The city's traffic task force has postponed its January meeting, and in the meantime some of its members are wondering just what exactly the group will be trying to accomplish when it convenes again.

The last meeting found members scrambling to come up with answers for problems related to the proposed Home Depot site plan on Ga. Highway 54 on the western end of town. Now that the City Council has approved that application, it remains to be seen what the task force will tackle next.

Mayor Bob Lenox, who put the group together in response to comments from residents of the Planterra Ridge subdivision, acknowledged this week that he is not really sure what to do now, although he said the task force should definitely continue to meet.

“We've got an interesting and diverse group,” he said, pointing out that a lively and productive discussion took place at the December meeting.

Lenox talked with city manager Jim Basinger earlier this week about the task force and its mission, he said, and both men agreed that another meeting should be scheduled.

When the task force met for the first time in November, the meeting date was established as each first Monday.

This month's meeting was moved back a week, to Jan. 10, due to the holidays, then changed again to Wednesday, Jan. 12, at 4:30 p.m.

The task force is composed of a number of people, including city staff and residents of neighborhoods in the city's western corridor who are directly affected by the ongoing development near hwys. 54 and 74.

The December meeting was conducted under a bit of a deadline, as the Home Depot proposal was already on the City Council's agenda for the next week and members of the task force learned they could not change that. There was some interest in putting off the council decision to give the task force more time to work, but Lenox said that could not be done.

Last month, the task force:

reviewed state DOT plans for the future widening of Hwy. 54;

discussed options for median cuts and traffic signals in the western corridor;

looked at possible alternate entrances to the Home Depot site; and

talked about construction issues relating to the existing railroad bridge on the highway and Line Creek Baptist Church, next to the Huddleston property.

Estimates for the Hwy. 54 widening cite mid-2005 as a realistic date for completion.

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