The new city hall and multipurpose building for Midway is on track, officials say, and they are asking for an additional $1.7 million from the Liberty County Public Facilities Authority to cover rising building cost estimates.
Midway allocated its $1.1 million in Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax funds for the new building and the city plans to use the SPLOST income to pay off bonds issued to finance the building.
Midway Mayor Dr. Clemontine Washington said at the city’s council meeting Monday that the new cost estimate totaled a little more than $2 million.
In late 2016 the city’s architect, Judson Bryant, said that the original $1 million figure meant the project would have to be built on a “very, very tight budget.”
Midway officials had said they hoped the new city hall could be completed this year. No new time line for the project has been announced.
In other business Monday the Midway mayor and council hired two new police officers, Matthew McKnight and Joe A. Prince. These officers replace two Midway policemen who were hired by the Liberty County Sheriff’s Office.
The council had a long discussion with Nils Gustavson of the Liberty Consolidated Planning Commission about centerline road and street mileage inside the city limits. The Georgia Department of Transportation uses the centerline mileage to allocate Local Maintenance Improvement Grant funds to cities and counties. City Clerk Gloria Cook-Osborne tracks Midway’s centerline mileage and she said there had been confusion about the correct figure since 2012. Some reports said Midway had 13.95 miles of city-owned roads and streets; other figures were 13.72, 13.54 and 15.98.
Gustavson said the mileage was important not only for LMIG allocations but also for the 911 system and in the census.
He said he would meet with Cook-Osborne and County Engineer Trent Long to determine the correct centerline mileage. He said part of the problem resulted from a computer virus attack on the local Geographic Information System.
After a long discussion the council voted to repair potholes on the right of way along Butler Avenue, the main street of Midway’s business district. Owners of property adjoining the repair area will be contacted in the hope that they will choose to repair potholes in parking lots and other areas not owned by the city.
Documents approved Monday gave formal legal effect to a decision made more than six months ago to transfer Midway’s 1937 Henry Ford fire truck to Richmond Hill for display in a museum. Midway sold the fire truck for one dollar.