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WISTERIA FE The city of Williamson had hundreds of visitors for the annual Wisteria Festival and Talent Showcase. See page 2A PIKE COUNTY JOURNAL REPORTER ONE DOLLAR 1VAVAVA>11 ATOl'IilU'KM’fc■ EH«»li»■ WEDNESDAY, APRIL 7, 2020 Teen dies in April 2 burglary A teen died at a Pike County busi ness on Friday, April 2 while the business was closed for Good Friday. According to the Pike County Sher iff’s Office, emergency medical personnel and officers responded to a call of a person trapped under a vehicle around 4:15 p.m. at Middle Georgia Water Systems. The 14-year-old male was underneath a vehi cle inside the business with severe trauma and authorities say two other teenagers - aged 13 and 14 - were also inside. The injured ju venile was transported by ambulance and later pronounced dead at the hospital. According to the PCSO report, the ju veniles say they were inside the business working on vehicles. See BURGLARY page 3A County's budget proposed The Pike County board of commission ers will be presented the recommended Fiscal Year 2021-22 budget during its regu lar monthly meeting Wednesday, April 14 at 9 a.m. in the main courtroom upstairs in the courthouse. Public hearings will be held to give citizens an opportunity to ad dress the board about the proposed budget. Public hearings will be held at 1 p.m. Thurs day, April 22 and at 1 p.m. Tuesday, May 4 which will be followed by the first reading. See BUDGET page 2A ILLUSTRATION COURTESY OF THE CITY OF ZEBULON The Old Zebulon School project has had some delays but the city of Zebulon recently dis cussed new plans to complete the project. Grants could allow the city to pay for improvements with the clerk’s office, city administrator’s office and the council chambers moved to the build ing. Two classrooms and the auditorium would remain separate and be leased to tenants. New vision for OZS SPECIAL PHOTOS Above, the Old Zebulon School building got a new roof and was made structurally sound in 2018 with funds raised by members of the community. The rest of the renovations are being planned and the building would be used for various of fices as well as allowing for classroom and auditorium rental. Below, before renovations began, the school was falling apart. Register now to join Keep It Clean Spring Fling on April 24 BY DWAIN W. PENN news@pikecountygeorgia.com Zebulon mayor Joe Walter and council held a called meeting March 25 and discussed the Old Zebulon School (OZS) project, noting the history of the project has generated local and regional interest and a second look may prove successful for its future. “Our previous discus sion of the Old Zebulon School was last July when we received cost esti mates for the project,” said Walter. “It appeared to be a cost that was out of our league to have a debt to repair the school. Kirby Glaze, who worked with the Downtown Development Authority (DDA) on the project had a few suggestions on how to make it affordable.” “The DDA has the school roofed and sta bilized but doesn’t have a development partner to move forward. It has a building that will take money to improve to make it usable. There was a discussion about the city needing space in the future for govern ment operations. Glaze has proposed a solution to achieve success. There is $413,000 in historic tax credit money that can be applied to the project, reducing the amount of money to be spent. “The project would include the DDA, city of Zebulon and Glaze’s firm, the capital development partners, and other pub lic private partnerships to develop the building site. The DDA would transfer ownership to the capital development partners for at least five years. An agreement then would be signed by the city to lease 49% of the building, under 50%, to qualify for tax credits. The majority of the project must be privately leaseable prop erty. The city would move the clerk’s office, the city administrator office and the council chambers to the OZS. Two classrooms and the auditorium would remain separate and be leased to tenants. Leases would provide revenue to offset cost of renova tions. After five years the tax credit ends making it free to be developed. However, the city or the DDA could buy Glaze’s firm out. The benefit of a private partner is they will guarantee a price on cost of renovations. Once a design is completed, it won’t be any more than that; contractors will make that happen. This proposed plan is two years in the future, subject to change, and provides one way to ac complish the OZS renova tions,” said Walter. According to mayor Walter, financing the project would come from the DDA issuing bonds for 15 years to cover the approximately $2 million cost. To ease the burden for the city, it would con solidate its current loan with a new loan as part of its rental of government offices at the school, benefiting the renovation. Leasing space to private tenants would help al leviate any strain on the city’s budget. See OZS page 2A This spring the UGA Pike County Extension office is collaborating with Pick Up Pike to host the Keep It Clean Spring Fling cleanup event on Saturday, April 24, aiming to jump start community cleanup efforts and keep local roads clean. “Trash and litter on the roadsides not only reflects negatively on the community and businesses throughout Pike County but also pollutes our communi ty’s waterways. Keeping these roadways clean is a constant battle, and it’s time to take action,” said Pike County Exten sion Agent Brooklyn Wassel. The Pick Up Pike organization hopes to hold one large annual cleanup event each year as well as monthly Several COV1D-19 guidelines under the governor’s three March 31 executive orders have been lifted through April 30, in cluding the ban on gath erings, the shelter-in- place requirements, the distance requirements at restaurants, bars, and movie theaters and fitness classes and the ability of law enforce ment to close organi zations for failure to comply with the orders. The new orders also remove the critical infra structure distinction and collapse all organization suggested measures into one main list, with a small number of addi tional industry-specific requirements remain ing. The orders extends the current COV1D-19 guidance in Georgia until clean up efforts. They also encourage citizens to clean up roads that run along their proper ties and other areas of the county. There have been several clean up days recently but the April 24 event will be by far the largest. “During this event we hope to bring together community members of all ages with a common goal and get boots on the ground to combat this problem,” said Was- sel. “All volunteers must be registered through the Extension office by April 12, 2021. Volun teers will be assigned groups and designated road to help limit group sizes and keep the cleanup as safe as pos sible for everyone. Each registered volunteer will also receive an event t-shirt.” April 7 with an added provision allowing state agency employees to get a COVID vaccine without using sick leave or an nual leave. COV1D-19 cases remain low in Pike County, compared to previous months since the pandemic began more than a year ago. According to the Georgia Department of Public Health, there were 21 confirmed cases in Pike over the past two week period as of April 5. There have been 24 deaths, 12 probable deaths and 68 hospitalizations since the start of the pan demic. Vaccines are now available to all citizens 16 years old and up as well as others with medical conditions. PHOTO COURTESY OF PICK UP PIKE Jason Brisendine (left) and other Pick Up Pike volunteers hope many will register by April 12 and join them for the Saturday, April 24 Keep It Clean Spring Fling cleanup event. Several COVID-19 restrictions lifted in GA Georgia DOT to replace bridge The Georgia Depart ment of Transportation recently awarded 25 construction contracts for statewide transpor tation projects totaling more than $60 million, including construction of a bridge and approaches on Highway 109, one mile east of Meansville. “We expect the con tractor to get the ‘notice to proceed’ this spring, so the project will begin soon,” said Penny Brooks of the GDOT. “The com pletion date is expected this fall (2021). This is a $1.4 million investment on a new and wider bridge. It should increase the hydraulic flow of Gola Creek while provid ing a less congested feel when crossing the creek. Additionally, the project replaces a bridge that was getting close to the end of its life cycle.” The bridge project on Highway 109 east will be completed by Mc Coy Grading Inc. out of Greenville which was the low bidder on the project at $1,412,304. The total length of the project is approximately 1365 feet, beginning 815 feet west of the existing bridge and ending 520 feet east of the existing bridge. The proposed bridge would be built in the same location as the existing bridge. The proposed bridge would be a one-span bridge, approximately 90 feet long by 39.08 feet wide over Gola Creek and would be constructed on existing alignment. Traffic currently using Georgia 109 as a through route would use an off-site detour during construction. The bridge improve ments include two 12-foot travel lanes with six-foot shoulders on both sides of the bridge. The roadway typical sec tion on both approaches to the bridge consist of two 12-foot travel lanes with six-foot overall shoulders that include two feet paved and four feet unpaved. on Highway 109 east PHOTO BY RACHEL MCDANIEL / PIKE COUNTY JOURNAL REPORTER The bridge on Highway 109 east over Gola Creek was closed for about a month in 2016 as extensive repairs were made. The Georgia DOT has accepted a bid for the project and work will begin this fall to replace the bridge.