Dougherty County commissioner wants facts clear on Nelms Road intersection proposals

PUTNEY — Dougherty County Commissioner Anthony Jones said Monday he’s afraid efforts to petition for a traffic signal at the junction of the Liberty Expressway (U.S. Highway 19) and Nelms Road could mislead residents in the area about the possibility of having a traffic light installed at the intersection.

The intersection has been the site of several accidents, and Jones promised during his successful run for the commission’s District 6 seat that he would address the issue. Before he was sworn into office, Jones visited the state Department of Transportation’s regional office in Tifton to discuss the issue.

“I understand that there is a petition going around in the Putney area asking that a traffic light be installed at that intersection,” Jones said. “I’m afraid some people will be misled into believing that that’s a possibility. But the County Commission has had that discussion with DOT on several occasions, and the answer’s always the same: Traffic count does not warrant a traffic signal.

“I just want to separate the fact from fiction on this matter.”

Jones’ discussion with DOT Traffic Engineer Van Mason led to a pair of recommendations from the state, one of which eliminates north- or southbound turns off U.S. 19 onto Nelms. In that case, which is the one favored in early discussions by the County Commission, drivers would drive past the intersection for a quarter-mile, U-turn into the other lane and make a direct turn onto Nelms.

The second option would allow turns onto Nelms off of U.S. 19 but not allow east- and westbound traffic to cross all four lanes on the expressway to continue on Nelms.

“Those two options offered by the DOT are the only two options on the table right now,” Jones said. “I don’t want talk of a petition confusing people into thinking that a traffic light is an option at this time. It just isn’t.

“But until we went to the DOT and asked them to come up with a solution to make that intersection safer, there wasn’t even a discussion about it.”

A customer at Mike’s Country Store, located three-tenths of a mile north of the Nelms/Liberty Expressway intersection, said Tuesday she had not signed a copy of the petition that is said to be circulating, but that she would sign it if she were to see it.

“I live out this way, and I’ve seen a couple of wrecks and have almost been hit myself,” the woman, who identified herself only as Anne, said. “They need to do something, and about the only thing that makes any sense is putting up a red light.”

Mason, who presented the traffic alternatives at a recent commission work session, has said he will take part in a public hearing about the intersection that the county plans to hold soon.