Cobb Chairman Tim Lee i
Staff/File
Staff/File
But others are asking why the study — which aims to recommend the best mode and route for mass transit in Cobb — is even continuing, given that there’s now no money to implement its suggestions. And, just a week before the referendum, the county awarded a $3 million contract for an environmental study connected to whatever the AA recommends.
“We’ve got to wait until we get the results in, and see what it says,” Lee said. “See how it fits in with our other planning, and go forward from there.”
The AA is due to be released this month or next, though no firm date has been set.
Southeast Cobb Commissioner Bob Ott opposed the AA even before Tuesday’s TSPLOST referendum, preferring to see how planned toll lanes on Interstates 75 and 575 would impact Cobb’s congestion.
But with the failure of the Transportation SPLOST, which would have used a 1 percent sales tax collected for a decade to pay for $6.1 billion in transportation projects across metro Atlanta area, Ott said the AA needs to be stopped.
“The question is, is there a way to stop spending more money on this?” he said. “What is the intent and purpose at this point, because there will be no more money for what is proposed?”
On July 24, county commissioners awarded a $3 million contract to study the environmental impacts of the AA’s preferred mode and location. As with the AA, 80 percent of the environmental study will be paid for with federal dollars, and the county will pay up to $600,600 for the study, using money raised through the county’s 2011 special purpose local option sales tax.
The environmental-study contract was awarded to Kimley-Horn and Associates of Raleigh, N.C., and the commission vote was 4-1, with Ott opposed.
“Why in the world would you want to spend the money for that?” Ott said of the environmental study. “I thought it was premature then. Now (with the TSPLOST failing) it’s definitely premature.”
Chairman Lee, who sat on the Regional Roundtable committee that drafted the list of projects to be paid for if the TSPLOST were approved, said the AA will also offer suggestions for less expensive mass-transit options, in addition to a primary recommendation. The TSPLOST list included a $689 million earmark for mass transit, either bus rapid transit or presumably light rail, connecting Cobb to Midtown Atlanta.
“It deals with providing options for us as we move forward,” Lee said of the AA, adding that the study was planned before the state legislature passed the Transportation Investment Act legislation in 2010.
The AA will recommend the best mode — light rail, bus rapid transit or express bus — and the best route, either U.S. Highway 41 or Interstate 75, between Acworth or Kennesaw and the MARTA Arts Center Station, for mass transit.
Even northwest Cobb Commissioner Helen Goreham, who has supported the AA, admits it will be difficult to do anything with the study’s results.
“Until we have funding, there’s not much we can do,” she said. “We’ll have to wait and see what the study says and look to the future to see if there is funding for a mode to provide transportation for the people of this area.”
Faye DiMassimo, director of the county’s transportation agency, said the AA is useful for long-range planning.
“Any large infrastructure project requires such a step in order for it to be accomplished. The Northwest Corridor managed lanes is a great example of a similar effort, where studies began over a decade ago and it is now coming to fruition,” she said. “As with other such studies, the value of the AA lies in the identification of those needs and solutions.”
Though a firm release date isn’t scheduled, DiMassimo said the AA results are to be presented to the Board of Commissioners by September.
DiMassimo said that after the study is complete, the county will determine what money is available from the federal government and other sources, though she acknowledged that the TSPLOST failure will delay implementation of any recommended project. The environmental study, she said, is the next step in the AA process and ensures the county remains eligible for federal dollars.
“As with any project at this stage … without an identified funding commitment, construction is unknown,” she said.
Bill Byrne, who will face Lee in an Aug. 21 runoff to be the county’s next chairman, said that if he is elected, any AA recommendations are dead on arrival. He believes Cobb’s suburban neighbors, not downtown Atlanta, are where the growth is.
“I would say, ‘Thank you very much. I applaud all your work. I’ll find a good place on the shelf to put it on,’” Byrne said of the AA.
Byrne said he expects the AA will recommend bus rapid transit, though transportation activist Ron Sifen, of Vinings, said he suspects it will be light rail.
But with Cobb voters rejecting the TSPLOST by an overwhelming 69 percent — not to mention its overall failure metro-wide, where 62 percent of voters said no — Byrne hopes Croy Engineering of Marietta, which is leading a team of firms performing various aspects of the AA, will revise the study.
Sifen has maintained that express bus service, operated in the planned I-75 managed lanes, is the best transit option.
“Maybe the TSPLOST vote will deliver a strong message that light rail isn’t the answer,” Sifen said. “Maybe the study will look at what’s the best, most affordable transportation project that meets the needs of Cobb County.”
The federal transit administration contributed $1.5 million toward the AA, and the county contributed $205,864. Kennesaw State University and the Town Center and Cumberland community improvement districts each kicked in $40,000, while the cities of Marietta, Acworth, Kennesaw and Smyrna each gave $10,000 toward the study.
Marietta Mayor Steve Tumlin, for one, doesn’t think his city’s money was wasted.
“You hear people talk about Plan B. This might be a source for Plan B,” Tumlin said. “It’s going to be probably more local in nature (than the TSPLOST). … The world has got to go on and we still have to be educated, prepared and constantly looking for a source of money. Obviously, a 1 percent sales tax wasn’t it.”
Larry Savage of east Cobb said that those who insistent on getting a light rail line will keep searching for money to fund it.
“I could almost say the study was worthless even if they had the money (to fund it),” Savage said. “The people in charge know what they want.”
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A-No, not to the pockets it so nicely lined!
Maybe we need to spell it out for him.
Get out of our pocketbooks Leebama!!
Tim Lee is either a complete idiot or just doesn't care that he is irresponsibly wasting millions of our tax dollars on a lost cause.
Maybe both.
Or maybe he is angling for a job with one of the consulting firms that is being greased with all of the AA and EIS money that is being spread around.
If so, then any consulting firm who hires him in any capacity should be banned from doing any business with Cobb County in the future.
Same goes for Dimassimo.
The CID's can do whatever they want with their money, because it is a voluntary tax. If they want to waste it on pie in the sky projects that have little chance of becoming reality that's up to them. However, if I were a commercial property owner or business in one of the CID's and saw their reckless and inadviseable spending habits I would definitely have to raise an objection and ask for an explanation.
But when it comes to the blatant waste Cobb County tax dollars generated from the pockets of Cobb County taxpayers that is a different story.
Especially when those dollars are being spent on a project that was rejected by 70% of the voters in the county.
That goes for the federal dollars being spent on these worthless studies and analyses. That's OUR tax money also.
Not only does Tim Lee raise our taxes he exacerbates it with exorbitant spending.
This guy is the worse thing to happen to our county in its' entire history. He is arrogantly thumbing his nose at the citizens of Cobb County.
Please send a message in 3 weeks. Lee must go.
Then get rid of the people in charge. It is why I cannot f=vote for Lee.
It never was.
It made no sense to proceed with the study until the TSPLOST issue was resolved. Now, since the overwhelming defeat of the TSPLOST we see why.
Proceeding with the environmental study was also ill advised. What difference was delaying the environmental a month going to make?
Or even conditioning its' approval on the passage of the TSPLOST?
All of this was being done predicated on the passage of the TSPLOST and the identification of potential funding. And that was very "thin ice" indeed.
The AA and the environmental are both time sensitive because the situation being assessed invariably changes over time. They will have to be updated or even totally redone in the future for the Feds to accept the findings.
The findings in both the AA and EA will be obsolete and useless by the time funding is identified. That may never happen. Our congessional reps in both the House and Senate have warned about the lack of funding in the future.
It is obvious that Tim Lee and Dimassimo used very bad judgement in proceeding with this effort.
They simply assumed the TSPLOST would pass and thumbed their noses at our Senators and Representatives.
Of course that's nothing new. Dimassimo and Lee have been disasters for this county and need to be replaced.
Lee is a tax and spend politician along the lines of Obama.
Dimassimo is an out of control bureaucrat with no concept of fiscal responsibilty along the lines of the GSA.
We cannot afford and should not condone this type of arrogant, wasteful spending.
I traveled down to Griffin via 75 south last week. Somehow, they've been spending money correctly down there on infrastructure. Exceptionally nice, smooth roadways, beautiful barrier walls, clean, mowed, new bridges, signs etc., all the way to Hudson Bridge, Eagles Landing. Not sure if Henry County or Spalding, but definately very inviting to new industry & business!!
Then coming back around 285 to Bolton Rd., South Cobb,.. SHAMEFUL!! SHAMEFUL!!!!
Trash all along the highway & exits, overgrown weeds, potholes,.. big new sign for Rite4Us Hotel welcoming people to Smyrna!
Absolutely PATHETIC!!
I can think of muck better ways, NECESSARY ways to spend 1.8 million,.. that might actually ACCOMPLISH cleaning up Cobb County,.. instead of handing it off to an engineers pocket!
Better WAKE UP Cobb,.. cos we are WAY WAY BEHIND the rest!!!!
You still don't get it do you?
Amazing that there are people out there who refuse to believe what is right in front of them.
Lee is an arrogant, irresponsible tax and spend politician.
DiMassimo is a clueless, stubborn, wasteful bureacrat with little regard for the public dollars she mishandles.
Bob Ott recused himself from the vote awarding the 1.8 million dollar study to Croy Engineering, because a family member was employed by a company hired to help with the study.
Croy Engineering was also awared a 2.5 million dollar Program Management contract over Smyrnas 2005 , 43 million dollar 2005 SPLOST.
The waste to Smyrna citizens is seen on every corner. According to the check register, Croy Engineering has recieved approx. 17 million in checks,.. out of the 43 million.
Included, looks as though a 'light rail feasibility study' for Smyrna was performed for Smyrna.
There was also a 'sidewalk connectivity syudy' performed!
The 9.2 million for the Concord Road Improvements was squandered. It's GONE- not ONE improvement! NOT ONE! But not to worry,.. these slick politicians simply stuck the Concord Road Improvements project into the 2011 SPLOST!
No-one will notice!
The engineering laden splost payments needs to be investigated. But this will never happen,.. Croy was over the DOT, when Roy Barnes was governor. Who didn't them see all yukin' it up in Smyrna last week,.. Roy Barnes, Max Bacon, Kasim Reed, Doug Stoner, Tim Lee,.. a big pack of rats! I'm sure Croy was sitting in a back seat somewhere, with their dirty little fingers crossed!