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November 11, 2015 | miltonherald.com | 75,000 circulation Revue & News, Johns Creek Herald, Milton Herald & Forsyth Herald combined | 50¢ | Volume 10, No. 46
Milton to lease court from Alpharetta Downtown Crabapple building available By JONATHAN COPSEY jonathan@appenmediagroup.com
KATHLEEN STURGEON/STAFF
Forsyth County Board of Commissioners and the Georgia Department of Transportation broke ground on the Ga. 400 widening project Nov. 4.
Ga. 400 widening project breaks ground To be completed in 2018 By KATHLEEN STURGEON kathleen@appenmediagroup.com FORSYTH COUNTY, Ga. — For those who commute along Ga. 400 from McFarland Parkway to Ga. 369, traffic and congestion will soon ease up. Forsyth County and the Georgia Department of Transportation broke ground Nov. 4 to celebrate the widening project’s beginning. The project will add one lane in each direction, including widening bridges at Big Creek and at Lake Lanier/
Sawnee Creek, and is made possible through a partnership between the county and GDOT. GDOT contributed $13 million to this work and is managing the project. The remainder of the project funding — approximately $34.5 million — will come from the Forsyth County Transportation Bond. Approved by 63 percent of Forsyth County voters in November 2014, the transportation bond will finance a variety of transportation projects throughout the county. Forsyth County Board of Commissioners Chairman Pete Amos said the citizens put a small tax on themselves to help improve transportation in
their county. “Our citizens recognized the need to continue to enhance transportation in our county and they decided to do something about it,” Amos said. “By approving Forsyth County’s Transportation Bond, they enabled the county to advance projects sooner than otherwise would have been possible, while leveraging state and federal funding, making the most of our bond dollars. It takes a lot of courage to put a tax on yourself and they did it. We’ll get some of the congestion solved in Forsyth County.” The project is set to begin
See PROJECT, Page 60
MILTON, Ga. – Milton may get some new court space next year. The city has agreed to a partnership with neighbor Alpharetta to lease space and the courtroom in the Alpharetta Municipal Complex, located in Crabapple and wholly encompassed by Milton. Milton has had plans to move out of its current court, located in the Milton City Hall office complex off Deerfield Parkway, for some time. The city’s lease with the Deerfield offices runs out in 2016 and city officials have said in the past they hope to be out of there by then and into their own building, which will be in Crabapple. Chris Lagerbloom, Milton city manager, said this agreement with Alpharetta will allow the city to move half of its offices in the future with little fuss. Until the new City Hall is built, public meetings and city council meetings will still be held in the Deerfield location. It also allows Milton to house its courtroom in Crabapple, which will become the new downtown for the city with the completion of the City Hall. Lagerbloom said the new City Hall could have its groundbreaking as early as December. The court agreement with Alpharetta will work well, said Lagerbloom. Milton has
court on Mondays and Fridays; Alpharetta holds court on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays. The cities LAGERBLOOM are to sign a five-year agreement, to be renewed each year if they chose. One reason Milton’s courtroom has remained in Deerfield since its inception despite Alpharetta having court times that could allow Milton to use the space is the city’s concern with public transportation. Lagerbloom said court services were better served at first by being near public transportation – MARTA has services to Deerfield. It turns out few of Milton’s court attendees use MARTA, he said. Along with access to the court on Mondays and Fridays, Milton will also lease offices in the building. All this will be available for $3,000 a month. “I believe it is the right thing to do with our court needs,” Lagerbloom said. “It’s hard to build a court facility anywhere else for $3,000 a month.” The agreement is scheduled to appear before the Alpharetta City Council at their Nov. 9 meeting. If Alpharetta approves the agreement, Milton could start using the facility as soon as February or March 2016.