A town hall meeting led by the Ellijay Downtown Development Authority (DDA) drew much less public comment than a previous town hall in September 2021.
However, a few local residents did chime in to discuss a now-ended test run of blocked parking spaces on River Street, as well as recent discussion of how to improve pedestrian safety in downtown Ellijay.
The DDA held the first town hall prior to the no-parking trial period done to see how blocking off parking spaces would affect pedestrian safety and speeds traveled by drivers. The second town hall, held last Tuesday at Ellijay First Baptist Church Fellowship Hall, was planned to hear feedback and answer questions from the public, noted Reece Sanford, DDA chairman.
Among the attendees who offered comment was Charles Reddick, co-owner of downtown Ellijay business Antiques on North Main. Reddick’s wife, Frances, was struck by a car while crossing North Main Street last February.
The accident sparked a still ongoing discussion about what should be done to prevent further accidents from happening in the busy downtown area.
“My concerns are not (with) River Street, but North Main. Nothing is getting done on North Main except study, study, study,” said Reddick, who also mentioned the need for a crosswalk or speed table on North Main Street.
“Everybody uses the church parking lot because the church lets them. Everybody crosses the street from that parking lot. We need a crosswalk,” he said.
Sanford replied that although it is still part of that ongoing traffic study, a raised crosswalk on North Main Street is something currently being considered by the city council.
“No guarantee, but it is being discussed,” Sanford said. The DDA has also discussed the need for raised crosswalks with speed bumps, he added.
Reddick also suggested the city lower the speed limit to 15 mph on North Main Street.
“We see them constantly, all day long, speeding down North Main,” he said.
Town hall attendee Kimberly Reckles asked if the DDA is looking into adding more handicapped parking downtown.
“We have a huge elderly and handicapped population here, and we should accommodate them as a welcoming and nurturing community first and foremost. Ideally, the more handicapped parking spaces we have, the better,” she said.
Sanford said the DDA had initially wanted to include some type of temporary handicapped parking in their test run proposal, but there is “all kinds of red tape” involved with having temporary handicapped spaces.
“One of the things we specifically talked about ... (was out of) those 18 spots on the roundabout, if you took away some of them and the ones that remain make them handicapped spaces. We all liked that and wanted to explore that in our test period,” he added.
Sanford also discussed an idea about having designated handicapped unloading zones.
“Maybe you take a few spaces and make it a handicapped drop-off (area), or maybe you have a side street that has very low traffic (become a) dedicated handicapped unloading (area),” he said.
Town hall attendee Mona Lowe was curious about whether making some downtown streets one way or adding an additional traffic lane to the roundabout area was part of any of the city’s recent discussions.
“There’s a lot of talk about these things, but once you start getting into a (plan) they’re a lot more complex. We’re incrementally (working at) getting it better. It’s not going to be one fell swoop to fix it,” Sanford said.
Lowe urged the DDA and city council to keep trying even if plans are not at first approved by GDOT.
“One thing I’ve seen a lot of other cities work with is if DOT tells you ‘no,’ don’t take it. That’s just the beginning of the discussion. I’ve seen cities continue their discussions with GDOT and end up convincing them of certain projects they want to do,” she added.