September meeting of Watkinsville city council short and to the point, but not without substance

LAD Trucking let the City of Watkinsville officially know Wednesday evening at the meeting at the Community Center of the urgent need to expand after an ultra-successful partnership with Carrier truck lines had made every inch of the expansive property on Barnett Shoals Road used as far as storage for the refrigerator front end of the cooler big rigs you see carrying frozen goods down the road. 

Mack Guest IV of LAD Trucking

With Caterpillar keeping the economic boom going locally, the need for trucking will continue to expand for a while, and Watkinsville will remain a hub in transit, metal, pottery, and glass for the foreseeable future.

Watkinsville City Council September 11, 2013

The City Council listened to engineer Mark Campbell before approving the less than one acre disturbance on the back end of the old Southwire property. Some discussion was exchanged about storm water run off and the tributaries of the the nearby Oconee River, and the motion contained language addressing these concerns.

Essentially the local economy is doing well enough for Mr. Mack Guests and family can continue to move freight efficiently out of their Barnett Shoals location. Brian Brodrick abstained from voting for the otherwise unanimously approved motion due to his firm Jackson Spalding representing LAD Trucking's public relations efforts. 

Ken Beall

A year or so ago local landscape architect Ken Beall appeared before the city council to keep them apprised of the LAD land acquisition and possible near future plans. The plat that Beall unveiled Wednesday was actually smaller due to time and regulatory constraints imposed out of the bureaucratic stronghold of Washington, Georgia, where anywhere from 30 to 45 days may await anyone disturbing more than an acre of sacred red clay. 

He explained the difference in plat design in great length and detail to the council's approval.

Sharon Ivey of Creative Edge

Otherwise the meeting approved a business license for Sharon Ivey to start her Creative Edge floral design at 1410 Greensboro Highway Suite C & D and went six feet under for Mitchell Powell to have a home business for his catalog sales of shirts, ties, and flat suits for funeral homes in his SCP Business Solutions LLC. One more appearance was tabled at the request of Mike Link for April Harder to come back for her Main Street Consulting at 46 South Main Street for a future meeting after no one appeared on her behalf. 

Miss Kate McDaniel of Another Positive Voice for Oconee blog and the non Watkinsville resident of Brittan Estates and the Oconee GOP party

Mitchell Powell

asked Mayor Ivie to explain his view of the recent water woes facing First Chrisitan Church where she is a member. 

She choose to speak with a recently retired pipe fitting salesman and he did a very good sales job on her.  In what was tantamount to the first meeting of his second term, Ivie talked about the flow of water and the size of the pipe to Miss Kate's satisfaction.

Sidewalks were also addressed with a running resident of Christian Lake who wishes the current sidewalks were maintained better and the new sidewalks would be on at least some part of Harden Hill Road.  The new sidewalks coming with the latest edition of the Streetscape were the impetus for the audience query.

Mayor Charles Ivie

 Mayor Ivie indicated that at least 29 segments of the sidewalk are in need of repair, and council member Brian Brodrick added that repairs will be in forthcoming budgets as well as more sidewalks inside the city limits.

Tree trimming and overhanging limbs will be going on in the south end of the historic Main Street area this week.

With no further business either old or new, the meeting was adjourned well before 8:00 pm.

Kate McDaniel listens to Ken Beall