Henry County and its four cities have been going full steam ahead toward having a referendum this fall regarding a transportation special-purpose local option sales tax (T-SPLOST).

The Board of Commissioners voted at its July 7 regular meeting to approve an intergovernmental agreement with Stockbridge, McDonough, Locust Grove and Hampton. The vote was 5-1 with Bruce Holmes in opposition. Each of the city councils involved has considered the IGA this month, and the county commissioners were scheduled to take up the matter again at their July 20 meeting, after this edition went to press.

County manager Cheri Hobson-Matthews and transportation planning director Sam Baker presented the final IGA at the July 7 meeting with project lists from all four cities and highlighted changes that were made from last month’s workshop meeting. Major transportation widening projects such as Jonesboro Road, Rock Quarry Road, Bill Gardner Parkway, Fairview Road, and McDonough Parkway will be part of the large-scale investment. Other projects include resurfacing, intersection improvements, sidewalks and bike lanes across the county.

Matthews said that once the approved IGA is shared and accepted by each of the respective cities, staff would bring the IGA back before the board so that commissioners could call for a T-SPLOST referendum at the July 20 board meeting.
“The cities have worked very hard to partner on projects that they can collaborate on and I have heard from at least three city managers that said that they don’t foresee any issues happening once they take the IGA to their respective cities,” she said. “I think we are headed in the right direction in moving to the next step.”