Cordele will install video cameras

By PEGGY KING

CORDELE — Police here soon will have an extra tool to help them identify suspected perpetrators in criminal cases.

City commissioners took action Tuesday night at their regular meeting to accept bids for 60 wireless video cameras which will be installed in various high crime areas of the city. Police officers will monitor the cameras that will allow them access to footage up to 30 days.

Public Safety Director Dwayne Orrick explained that the cameras will be purchased with grant funds that were awarded in the amount of $480,000.

The city’s newest commissioner, Curtis Lucas Jr. presented several concerns from constituents.

He said street lights on Joe Wright Dr. seem dim in some places, and he asked what could be done to make them brighter.

After some discussion, city officials agreed to ask Crisp County Power if there is a new kind of light that would be brighter and more energy-efficient. “Some lights may need to be replaced,” Chairman Zack Wade said. “If there is a better product on the market, we can use it when we make those replacements.”

Lucas also mentioned potholes and washed out roads and the need to repaint center lines on streets. City Manager Jean Burnette asked him to give her a list of the roads that need work, and Assistant City Manager Steve Fulford said plans already are in place to paint center lines. “We are waiting on the weather to warm up,” he said.

Finally, the new commissioner asked about the possibility of re-establishing a police precinct in the area of the housing projects on 22nd, 23rd and 24th Ave. W. in an effort to reduce crime. At one time there was a precinct in that area, Lucas said.

“That’s a funding issue,” Wade said. Before such a precinct could be established, additional funds would have to be appropriated to the police department.

Commissioner Jimmy Black recommended that the Darton College project be added to the commission priorities list. Wade suggested infrastructure for the intermodal center project also be added.

“Those are the two biggest things we’ve got going for us right now,” Black said.

“We want to encourage them any way we can,” Commissioner Jeanie Bartee added.

After having gone through the appropriate legal channels, city officials will be able to demolish unsafe structures and clean lots at four different locations in the city, then bill property owners for their work.

Ordinances that allow such action were adopted Tuesday night on properties at 708 S. 10th St., 404 W. 9th Ave., 502 W. 11th Ave. & 103 N. 11th St. which belong to the same owner and 404 N. 12th St.

Should similar ordinances be approved at the next commission meeting, additional properties at 307 E. 9th Ave., 304 W. 8th Ave., 308 W. 8th Ave. and 609 W. 9th Ave. will be cleaned up.

In other business:

• Burnette reported that construction on the Frontage Rd. widening project will begin soon. That street will be closed south of Crisp County High School, but customers and employees of businesses near Hwy. 300 will have access from Kelly Rd., she reported.

• Fulford said all the cities between Cordele and Richland on Hwy. 280 are asking the DOT to shorten the time frame for widening that roadway. This is to facilitate additional truck traffic that will be generated when the intermodal center opens in Cordele.

• A new health insurance rate schedule for employees was approved. The new rates which will be higher than current ones go into effect in February.

• Licenses for the sale of alcoholic beverages were approved for four locations in the city.

• Finance Director Edward Beach reviewed the results of the most recent city audit with commissioners.

• Committee appointments that were tabled at the previous meeting were made as follows: (1) Lovie Wheeler to the Library Board; (2) John Thompson to the Fire Code Board of Adjustments & Appeals (A&A;); (3) Lucas and Willie Colson to the Cross Connection Control Program Board;

(4) Black to the economic development revolving loan board; (5) Sonny Dowell to the Handicap Committee; (6) Commissioner A. J. Rivers and Ulysses Morgan to the storm water drainage board.

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