Blackshear City Council discussed and/or voted on the following during their monthly work session on Tuesday, October 6. No regular meeting was held for the month of October.
No October regular meeting: The regularly scheduled City Council meeting for Tuesday, October 13,was canceled due to lack of agenda items requiring consideration of or action by the council.
2027 LMIG project: The city council briefly discussed possible candidates for the 2027 Local Maintenance and Improvement Grant (LMIG) project. The Georgia Department of Transportation typically helps fun LMIG projects, but in the words of Mayor Keith Brooks, “We have paved just about everything that needs to be paved or repaved, except for what will be in our Transportation Investment Act (TIA) bundle.”
The road under consideration for the 2027 LMIG project is the alley located behind Main Street, extending from Highway Avenue to NE Central Avenue. The project would include resurfacing and related roadway improvements to improve the condition, safety and usability of the alley, including removing a slight “dog-leg” to straighten it.
Better Hometown Manager Bethany Strickland had previously suggested that the area could be made to serve as a “food truck court”.
Park renovation update: Work has already begun on what promises to be an extensive renovation project to update Blackshear City Park. So far, all work has been done by workers employed by the city.
Shrubbery, sidewalks and the old tennis courts within the project area have already been removed.
Monuments are in the process of being removed. The war memorials will be returned and placed in their new locations once they have been re-bronzed.
City officials met with the architect and engineer of record last week. Temporary grass will be put in place to make the area acceptable while hosting the Pecan Festival in November. The remaining major construction activities will begin following the festival.
Chippie St. paving: Work is underway on the Chippie Street paving project. The existing dirt road has been widened and prepped for paving with a soil-cement base installed to create a stable foundation for the new road.
The project is now moving into the final paving phase, with asphalt installation expected to begin soon.
Library board vacancy: Malayna Wetherington has resigned from her seat on the Pierce County Library Board, citing increased responsibilities at her job.
The council briefly discussed appointing a representative to fill Wetherington’s unexpired term. Mayor Brooks said he hoped to have a list of candidates for the council to consider by the end of last week. The individual appointed will serve the remainder of the current term, which expires December 31.
The City of Blackshear has two seats on the library board based upon their share of funding for the local library.
Department Reports Blackshear Police Dept. Report: BPD reported 18 vehicular accidents in the month of September, including one with injuries. Three warnings and 101 citations and two ordinance violations were recorded. Top cause of accidents was reported as “following too close”.
There were only three arrests in September, all adults, which is a 62.5% decrease compared to September 2025. However, assaults, forgery, vandalism and DUI were all up in comparison to the same period last year.
Blackshear Volunteer Fire Dept. Report: BFD responded to 37 different events in October, two of which were canceled en route. BFD workers and volunteers completed a total of 197 cumulative hours of activities and training.
Public Works Dept: Last month, the department conducted 25 water and sewer locates, five sewer service repairs and four sewer main repairs. There were also five meter box replacements, four meter lid replacement and three valve replacements. There were two water service repairs and three water main repairs. There were 65 leak checks, locating 55. There were also 25 read checks, 10 close outs, 25 service cut offs, 21 services cut back on and 15 new consumers connected in September. There were no incidents of consumer tampering during the reporting period.
Public works also performed routine grass maintenance, replaced damaged street signs, conducted routine cleaning of storm drains, repaired potholes and performed routine limb trimming and did routine grass maintenance at the cemetery.
Main Street Program: Program director Bethany Strickland was on vacation, so the Main Street/Better Hometown program report was not available at the time of publication.
Next meeting: The council will hold its next work session, meeting at 4:30 p.m. Tuesday, November 3 and its next regular meeting at 6 p.m. Tuesday, November 10.
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