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By Charlotte Reames

City Manager Ed Moon gave updates for several ongoing projects to the West Point city council during Monday night’s work session, including the traffic signals at the water intake project, Eighth Street and the Coca-Cola building.

Moon first assured the council that the funding appropriation for the water intake project was not in any danger. He said they are waiting on the Corps of Engineers South Atlanta Division to approve the agreement. 

After that, the council can then review and sign to agree to the funding portion of the project. Moon said no timeline is available for that at this time.

Another ongoing project is the removal of the traffic signal at the Eighth Street and Second Avenue intersection. The intersection has a double light signal ahead of the railroad crossing. Since 2024, the city has been working to have one of the lights taken out. 

Moon told the city council that he has spoken with Georgia DOT (Department of Transportation). They are concerned that the signals are all controlled by one control box. Because of that, they want all of the signals replaced. 

According to Moon, GA-DOT agreed to pay for the equipment if the city of West Point would provide the engineering and labor for the installation. Moon said he has contacted the design engineer to evaluate the signal for those improvements. 

In 2022, the Coca-Cola distributing plant was donated to the city of West Point for its use. Since then, the city has announced that the land will be parceled into four quadrants, one of which will be used for a hotel chain. 

Moon’s update was that the West Point Development Authority continues on phase one of Coca Cola site development. The demolition of the existing building and parking lots is complete. 

“Everything has been completed. And we are working to finalize the conveyance agreement for parcel four, still on track for the schedule of hopefully a July announcement on the project,” Moon said. 

Lastly, Moon introduced Fire Chief Derick Staley who addressed the council about a donation of 15 Timberwood NX 5400 portable radios with batteries, 12 lapel microphones, 11 spare batteries and 11 chargers. The donation came from the city of Lagrange Police Department.

The goal of the donation was “to enhance the communication and safety of the members of the department in the city,” Staley said. 

All radios have a required license. Staley said they will be working with our radio shop to get the correct frequencies put into the radios at a minimum fee compared to the cost of new radios and licenses. 

“The plan is this equipment will significantly improve the city’s ability to coordinate and respond to emergencies more effectively,” Staley said. These radios will come in handy during large scale emergencies such as the recent tornado and severe weather activity.