Received today; he sent it to all the Commissioners. -jsq

James
Manes 107 Shiloh Rd. Ray City,
GA 31605

Regarding
Regular session held Jan 22, 2013; Agenda 7 B, a request for road
abandonment, I would like to state my opinion.

The
road abandonment was to close a section of County Road 16 Old State
Road. I feel this issue is not a open and shut case.

The
county has determined “the road has been ceased to be used by the
public”, and has no “substantial public purpose”.

I
am aware the law (32-7-2 a) states “The department must confer with
the governing authority of the county’s or municipalities
(Unincorporated Naylor GA.), and give due consideration to their
wishes in such abandonment.”

I
have not been able to find any public records of

road usage
monitoring, and I strongly feel that the local community was not
asked their opinion on this matter.

1. Regarding
   “Usage
   by Citizens”

This
road is
used by numerous citizens of Naylor GA., and citizens of the
surrounding communities as it dead ends into the Alapaha River.

A
local petition gathered almost 250 signatures in a matter of days to
keep this road open.

This
is the only public road in Lowndes County with Alapaha river access.

1. Regarding
   “Substantial
   Public Purpose”

I
have reviewed the

audio / video tape of the Jan 22 meeting, and on
record council members were regarding the road as “dead ending into
a stream”.

As
stated above, the public road leads to the “Alapaha River”.

This
“river” meets the requirements to be a protected river by GA law
391-3-16-.04 section (i), as the river annually flows more than the
required 400 cubic feet per second (This fact is documented by US
Geological Surveys), and section (m) should have a county maintained
150 ft. buffer or “protective corridor”, from the tops of the
riverbank horizontally on both sides of the river.

This
road is
used for access to the river by local citizens for family and outdoor
recreational purposes in this protected area.

With
the amount of concerned citizens having already signing the petition
only a matter of days, (and this is the winter, most people who use
the road for river access use it in the spring and summer and may not
even realize it is about to be closed), and the evidence documenting
the importance of this “RIVER”, I hope Lowndes County Board of
Commissioners will reconsider closing this road.

Thank
You,

James
Manes

Lowndes
County Tax Payer.

Update 2013-02-27: Fixed name in headline.