News: transit & sewer line trails

Some encouraging updates from this week's Flagpole:

Re: a Local Option Transit Tax bill:

“There is a lot of momentum for additional transportation funding,” even though a local-option transportation sales tax didn’t make it through. “That issue is not dead,” [state Senator Bill Cowsert] said.

and

In a meeting that stretched well past midnight, ACC Commissioners last week asked county staffers to consider whether the planned upgrade of an Eastside sewer line paralleling Lexington Road might double as a recreational trail.

The line runs through a mostly undeveloped area - although both the county and UGA have plans to build new bridges nearby to span the North Oconee River.

Cities like Chapel Hill and Greensboro, NC are exploring such joint uses of sewer routes, [commissioner David] Lynn said; and while not all sewer routes are suited to walking and biking trails, “this particular one seems right” if property owners don’t object, he said. The route goes through a roadless area, commissioners noted, and could connect with the Greenway trail that will soon be extended southward along the river to the vicinity of the new Bailey Street wastewater treatment plant scheduled to be built by 2011 (and extended, eventually, along the river to College Station Road).