In his first official appearance before the Henry County Board of Commissioners, the county’s new transportation planning director outlined a number of needs and made several recommendations on how to address them.

  Sam Baker, who has been on the job since November, said that the transportation plan and transit plan which were developed in 2016 need to be updated, and he also called for the creation of a trails plan as well as incentives to reduce the number of vehicles on the road.

  There have been a number of changes since the county’s comprehensive transportation plan took shape, Baker said, including the fact that the population has increased. He compared the plan to a doctor’s X-ray, designed to examine what the situation is now and what should be done going forward.

  A number of transportation projects were submitted to the Atlanta Regional Commission last October, but Baker has learned that some of those are not in the comprehensive transportation plan. That is a problem when about 20 counties are competing for funds, he pointed out.

  “The first question they will ask is whether it is in the plan,” he said. “If the current plan does not meet our needs, we should update it.”

  There is $500,000 in funding from the ARC with which to update the plan, provided the county commit 20 percent in matching funds or $125,000. Baker said that the county should not foot that bill alone, but should invite the four cities to share in the cost at a level equal to their share of the county’s overall population.

  As for the transit plan, the biggest change since 2016 is the creation of the Atlanta-region Transit Link Authority. Any projects for which the county would want state or federal money must be in the ATL transit plan, according to Baker.

  There is also Federal Transit Administration funding available to overhaul the transit plan with a 20-percent local match. The county’s transit director will come before the commissioners in March to request those matching funds for a transit plan update, Baker said.

  A county trails plan has never been developed, although it was recommended in the comprehensive transportation plan. Baker requested that the board set aside $150,000 to fine-tune the trail concepts proposed in the comprehensive plan so that a network of interconnected trails can be developed.

  When he attended an ARC roundtable recently, Baker received numerous positive comments regarding the recent unveiling of the Panola Mountain Greenway Trail, but he added that the county is lagging behind compared to other counties in trail plans and construction. Most of those counties have their own logos to identify their trail systems, and Baker recommended that Henry County create one as well. He also suggested that the cities participate in this area as far as funding and planning.

  The final point Baker addressed was TDM, which stands for Transportation Demand Management. He covered such topics as commute options and strategies which can lower the demand on the county’s roads at given time. Those alternatives include flexible work schedules; carpool, vanpool and transit; and teleworking.

  These considerations do not cost anything, Baker noted, while building and expanding roads would take time as well as money. Some employers offer financial incentives to get employees to leave their vehicles at home, and the county should educate local businesses and agencies about that option, he said.

  In the ensuing commissioner discussion, it was mentioned that more county residents are walking to and from the store and at other times, not just for leisure. Several members of the board agreed that an updated comprehensive transportation plan should include such features as pedestrian bridges across busy roadways, as well as sidewalks and crosswalks. Baker concurred, saying that pedestrians are typically overlooked when transportation plans are developed.

   Baker said that it was suggested for him to update the commissioners on a quarterly basis, and he commended the board for its efforts to prioritize this issue, noting that it is the only municipality in the region with a transportation planning department.