Warner Robins Council approves lowering speed limit

Warner Robins Mayor and council approved lowering the speed limit from 55 to 45 miles per hour on Russell Parkway from Elaine Drive all the way to Highway 41, Tuesday.

Mayor Randy Toms said that the decision to lower the speed limit came from what the city is doing in conjunction with the Houston County Board of Commissioners in funding and installing a traffic light at the intersection of Russell Parkway and Tharpe Road.

“Our public safety, police officers and firefighters, and I myself, when I was a firefighter, have witnessed too many terrible wrecks out there,” Toms said. “This, along with the traffic light, are two efforts in

making it a safe area to travel.”

Warner Robins Police Chief John Wagner said the change was also made because the city added dual turn lanes at the intersection of Russell Parkway and Lake Joy Road.

“This is to help with growth in that area and to slow some of those folks down as they’re coming up to the traffic lights,” Wagner said. “There are schools out there, commercial businesses and restaurants, and again, like the mayor has said, there have been some terrible accidents out there. We truly hope that this will help improve the safety in this area.”

Speed limit signs were scheduled to be in place on Wednesday. Wagner also said that officers are not allowed to issue citations until approval from the Georgia Department of Transportation. After approval, there will be a 30-day warning period. Once it is over, officers will issue the full speeding citation.

In other business, council approved Toms’ nominations for a new municipal chief judge as well as a second municipal court judge. Those nominations were for Chief Judge, Monica Wilburn and for the second judge, Sherri Campbell. After the meeting Toms said he had several discussions with Fred Graham, former chief municipal court judge, and said Graham wanted to step down and serve only as the city attorney.

Graham, earlier this month, sought an opinion from the state’s Judicial Qualifications Commission. Toms said that he and Graham spoke with former city attorney Jim Elliott, who found there was no conflict in serving as both a judge and city attorney, but Chuck Boring, Judicial Qualifications Commission director, stated in his opinion, it is conflicting. He also stated that there was no legal binding to the opinion. Toms said both he and Graham agreed that Graham should only serve in one role.

During the meeting Toms also brought forth the discussion of the municipal court renovation project. He reminded the council that last year, they decided to freeze the project as the company selected for the bid, Parrish Construction, was coming in over budget.

“We then placed the project back out for bid,” Toms said. “There were four companies that submitted, and they submitted on the most recent change council had prior to freezing the project. However, all four companies came in over budget.”

With the new change, which was the front entrance design, Parrish Construction came within budget, but council had instead chosen to freeze the project. Toms suggested Tuesday that the council reconsiders moving forward with Parrish Construction. All council members agreed as it was noted that the city is past due of its stay in the current facility the court is in. The projected is estimated to cost $2.6 million.

It was also brought before council to vote on two appointments to fill unexpired terms of seats on the Downtown Development Authority Board. Councilman Clifford Holmes submitted the nominees: Miranda Britt and Alvin Robinson. Councilmen Keith Lauritsen, Charlie Bibb and Kevin Lashley stated they had nothing against the two nominees, but did not want to vote as they were not fully informed or had any discussion of the nominees.

“I never had any discussion with anyone about these nominees, and so I think going forward, to have a better stream line of communication and be transparent, we should hold off on voting on these appointments tonight,” Bibb said. “I think these two individuals are great, but just to be fair, we should let all of council think it over or present their own nominees.”

Lashley also said that when he was on the board, he was appointed by the mayor and did not require a council vote. Council then voted 3-3, and Toms decided to table the matter until the next meeting.

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