No Paving Planned for Fr. Co. Side of Freedom Drive

Franklin County will not be joining Stephens County in paving a road that runs through both.

At their meeting last week, the Stephens County Board of Commissioners voted to pave its half of Freedom Drive in the Gumlog Community.

The road off SR328 runs through both Stephens and Franklin Counties.

At that meeting, numerous residents who live on Freedom Drive spoke to Stephens County Commissioners asking for it to be paved.

Lynn Brady and his wife have owned a home on Freedom Drive for about 20 years.

He said that the road is in good condition now because maintenance was just done, but adds that the road will not stay that way for very long.

“In a month, it will be gone,” said Brady, speaking of the road’s condition. “The gravel just does not hold.”

After voting, Stephens County Commission chair Dennis Bell said they would like to get Franklin County to get their portion of the road paved at the same time.

But County manager Beth Thomas said there is no money in the budget.

“I do know that we get phone calls on Freedom Road and I have driven down it myself,” she said. “I did not realize Stephens County was moving forward with their part of the road. What I can tell you is that the cost of paving one mile of roadway is $700,000. That would mean somewhere between 1.5 – 2 mils from everyone in the county to pave one mile of road. It’s very expensive.”

Months ago, the county developed and the commission approved its LMIG road list of projects for FY2015.

The Local Maintenance and Improvement Grant comes from the Georgia Department of Transportation and is applied for every year.

Thomas said Freedom Drive is not on the FY15 LMIG road list.

Thomas did not say whether the Freedom Drive paving project would be put on the next round of LMIG projects.

Charlie Bauder, WNEG Radio, contributed to this report.