Albany Herald

ALBANY — The Dougherty County Commission will decide at its regular work session next week whether to purchase 32.272 acres of land along the Flint River to become part of the greenspace corridor that runs most of the length of the river through the county.

Bill Swan with the Greenspace Citizens Advisory Committee said the committee recommended purchasing the “pristine piece of property” from the Jane Walker Joiner family for $59,703.20, the appraised value of the property.

“This (corridor) is important to this community for a number of reasons,” Swan said. “First of all, it sets aside land that could possibly be developed for future use by the entire community. It also develops a protection corridor along the river in the event of future flooding. And even though this land (along the corridor) runs through the middle of a major city, if you’re on it it’s like you’re at the north Georgia mountains.

“It’s one of the most beautiful (land corridors) in the entire state. And it allows us to close the largest remaining gap of having a continuous corridor along the Flint.”

County Attorney Spencer Lee said the Joiner family made closing on the property before the end of the year a condition of the land sale.

“If you approve this action at next week’s meeting, we should be able to get this done in time to meet the conditions set by the land owner,” Lee said.

Also at the meeting, the commission got its first look at other items that will be placed on next week’s agenda for consideration. They included:

-- The purchase, using Special-Purpose Local-Option Sales Tax VI funds, of a one-ton cab and chassis as well as a service body with crane option. Low bidder for the cab and chassis ($28,719) was Wade Ford of Smyrna, while local bidder Transport Equipment Co. had the low bid ($19,783) for the service body.

-- Recommendations from the county’s Retirement Fund Committee to reduce investment return in the retirement plan from 8.0 percent to 7.75 percent and to reduce the salary scale from 4 percent to 3 percent, which committee Chairwoman Denver Hooten said would save the county “roughly $20,000.”

-- Approval of a list of streets and roads to be considered for the county’s 2013 resurfacing project. Funding for the resurfacing would come from a Local Maintenance and Improvement Grant and from SPLOST VI. The 9.64 miles of roads being considered are in districts 1, 2, 5 and 6.