County officials discussed their opinion Tuesday night that progress is being made on improving some of the county’s numerous dirt roads.

At Tuesday’s County Board of Commissioners meeting, commissioners agreed to hold a road and bridge workshop on Thursday, March 3 at 6 p.m. The meeting will be held in the conference room of the County Administration Building, located at 203 W. Broughton St.

The purpose of the meeting is to set the priorities for a proposed additional one-cent regional sales tax which would go toward funding transportation projects, County Administrator Tom Patton said. County voters will get to vote in 2012 on whether or not to participate in the program, which was passed by the Georgia Legislature last year but does not yet have the effect of law.

Patton said Decatur County has to ready its list of proposed paving and re-surfacing projects that would take advantage of the special sales tax for roads by March 24. County commissioners also expressed interest in having County Public Works Superintendent Dennis Medley present at next Thursday’s meeting.

John Sam Road repaving underway

Commissioner Russell Smith said he had noticed Public Works had finally begun work the repaving of John Sam Road. The project had been delayed due to cold weather and the availability of a particular kind of asphalt required by the Georgia DOT for projects it funds. John Sam Road connects Spring Creek Road and Dothan Road a couple of miles west of Bainbridge.

Patton said the base coat of asphalt had been laid down the previous week and Public Works began pouring the top coat on Tuesday. Once that was done, workers will have to let the top coat set in place over several days’ time and then Public Works could come back and repave where the road connects to driveways.

Closed session results

Commissioners held an approximately 30-minute closed session to consider land acquisition and litigation. Upon returning from executive session, no action was taken on the litigation matter as it was remanded to the county attorney to handle.

The land acquisition matter required action in the form of approving an additional amendment for land approved for purchase at a previous meeting for landfill expansion and industrial development. The amendment states that the seller of the land (BASF Corp.) requires an environmental study be done on the property in question and the Board of Commissioners agrees to abide by the findings of that study once it has been completed.