The Tribune & Georgian reported Thursday that the Georgia Department of Transportation (GDOT) will rehabilitate rather than replace three US-17 bridges in the north part of Camden County. Although County Administrator Shawn Boatright told the T&G there would be “minimal impact” to local traffic, he didn't say whether US-17 would be closed during the new rehabilitation plan and whether residents would still have to use the previously required lengthy detours. We can only assume that the plan has been changed to reduce the unacceptable multi-year closure of US-17. We also assume, but the T&G story did not elaborate, that the impacts on Woodbine, our County seat, will no longer be devastating.
Most surprisingly, Mr. Boatright felt it necessary to discredit the citizen efforts to stop GDOT’s original plan. The T&G quotes Boatright, “There’s a misconception by some folks that the county was asleep at the wheel.” He takes credit for "years of behind the scenes work" asking “the state to provide alternative routes and public hearings,” but oddly enough, he doesn’t say the county had asked for alternatives that would keep US-17 open. As planned, and originally accepted by Camden County, folks would have the cost and inconvenience of detours of up to dozens of miles to and from work, school, doctor appointments, football games, and shopping. They would have to spend more time on the roads and less time with their families, leisure, or household chores.
As Camden’s Deputy under former County Administrator Steve Howard, Mr. Boatright certainly found a way with words. He wants to take credit for finally taking “this big party to go there to be heard.” FYI: there is the Georgia DOT office in Jesup.
We ask Mr. Boatright to explain the following 2022 communication from the GDOT. A coordination meeting was held between the "GDOT, (the bridge engineering company), Camden Administration (including Mr. Boatright?), Fire Rescue, and EMA." It sounds to camden1st that Camden's agreement with the GDOT just one year and 11 days ago was quite different from what Mr. Boatright now tells the Tribune & Georgian:
"County representatives present at the meeting were in support of the off-site detour"
Later still, in an April 18, 2023 Meeting between Camden County and GDOT recorded in meeting minutes titled Off-site Detour Discussion, item 9 reported,
"Camden County said they would coordinate with their emergency services staff to post units on either end of the projects to provide services for residents and best accommodate response times."
Camden1st interprets this statement as meaning that our County leadership had accepted the GDOT multi-year plan to close US-17. Even worse, there is no mention of who would pay the extra costs for that commitment or how persistent short-staffing would affect emergency response time throughout the rest of Camden County. That was just four months before public outrage erupted once we became fully aware of the plan the County had agreed to. Camden had been "negotiating" with GDOT for six or eight years at that point.
I know there was some good work being done by our current Director of Public Works after she came on board. We’re sure Sheriff Proctor and Fire Chief Smith had expressed their great concerns about the highway closures and detour impacts on public safety. But were there any interactions after 2018 directly with citizens who depended on an always-open US-17? Did Mr. Boatright really need the GDOT’s permission to hold public hearings about the bridge closures his administration accepted 51 weeks ago? Did Steve Howard or Mr. Boatright ask our State Representative or Senator to visit the Jesup office in 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, or 2022 to express Mr. Boatright’s vaunted efforts to stop the disruption of daily life for hundreds of Camden’s families?
Mr. Boatright took the reins of Deputy Administrator in November 2017 but in fact, the GDOT's State Transportation Improvement Plan tells us that Preliminary Engineering was funded in 2016 and construction planned for the Whiteoak Creek Bridge in 2021. So much must have been known the day Mr. Boatright started work in Camden County. Was the Deputy Administrator overseeing the county road department during the years that Steve Howard was Lost In Space?
GDOT was essentially locked into their bridge closure plan several years before the 2022 or 2023 meetings, (and long before the hiring of our current Director of Public Works). The state's 31- or 38-week Lockdown for Plan Submittals for projects requiring federal wetlands' 404 Environmental Permits had long passed. Essentially, the decisions had been made long before Camden officials hired a Public Works Department Manager who knew how to do something about it. To keep on schedule with their access to funding, the GDOT already had a hardened schedule.
What the Tribune and Georgian could have reported is that the county agreed multiple times to the bridge closures and long detours. We have yet to see any discussion with GDOT about other options like rehabilitation until after citizens forced the discussion! And is the County now bragging about "kicking the eventual bridge replacements down the road" for a future administration to have to deal with? No matter what, Camden WAS either asleep at the wheel, or acquiesced, after the State had already spent hundreds of thousands on its original bridge replacement plans. Those hundreds of thousands came from taxes collected from us, and all other Americans. Someone needs to tell them that money doesn't grow on trees.
Camden1st has submitted a Georgia Open Records Act request to the State DOT for all communications since 2018 between the County and GDOT to see if the County’s efforts to protect citizens match the credits claimed. Citizens had to cough up over $500.00 for our last open records request to GDOT. Citizens have a right to know about the efforts and competency of those who guide our government. We shouldn't have to pay for records that already belong to us.
The bottom line is that GDOT was ready to award the contracts by the end of 2023 and to immediately begin construction - already two years late. Bridge closures and detours would soon follow. Lest we forget, GDOT maps showed detours in some cases of dozens of miles for commercial vehicles, school buses, and emergency response teams:
At the very least, even in the unlikely chance it did not make a difference, Mr. Boatright should have graciously acknowledged the pressure citizens applied that most likely had an impact on GDOT’s decision to develop a new plan.
It seems that in Camden County, starting with top management, many of our government officials don’t think citizen involvement is beneficial or necessary. The American Jury System and Representative Democracy are examples of the Wisdom of the Crowd where decision-making by a large diverse group is considered more trusted than that of a small group. Camden would be better governed if our elected leaders paid attention to the wisdom of Aristotle (384-322BC), who first proposed the concept of the Wisdom of the Crowd. 72% of us are still here to make sure they stay on the right path.
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