Dalton council signs off on Mount Rachel trails project

Published 7:21 am Wednesday, September 7, 2011

The city of Dalton is getting ready to put on its “green hat.”

Last year, Mayor David Pennington unveiled plans for a series of walking and biking trails linking many of the city’s recreation facilities and other attractions.

City Council members voted 4-0 Tuesday night to approve a contract with the Georgia Department of Natural Resources (DNR) to build about three miles of trails on Mount Rachel, the first part of that plan. The city received a $100,000 grant from the DNR earlier this year for the project. The city will provide $28,850 in matching funds.

Council members also voted 4-0 to approve a contract with Eric Eades for design and construction of the trail. The contract will pay Eades $6,000 for initial design work and up to a total of $40,000 for the complete project. Eades, a member of the Benton MacKaye Trail Association, served as chairman of design and construction for Dalton State College’s campus trails.

Council members also voted 4-0 to:

 • Approve a change order for the new multi-use fields at James Brown Park. The order, which will increase the net cost of the $1.8 million project by about $1,000, calls for deleting chillers at water fountains and changing floor-mounted urinals to wall-mounted urinals as well as installing utilities that were originally going to be installed by Whitfield County.

• Amend an agreement with Dalton Public Schools to provide school resource officers to allow the officer at Dalton High School to spend 50 percent of his time at Morris Innovative High School.

• Approve the sale of a small sliver of right of way on Franklin Street to Covenant Bank & Trust for $237.89. City Administrator Ty Ross said a portion of a building the bank owns juts into the right of way, and the bank requested the transfer of the right of way to help in its efforts to sell the building.

• Rescind a previous resolution to accept an old industrial building on South Hamilton Street just behind the Office Depot from Aladdin Manufacturing Corp., which is part of Mohawk Industries, and approve a new resolution to accept the property. Ross said the previous resolution was contingent upon a survey of the property, which has since been completed. Officials say they have long-term plans to demolish the building and create a park or greenspace on the property, which occupies about two-thirds of a city block, instead of one full block as officials first believed.

The council also heard a report from Saad Aqueel, a graduate student from the Savannah College of Art and Design, on his efforts to map Dalton’s cultural institutions.