Questions answered by Lamar Paris, County Commissioner
Q. I live along Hwy 180 and just before the Choestoe Baptist Church, the condition of the highway is ridiculously unsafe. With tourist season coming up, this highway is heavily traveled and needs to be repaired as soon as possible. Who is responsible for making the repairs?
A. The Georgia Dept. of Transportation (GDOT) is responsible for State Highway 180 maintenance and all other state routes. We have several state highways in the county that are the responsibility of GDOT. These are Hwy. 129 south (to Gainesville) and north (to Murphy), Hwy. 515 east (to Young Harris) and west (to Blue Ridge), Hwy. 180 to Suches and Brasstown Bald, Hwy. 60 in Suches, Russell Scenic Highway to Helen and Hwy. 325 around Lake Nottely to Hwy. 515. We will forward your complaint to GDOT, but you should probably also make a personal request. The local GDOT phone number is 706-781-3957 to report needed maintenance of any local state route.
Q. What roads are going to be paved in Union County this year?
A. We are currently working on a list for this year; however, the list will probably be very short because of a lack of funds and the increased cost of gasoline and all paving products.
Q. Is there a way to have extra funding for local road work?
A. Yes, there will be an election next year when a new T-SPLOST (extra 1 penny of sales tax) will be voted on by the public. The purpose of the additional sales tax will be to fund state highway improvements with 75% of the new tax going to fund state road projects and 25% of the new tax going to local counties and cities to fund local road projects. You will be hearing much more about this over the next few months. This is a proposal the Georgia Legislature is placing on the ballot next year to improve roads in Georgia.
Currently most road work is funded by the gas tax, but according to GDOT, because the miles driven by the public is decreasing and because we are using more fuel efficient vehicles, that gas tax revenue is being reduced to the point that it will not provide a reliable funding option in the future.
Q. Do we have designated shelters for those in need during extreme weather conditions?
A. There are currently no shelters designated prior to a storm. There are two reasons. The first is that there are no funds in our budget to man shelters prior to a storm. While there have certainly been many significant storms lately, setting up a shelter is costly and requires a lot of assistance. In addition, there are so many false alarms that it would be very difficult to know when a shelter would be necessary prior to a storm’s arrival.
Finally most designated shelters are for post disaster relief (after the storm) and are located in public buildings that may not always be safe during a storm but are chosen because of their easy access after a disaster such as public buildings and gymnasiums.
We do have several designated disaster shelters that can be open once a storm has hit the county and damaged property and these are generally set up by the American Red Cross and State DFCS (Dept. of Family and Children’s Services) who works with Georgia Emergency Management Agency (GEMA) and our local EMA Director. These shelters are furnished and staffed by the Red Cross and DFCS with assistance from local volunteers. However, in the future, should a need for pre-storm shelters be established, the Fire Department and Emergency Management would be able to handle this need.
Q. Are there any other procedures we can take to make us safer in a storm?
A. Yes. The web site www.ok.gov will give you more information on how you can improve your storm readiness at home. When you pull up this webpage, type in the search section, OEM SHELTER IN PLACE. Choose the second option which is a pdf file called “Shelter in place.” This should take you to the shelter in place brochure which has excellent information on sheltering in place and safe rooms. You should also have a NOAA Storm Weather Radio or sign up for the county emergency notification system called UCALERT to get up-to-date information. Anyone can register from a cell phone by texting UCALERT to 69310. You must remove all signatures and other text in the body of the message. (For folks new to texting, set your phone to text messages. When it asks for “To” you enter 69310. When it asks “Enter your message here” type in UCALERT). You will receive a confirmation text message letting you know you have been signed up to receive Union Alert. Union Alert will originate from the following: voice calls: 706-555-0911, text messages: 69310, emails: unionalert@uniongov.com. While not necessary, the originating phone numbers should be saved in your phone book as “UC Alert” to be sure you know when the county is trying to make contact. If you want to sign up for a telephone alert or if you have problems with the cell phone, you can call 706-439-6056.