Town Hall Meeting Scheduled for Nov. 10, 2011

A Town Hall Meeting will be held on November 10, 2011 at 6pm at the Wayne Kirby Community Center at Burnt Hickory Park. The Paulding County Board of Commissioners will be giving an update on the status of the Western Commercial Connector project, as well as allowing the citizens of Paulding County the opportunity to speak on the issue of the Toll Road.


Burnt Hickory Park is located at 8650 Cartersville Hwy Dallas, GA  30132.

September 21, 2011 - "Update on Toll Road Project" from the Industrial Building Authority Meeting

Below is a transcript from the agenda item "Update on Toll Road Project" from the Industrial Building Authority Meeting held on September 21, 2011. 

Blake Swafford: 

Update on the Toll Road Project - There's not really a whole lot to update there. I think everyone is aware at this point that Vance Smith has submitted his resignation with the Georgia Department of Transportation. I understand that there is a search going on for a replacement. I think it's probably prudent for us to - uh - not to completely stop what we're doing, but at least slow down a little bit and wait until we have another DOT Commissioner on board. Obviously, that person will need to be up-to-speed on what we're doing. RDC has adopted some language for their legislative policy earlier this year that supports the project. It doesn't mention the project specifically, but it doesn't need to. Also, some of the other ABC groups that deal with transportation projects, I think, are cooking up some similar language that would support our project or a project like ours. The project continues to be talked about in the transportation industry, which is a good thing, and we continue to just work on the details as we await a new DOT commissioner. So, I don't know if there were any questions..

David Austin: 

Blake and I, along with Scott, had a great meeting... I can't remember if this took place since our last meeting, with Gena Evans. You want to highlight that meeting... she gave us some good input.

Blake Swafford: 

Yep, we went down and met with Mrs. Evans, who's head of the State Road Toll Authority. Presented the project, got some feedback from her. The feedback was all positive, which I quite frankly was concerned about, the State Road Toll Authority, whether or not they would have a positive outlook on a project like this. She was very positive and very supportive, and that was a relief to hear. She did spend quite a bit of time giving us a tour around their facilities and kind of pointing out some things that we would need to look at in the future in terms of toll collections and things like that. The State is going to a standard system that will address all toll collections in the state of Georgia, and that's a good thing. That takes something off of our plate that we don't have to try to figure out. So, assuming at some point in time in the future if we move forward with the project, we'll end-up doing an intergovernmental agreement with the State to allow them to do the Toll collections, which again takes something off of our plate that we don't have to try to figure out.  So those are good things, and it was a very positive meeting.

David Austin: 

She was very informed, she knew about as much about our project as what we showed her. She's a fireball.

Blake Swafford: 

Smart lady.

Paulding Officials Still Hopeful Of Western Toll Road

Paulding County officials still hoping to be build a western commercial connector through Coweta, Carroll, Paulding and Bartow counties say they plan to present revised alignments to Coweta county officials next week. 


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Multi-County Toll Road Called 'Innovative' - Dallas-Hiram, GA Patch

Paulding County officials hope to improve interstate access to western Georgia counties and increase jobs.

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Georgia HOT Lanes Create Congestion, Disappointment

Georgia's introduction of high occupancy toll (HOT) lanes on Interstate 85 at the beginning of the month has already turned into a public relations disaster. During rush hour, motorists found themselves stranded in the general purpose lanes as the adjacent HOT lane -- constructed and maintained with their tax dollars -- were essentially unused. Drivers balked at paying the stiff $5.40 entrance tax for permission to enter, leaving the existing lane space to go to waste. Governor Nathan Deal (R) intervened swiftly on October 6 to order the State Road and Tollway Authority (SRTA) to lower the cost of using the toll lane.
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Joint Development Authorities

Here is an article on Joint Development Authorities.

Private Roads, Public Costs

The Facts About Toll Road Privatization and How to Protect the Public - Here is an article detailing some of the pitfalls to using private money to fund public projects.

Eminent Domain: Private Property Rights v. Economic Development

Here is an excellent article on eminent domain. It only takes about 10 minutes to read, and well worth it.

June 7, 2011 - Carroll County Board of Commissioners Meeting

Here is a link to a video of the June 7, 2011 meeting of the Carroll County Board of Commissioners. The public comments on the proposed Toll road begin at the 11:30 mark in the video.

Paulding.com News clip

Here is a link to a video news piece on Paulding.com. Key points within the piece:

• At the 2:00 minute mark, Blake Swafford is quoted as saying that "while the state DOT has been studying such a route for over a decade, the state's will to move just isn't there".
• At the 4:00 minute mark, "[The County Commissioners] will be taking their presentation on the road to close the deal... the eight counties involved will provide the Development Authority with the moxie to do things like condemn property as well as determine which private companies will get the contracts to not only construct but also operate the new toll road..."

Spalding County Presentation

Here is a link to the presentation given to Spaulding County (very similar but not identical to the Carroll County presentation).

Carroll County Presentation

Here is a link to a printable version of the presentation that David Austin and Blake Swafford made to the Carroll County Board of Commissioners.

April 18, 2011 - Spalding County Board of Commissioners Extraordinary Session

Here is an excerpt from the minutes of the Spalding County Board of Commissioners Extraordinary Session on April 18, 2011 in which the Toll Road proposal was discussed.

April 8, 2011 - Paulding County Board of Commissioners passes resolution to create Joint Development Authority for Western Commercial Connector

Here are the minutes from the April 8, 2011 Paulding County Board meeting where the resolution to create the Joint Development Authority was approved (see Attachment B).