CLEVELAND, Ga. — The Cleveland City Council has voted to rescind a request made to the Georgia Department of Transportation for Transportation Alternative Program funds to pay for preliminary engineering on a project that would connect Freedom Park in downtown and Woodman/Cleveland City Park.
During Monday’s called council meeting, Tom O’Bryant, Director of Economic Development and Planning, reported that the city applied last October for up to $500,000 in engineering funds from the Georgia Department of Transportation, the city would have had to provide a 20 percent match in funds.
O’Bryant said that following several meetings with consultants for the project, they realized that with new GDOT standards requiring curbs and gutters and six-foot sidewalks, among other things, they could do the project alone cheaper and faster.
He said the preliminary engineering cost could have been as high as one million dollars (with the city providing 20 percent of that), and the engineering work could take up to five years to complete.
O’Bryant says even though they are taking back their request for GDOT funds, that doesn’t mean the project is dead.
“No, we are not going to abandon the project. We have already had some conversations with our engineer about how to accomplish the project, but we feel like we can do it cheaper and much more quickly with our own engineer, our own resources,” he says.
One key component for this project that the city will still have to get help from GDOT to install a crosswalk at Highway 115 East and Brooks Street.
