amenities
that are expected to transform many of
the city’s thoroughfares.
Barker said the project scope will
include East Ponce de Leon from the
1-285 interchange down to Market
Street, Market Street from North Indian
Creek to Rowland Street, Rowland
Street to Norman Road and Norman
Road to the city limits (Milam Park).
Mayor Ted Terry said with the
streetscape project and the special-
purpose local-option sales tax
(SPLOST) project, Clarkston is
taking on a 20- or 30-year backlog in
infrastructure improvements.
“People want to walk and bike.
They want to be safe from their house
to school [or] to work, to the grocery
store, to the post office, to downtown,
to the coffee shop and to Milam Park,”
he said. “And what were seeing. The
streetscape project with the SPLOST
project are literally connecting one
part of Clarkston [Milam Park] to
downtown, to the interstate, to the post
office and to every single corner. That’s
really important.”
Terry said he wants residents to
feel safe when walking or biking and
mentioned recent pedestrian fatalities
that happened just outside the city
limits. In a Pebruary incident, eight-
year-old Tluang Tha Men was killed
when a vehicle hit her and her mother
while attempting to cross the street
at the intersection of Rays Road and
Central Drive, which is a mile from
Milam Park.
“It’s hard to hear [about pedestrian
deaths] on the news, and you hear from
concerned citizens about what are we
doing to make sure that our children
and our families are safe when they’re
out walking or bicycling,” Terry said. “I
think what we can say here today with
this groundbreaking is that as the next
two years of pavement and sidewalks
gets ripped up and new infrastructure
is laid, that we’ll be looking at the safest
that Clarkston, I think, has ever been
for our residents and visitors to walk
and bike and to feel safe in their own
community.”
energy future planned for Clarkston
A clean
BY CARLA PARKER
carla@dekalbchamp.com
Clarkston hopes to be fully powered
by clean energy by 2050.
The city council approved a
resolution May 1 to adopt a vision of
100 percent clean energy powering the
city’s needs by 2050. The resolution also
states that the city’s fleet vehicles will be
zero-emission by 2035.
According to the resolution, the city
is under a franchise agreement with
Georgia Power until 2064. City officials
said Georgia Power has made progress
in bringing solar and wind resources
into the electric generation mix since
2010, but the overall portion of these
resources in the mix remains less than
2 percent.
According to the resolution, the
transition to clean energy will create
jobs, reduce air pollution and public
health risks, reduce the strain on water
resources and save consumers money.
Councilwoman Andrea Cervone said
clean energy is the future.
“This resolution is a way for the
city of Clarkston to acknowledge that,”
she said. “One of the benefits, as well,
of having a pretty progressive council
is that we have an eye on what our
city is going to look like decades from
now. Not just a year from now, not two
years from now, but decades from now.
And clean energy is a vital part pf that
future.”
Clarkston joins 65 other cities across
the U.S. committed to 100 percent clean
energy, according to The Sierra Club, a
grassroots environmental organization.
Atlanta committed to achieving 100
percent renewable electricity by 2035.
Councilman Jamie Carroll said
Atlanta’s 2035 target will give Clarkston
time to adopt Atlanta’s best practices
and make improvements.
“We can take steps along the way
to make it easier for the job for future
councils to reach this target,” he said.
According to the resolution, the
city manager and planning department
will partner with the environment and
transportation committee to develop
a plan by March, 2019 for the city
operations to meet its clean energy
goals.