FLOWERY BRANCH - One person who said he's glad Tropical Storm Andrea didn't dump much rain in this part of Georgia is Flowery Branch Mayor Mike Miller.
The city suffered flooding last month when seven inches of rain fell in a matter of hours. Miller said Friday morning all roads that were flooded on May 19 are now open, even though he said there's still a temporary road in place on Spring Street.
"That's one of the issues we talked about last night [at Council]," he said. "We're going to go in an replace that with a box culvert and once we get that in place, we can take the temporary road up."
Spring Street has been a problem spot in the past; a portion of the road also washed away during a flood in 2009, according to Miller. He said if more heavy rains should come, he's hopeful the temporary fix will hold, but there's no guarantee.
Miller said city council members found out at their Thursday night meeting that they will get some help from the state on repairing roads that were damaged during last month's floods. The $200,000 grant will come from a Georgia Department of Transportation emergency fund.
"Hopefully, the council is looking at in a matter of months being able to re-do all five of those culverts along Flowery Branch Creek," said Miller.
Fortunately, said Miller, the grant money and a good fiscal plan that the city had in place will not add much of an extra burden on the city. Miller said council also approved a budget for FY 2014 that not only holds the millage rate in check, but allows for merit raises for city staff.
"We were able to with our expected increase in LOST [funding] and just some good fiscal conservative budgeting by our staff...we are able to put in there a merit pay increase for city employees," said Miller.
Miller said some 30 city employees will be eligible for up to a three-percent pay raise under the new budget.
Thursday
October 24th, 2024
10:21PM
