NO!! Business owners don’t like GDOT plan

The message was clear: Local business owners do not like plans to improve traffic safety along Coffee and Jarman streets in Hazlehurst.
About two dozen people gathered at Hazlehurst City Hall last Thursday for a hastily called meeting to talk with Georgia Department of Transportation officials about a recently released plan to make significant changes to Highway 341 through Hazlehurst.
Members of the Hazlehurst City Council and representatives of virtually every business owner along the path of the changes were present to hear from DOT officials via video conferencing.
State Representative Bill Werkheiser took control of Thursday’s gathering and did most of the talking.
After giving a DOT safety engineer a few minutes to explain the plan, Werkheiser relayed, at length, various objections to the plan and eventually steered the conversation toward a plan for him and city officials to meet with DOT representatives to discuss the issue.
While a few comments from the business owners were heard during the video conference, most of the concerns were voiced after the video connection had ended.
Chief among the complaints were closing the portion of Coffee Street that runs between First Baptist Church and the church’s parking lot, installing curbing that prevents left turns into several restaurants along the route including Captain D’s and Hardees, and preventing left turns and thru traffic off Gill Street onto/across Jarman Street and off Williams Street onto/across Coffee Street using RCUTs (see “What Is A RCUT?”) instead, and changing southbound traffic from 2-lane to 1-lane along Coffee and Jarman streets.
The DOT safety engineer explained that the plan was developed using input from previous Hazlehurst Mayor Bayne Stone. Originally proposed was a traffic light to be installed at the intersection of Gill and Jarman streets. But the traffic count at the intersection did not meet DOT requirements for a traffic light. Instead, the RCUT plan at the intersection was developed.