Courthouse Project Closes Another Street

Pickens County Commissioner Robert Jones made another trip to the Jasper City Council during its February 7th meeting this week. Last month, Jones paid a visit to the council meeting to give an update on the courthouse project and request the city close Depot Street for the duration of the project, a length of a year by some estimates. This time, as well as giving another update, he also made another request.

“As we get into the construction phase, the equipment’s going to mess up a lot of it (streets), “

Jones told the council, adding,

“We’re going to wind up cutting ditches across to get sewer lines in, water lines in, underground electrical—all that’s going in place. We’d like to have the opportunity to resurface those streets and get the grade re-stabilized on those.”

The commissioner asked the council permission to completely resurface Court Street and around to Wheeler Street with asphalt.

For his part, Mayor John Weaver expressed concern for the aesthetics of the street.

“My concern and the council’s concerns,”

he said,

“were that those streets around the courthouse will basically be destroyed one way or another because cutting the curbs, utilities that you were going to have to put in.”

During the discussion, City Attorney David Pickett commented that the construction is causing a substantial loss of parking spaces in the area and said that people visiting the courthouse currently use parking spaces in front of his building. The discussion then digressed into the history of Pickett’s property, part of which the city uses for a parking lot. Mayor Weaver explained that approximately ten years ago the city appropriated some of Pickett’s land for a parking lot in exchange for compensation for use of that land, in the form tax breaks. Weaver said, though, that Pickett was never granted such compensation. In response, on behalf of the county Jones offered to work something out with Pickett for the use of the land, due to the county using spaces in front of his building for parking. In the end, Pickett said that he had no problem with the streets changing to a one-way traffic flow.

Returning to the topic of the courthouse, Weaver and some council members expressed concern regarding the inconvenience to surrounding businesses. After a brief discussion and clarification of the construction process, the council thought it best to close Court Street as well as Depot. By council vote, the council approved to close Court and Depot Street from Main Street to the end of those respective streets as needed for the duration of the project. However, the council did not make any official resolution for the approval of the street closures. Commissioner Jones said that work on Court Street, Depot Street, and the Main Street will not start until April or May.