By: Summer Kelley, Staff Reporter

There was not much on the City Commission’s agenda Monday night, but one major topic appears to finally be making progress forward.

The proposed community center project for the city of Trenton has finally received the go ahead on the budget side of things. The somewhat debated project hit a snare when the city began taking bids for construction of the center. Every one of the bids came in over the city’s budget and the city returned to the drawing board to find ways to cut costs with the new construction.

Now, several months later, it seems that the city and construction company have finally reached a mutual price point. Parks and Recreation Commissioner Chuck Cannon asked the commission to approve the spending of $362,822 from the new park SPLOST; $95,000 from the administrative SPLOST; and $57,650 from the old park SPLOST to pay for the community center’s construction costs. The amounts were approved unanimously by commissioners Chuck Cannon, Sandra Gray and Tommy Lawson. Commissioner Greg Houts was absent from the meeting.

The final construction price on the community center is set at $515,052 and it will be built by Construction Consultants – the same company that is currently building the county’s new courthouse. Commissioners said they hope that construction on the building will be completed within six months once work has started, but construction will not begin until the ground is dry enough for digging.

Plans for the spring family festival are moving forward, as well, according to John Shober of the Downtown Development Authority. Shober told the commission that if everything goes as planned, this should be a good festival this year. 

Shober also asked commissioners to appoint Ann Brown to another term on the Downtown Development Board for two years and nine months. Shober said the unusual term length was due to the board trying to stagger terms so that if everyone decided to leave the board at the end of their term, there would still be continuity in whatever the board was working on. The change had been made at the advice of the city’s attorney. Two board members have terms expiring in 2012, two in 2014, three in 2016 and so on. Brown’s appointment was approved unanimously.

Eloise Gass of Tree City reported that the Georgia Arbor Day events held on the third Friday in February were a success. Tree City dedicated a tree and held a reception that Gass said had a good turnout. Gass said she would like to thank everyone for coming and that it was Trenton Tree City’s 25th year.

Mary Dombrowski of the Arts Council said that the Farmer event raised $2,400 at the gate and subsequent checks have added another $9,100 to Farmer’s account. The event received a lot of press coverage including local news stations. 

The Arts Council continues its plans on an event to be held Sept. 11 at Sunrise Farms. More information on the event will be available in the future. 

In other business, Mayor Barton Harris said the city needed to replace a door damaged at the maintenance barn for $12,057. Commissioners approved the replacement of the door up to $13,000. 

Gray reported that the police department responded to 251 calls, took 10 incident reports, worked 10 traffic accidents, made 56 arrests and gave 67 citations in the month of February. The police department also collected fines totaling $9,015.55.

Lawson reported that the fire department ran six fire calls and 79 medical and rescue calls. The utilities department performed 23 underground locates and worked seven sewer calls.

Ann Brown thanked Bull Moose, National Boiler and D & B Powder Coating for the bed frames they made for dogs at the animal shelter to help keep them off of the freezing floor after the pens have been washed out. 

The next city commission meeting will be April 5 at 7 p.m. at City Hall.