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Lovell: Much in store for RH in 14
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The John W. Stevens Wetlands Education Center in J.F. Gregory Park is slated for some improvements, including new floors, in 2014. Upgrading other park amenities are also on the citys to-do list for the year, including the 10-year-old restrooms. - photo by Photo courtesy of richmondhill-ga.gov

Richmond Hill residents can look forward to park improvements, additional sidewalks and groundbreaking on the city’s new wastewater treatment plant in 2014, City Manager Chris Lovell said recently while setting out the city’s goals for the year.

“It’s going to be a busy year for the city and its residents. I think 2014 will be a great year,” Lovell said.

“We have received our permit from the (state) Environmental Protection Division to begin construction of the new wastewater treatment plant. The treatment plant should be under construction by mid-April. The bid packages will go out in mid-January.”

The new plant will cost between $25 million and $28 million and will transition the city from an overland flow-type of wastewater treatment to a mechanical plant.

Also ahead in 2014, Lovell said there will be considerable improvements in the infrastructure in J.F. Gregory Park.

“The interior of the restrooms will be updated. We’re going to repaint, refloor and refurbish them. It will make them much more attractive,” he said.

The restrooms were constructed more than 10 years ago with grant funds obtained by the planning and zoning department.

Likewise, the John W. Stevens Wetlands Education Center in the park will also see improvements.

“The floors will be redone to eliminate the carpet. I’d like to see stained concrete floors in the wetlands center, but no decision has been made,” Lovell said.

The wetlands center was also originally constructed with grant funds.

The 187-acres behind Sterling Creek subdivision that was purchased with grant funds will also see improvements in 2014.

“We’re going to start to turn that land into a passive park area,” he said. “There could be a running area, picnicking facilities and other passive recreational activities.”

The city will also continue its push to install sidewalks where needed, Lovell said.

“We’re developing a sidewalk master plan to show where the needs are greatest,” he said. “I think by the middle of the year we’ll see construction of sidewalks in the Timber Trail and Ford Avenue area to support the new traffic light and also some sidewalks in the Highway 17 and I-95 interchange area.”

Lovell also said there is a possibility that by the end of the year some new residential homes will have radio-read water meters.

This would enable meter readers to drive down the street and get an electronic reading without leaving their vehicles, he said, saving employee time and taxpayer money.

The city’s plan is to convert all water meters in the city in the future, although no timetable for that has been set, Lovell said.

“It’s expensive. All existing meters would have to be converted and it would require new computers and software.”

Read more in the Jan. 4 edition of the News.

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Later yall, its been fun
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This is among the last pieces I’ll ever write for the Bryan County News.

Friday is my last day with the paper, and come June 1 I’m headed back to my native Michigan.

I moved here in 2015 from the Great Lake State due to my wife’s job. It’s amicable, but she has since moved on to a different life in a different state, and it’s time for me to do the same.

My son Thomas, an RHHS grad as of Saturday, also is headed back to Michigan to play basketball for a small school near Ann Arbor called Concordia University. My daughter, Erin, is in law school at University of Toledo. She had already begun her college volleyball career at Lourdes University in Ohio when we moved down here and had no desire to leave the Midwest.

With both of them and the rest of my family up north, there’s no reason for me to stay here. I haven’t missed winter one bit, but I’m sure I won’t miss the sand gnats, either.

Shortly after we arrived here in 2015, I got a job in communications with a certain art school in Savannah for a few short months. It was both personally and professionally toxic and I’ll leave it at that.

In March 2016 I signed on with the Bryan County News as assistant editor and I’ve loved every minute of it. My “first” newspaper career, in the late 80s and early 90s, was great. But when I left it to work in politics and later with a free-market think tank, I never pictured myself as an ink-stained wretch again.

Like they say, never say never.

During my time here at the News, I’ve covered everything that came along. That’s one big difference between working for a weekly as opposed to a daily paper. Reporters at a daily paper have a “beat” to cover. At a weekly paper like this, you cover … life. Sports, features, government meetings, crime, fundraisers, parades, festivals, successes, failures and everything in between. Oh, and hurricanes. Two of them. I’ll take a winter blizzard over that any day.

Along the way I’ve met a lot of great people. Volunteers, business owners, pastors, students, athletes, teachers, coaches, co-workers, first responders, veterans, soldiers and yes, even some politicians.

And I learned that the same adrenalin rush from covering “breaking news” that I experienced right out of college is still just as exciting nearly 30 years later.

With as much as I’ve written about the population increase and traffic problems, at least for a few short minutes my departure means there will be one less vehicle clogging up local roads. At least until I pass three or four moving vans headed this way as I get on northbound I-95.

The hub-bub over growth here can be humorous, unintentional and ironic all at once. We often get comments on our Facebook page that go something like this: “I’ve lived here for (usually less than five years) and the growth is out of control! We need a moratorium on new construction.”

It’s like people who move into phase I of “Walden Woods” subdivision after all the trees are cleared out and then complain about trees being cut down for phase II.

Bryan County will always hold a special place in my heart and I definitely plan on visiting again someday. My hope is that my boss, Jeff Whitten (one of the best I’ve ever had), will let me continue to be part of the Pembroke Mafia Football League from afar. If the Corleone family could expand to Vegas, there’s no reason the PMFL can’t expand to Michigan.

But the main reason I want to return someday is about that traffic issue. After all, I’ll need to see it with my own eyes before I’ll believe that Highway 144 actually got widened.

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