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Road closing in industrial park irks businessman

By JOHN MUNFORD
jmunford@TheCitizenNews.com

A business owner in Peachtree City’s industrial park is upset that a culvert replacement project on Dividend Drive has shut down the road for days.

Tim Powers, who owns Powers Heating and Air, said that the culvert pipe had been put in and the site had been filled in Thursday, but no one was working on repaving the section of the street, which he felt should have been done immediately.

Powers said city crews should have been on-site to perform the final paving since the contractor wasn’t in enough of a hurry to get the project done.

After all, the city spent $52,000 on a paving machine in this year’s budget so it can pave more golf cart paths, Powers said.

“I bet we’ve got 20 people out there mowing grass every day, but you can’t pave that street?” Powers said. “For everything I need to operate my business, I need that road.”

City Engineer David Borkowski said Friday afternoon that there had been some small delays on the project due to rain, but that it should be wrapped up soon. The city originally announced it would be complete by today.

Part of the problem could be the timing of the order for the asphalt, Borkowski said.

“We need to be there to monitor the paving so it’s done right,” Borkowski said.

Traffic on Ga. Highway 74 has gotten “ridiculous” because of the detour around the project, Powers said, noting that it affects every truck he sends out from his business. Often times, the traffic line stretches from Ga. Highway 54 all the way to Crosstown Road, he said.

“The city is like, 'We’ll get back to it,’” Powers said, noting that he hasn’t gotten a returned phone call from any of the city officials he contacted, save for one city council member, although he called all five. He has gotten an e-mail response.

The nature of the businesses in the industrial park should make the project a priority to be finished as soon as possible, Powers said.

“The city is a business just like anything else,” Powers said, noting that if he took days to answer a service call for air conditioning, he would go out of business.

He joked that he’d even volunteer to stomp on the road to tamp it down if necessary to speed the project up.