Pedestrian Safety Review Board
New crosswalk signs and flashing lights are in place on First and Adams streets as a trial for enhanced safety measures recently ordered by Macon-Bibb County’s Pedestrian Safety Review Board.
“These are lights you can put in the crosswalk that are solar-powered and flash at night,” Macon-Bibb traffic engineer Nigel Floyd recently told the board.
PSRB members approved spending up to $30,000 from board funds to add signs and 20 little lights to 50 locations deemed to be high-injury locations.
During its March meeting, the PSRB also renewed and upgraded its software system contract with Urban SDK, which provides data such as traffic volume, speed and delays.
The board approved upgrading the contract with an extra $4,400 dollars for a total of $48,805 for the company to add collision data from every road in Macon-Bibb County through 2026.
With five years of historical fatalities, injuries and collisions, the software will create a safety rating for local roads.
Instead of traffic engineers and public safety officers combing through individual reports, all that data is combined in the computer program.
Traffic Safety Director Weston Stroud said the new data can help them determine where to place the other crosswalk enhancements.
Macon-Bibb’s facilities director Rob Ryals considered the contract upgrade a good investment.
“I think in the long run it would help pay for itself,” Ryals said. “A lot of the tools we’re investing in are really not cheap. Having this information would make them more useful.”
Urban Development Authority
In its March meeting, the Macon-Bibb County Urban Development Authority announced two milestones in the community’s quest to better connect with the Muscogee (Creek) Nation.
UDA Executive Director Alex Morrison informed the board that the National Park Service approved a grant for the future Muscogee Cultural Center, and the Bicentennial Park ribbon-cutting is scheduled for April 29.
After about a year, Morrison shared the “very exciting update” that the $310,000 grant that was part of a Congressional directed spending package was officially approved.
The money will help stabilize and shore up the old DeWitt McCrary house that was saved from the wrecking ball in east Macon. UDA purchased the home and surrounding properties around Main Street for $320,000 in July of 2021.
Both the center and new park are close to what is expected to become a new entrance to the Ocmulgee Mounds if Congress approves the pending national park designation. The Ocmulgee National Park and Preserve Initiative is expected to raise the rest of the money needed to renovate the historic home once occupied by a city alderman who helped annex east Macon into the city at the turn of the 20th Century.
“This investment will further strengthen the partnership between Middle Georgia and the Muscogee (Creek) Nation by allowing us to develop a space where they can tell their own story, while also finding opportunities to steward these lands outside of the park gates,” said ONPPI Executive Director Seth Clark, who also serves as the county’s mayor pro tem.
The park, which includes a regulation-sized stickball field for the Native American sport, was created in honor of the city’s 200th birthday with funds raised by the Macon-Bibb County Bicentennial Committee.
The park along Clinton Street near the Mill Hill Community Arts Center will feature the works of international artists, including a bronze stickball player offset with 27,000 pounds of Georgia marble etched with remembrances from the Native Americans who once lived here.
Macon-Bibb Transit Authority
Bus drivers are pulling overtime shifts regularly as staffing shortages persist at the Macon-Bibb County Transit Authority.
In the authority’s March meeting, CEO Craig Ross explained that there are seven driver vacancies each on the fixed route and paratransit routes.
In February, that resulted in 338 overtime hours on fixed routes and 92 hours of overtime on paratransit.
Paratransit rider Wade Horton addressed the board after he recently was suspended following a dispute with a dispatcher over scheduling when a bus was not available at a specific time.
Horton frequently shares public comments and complaints about the authority at its meetings and at the Macon-Bibb County Commission.
“A lot of this is because we advocate for those who can’t talk for themselves and it angers people. But that’s good trouble as far as I’m concerned,” Horton said at last week’s meeting.
The authority also discussed a Title VI complaint from another paratransit rider suspended for using obscene language and making a scene. Ross said the incident was recorded and an appeals hearing upheld that suspension.
— Civic Journalism Senior Fellow Liz Fabian covers Macon-Bibb County government entities for The Macon Newsroom and can be reached at fabian_lj@mercer.edu.
