By a few steps this week, Statesboro's city government moves forward with plans to extend natural gas service in the area where a Kroger supermarket is being built, install two roundabouts on Cawana Road and add a turn lane on Fair Road from Arby's up to Zetterower Avenue.
A new contract for the gas system project and specific task orders linked to existing engineering contracts for the two road projects are among the last items on City Council's agenda for its 5:30 p.m. Tuesday, Sept. 15 regular meeting. The third hearing over the city's proposed property tax millage rate increase and council vote to set the millage are scheduled for much earlier in the meeting.
That 5:30 p.m. voting meeting will also follow a 4 p.m. mayor and council work session, also open to the public but with no votes scheduled, on four topics that will be listed farther below.
But the last of the detailed items on the voting meeting agenda relates to something that has been hard to miss lately when people drive by the Cypress Lake Road intersection with Veterans Memorial Parkway. Work with earthmoving machines at the site of the planned Kroger supermarket produced for a time an enormous hole in the ground, now partially refilled as drainage structures are installed and the pad built back up.
In other words, the $45 million Kroger complex isn't literally "going vertical" yet, but the horizontal preparations are well underway. With 28 acres in the city and three acres in the county and mixed-use zoning approved by the city last December, the project can also include a neighborhood addition for housing between the shopping center and the existing Whisper Pines subdivision.
Gas line extension
So the city is expanding its natural gas system in that vicinity. The agenda item is "consideration of a motion" awarding a $164,900 contract to D. Lance Souther Inc. for "installation of natural gas facilities along Cypress Lake Road and Veterans Memorial Parkway to serve Kroger and adjacent developments."
A bid tabulation sheet shows that D. Lance Souther offered the lowest price of four companies that bid. The next-lowest bid was $179,931, and the highest was $189,121. A city staff memo from Public Utilities Director Matt Aycock states that the winning bid was well below the engineer's estimate of $198,222.
Souther is expected to install approximately 2,700 feet of 4-inch natural gas main and 1,175 feet of 2-inch natural gas service lines. The project is being funded by sales revenue of the city-owned natural gas system.
Cawana roundabouts
Meanwhile, the project to install two roundabouts as intersection improvements on Cawana Road isn't at the construction phase yet.
But a contract, at an overall amount of $212,500 with American Engineers Inc., later acquired by STV Inc., to design and engineer the roundabouts for the intersections at Brannen Street and S&S Railroad Bed Road was approved by the council back on May 21, 2024. As designed, the project also includes a short segment of multi-use trail.
The only part of the project on the council agenda this week is a specific task order with STV Inc. to obtain a permit from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers for impact on "waters of the United States" and a "state waters buffer variance" from the Georgia Environmental Protection Division, or EPD. The stated total cost of these tasks (rounded to nearest dollar) is $24,285.
For the engineering and construction of this project, the city has $3.3 million budgeted from the Transportation Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax, or T-SPLOST installment approved by Bulloch County voters back in 2018.
Fair Road turn lane
Similarly, a subcontract or task order is set to be approved for the Atlas Technical Consultants LLC to carry out right of way negotiations for the project to add a turn lane on Fair Road from Pitt-Moore Road, which is just south of Arby's, up to the Zetterower Avenue intersection. This area contains a strip of fast-food places, and traffic sometimes slows down or stops during busy hours, particularly in the northbound, righthand lane.
Atlas Technical Consultants was approved for a design contract, also back on May 21, 2024, at a total price of $385,634, but the task order cost for right of way negotiations is $82,500. According to the city memo from Public Works and Engineering Director Brad Deal, the negotiations could involve owners of 15 parcels for the easements needed to complete the project.
Funding for the Fair Road turn lane project will be from T-SPLOST under the 2018 and 2023 referendums.
Summit apts. bonds
The council is also being asked for a vote to approve a $12 million bond issuance by the Housing Authority of the City of Statesboro, for Statesboro Summit Housing Partners LP to buy and renovate Statesboro Summit, the apartment building at 241 North Main St., with its 98 units.
But the resolution states that the city is not endorsing the bonds to prospective lenders and that they "shall not constitute an indebtedness or obligation of the city of Statesboro" or the county or state. Instead, they will be repayable solely by Statesboro Summit Housing Partners as the borrower.
Work session
The 4 p.m. work session was slated to include presentations or discussion concerning: 1. the Robotics Center being completed near the Ogeechee Technical College main campus; 2. the Statesboro Convention and Visitors Bureau; 3. an update on the city's Housing Rehabilitation and Construction program; and 4. trees for the Art Park.