The Henry County Board of Commissioners voted at its May 19 regular meeting to approve a resolution authorizing staff to solicit engineering proposals for the proposed I-75 interchange at Bethlehem Road, south of McDonough and north of Locust Grove. The vote was 5-1 with Bruce Holmes in opposition.

  During the staff presentation, SPLOST transportation director Roque Romero pointed out that it is an approved countywide SPLOST IV project, and that a feasibility study has already been completed in addition to an interchange justification report.

  “The next step for this project is to design the new interchange which will be located near Bethlehem Road,” said Romero.

  There was a long discussion between the commissioners about the project details, timeline and bidding process. Several expressed concerns about the project and wanted to know if it could be broken down into sections, as well as whether there would be participation by the Georgia Department of Transportation and Federal Highway Administration.

  Romero laid out the phases of the project and the order in which certain tasks would be completed. The first phase consists of a survey, a concept plan and an environmental plan. Preliminary plans, right-of-way plans and final plans will come in the second phase. County manager Cheri Hobson-Matthews said that the next resolution to come before the board will identify individual tasks and the monetary amount for each task.

   “Once phase one of the project is complete, GDOT and the Federal Highway Administration will be a part of the conversation,” said Matthews. “If we want to retain any federal dollars that may be allocated to the project, we have to do the design services as a professional service.”

  In other business, elections director Ameika Pitts gave an update that included the latest voter information. More than 175,000 registered voters are on the rolls in Henry County with approximately 8,500 that are inactive and 479 that are pending, according to her report.

  A total of 166,495 absentee ballot applications have been mailed out to Henry County citizens and more than 30,000 of those have been filled out and submitted to the elections office. Pitts said that her department also received 10,301 absentee ballots – 5,281 were Democratic ballots, 4,804 were Republican ballots and 213 were Non-partisan ballots.

   With early voting underway, staff and poll workers have been taking the necessary precautions to practice social distancing at all polling locations. Pitts said that due to COVID-19, the Red Oak Methodist Church voting location has been moved to the Red Oak Elementary school gymnasium, which is next door to the church in Stockbridge.

   “I feel like for the past two days, we have been very successful with keeping up with social distancing guidelines,” said Pitts. “All employees are wearing masks and gloves ensuring that we not only protect ourselves but our citizens as well.”