Southwest Georgia Briefs – April 6, 2014

Ham and Egg supper to benefit cemetery cleanup

CLIMAX — The 24th annual Ham and Egg Supper is scheduled from 5-7 p.m. on April 17 at the Chitterling Barn on Swine Time Grounds to benefit the Cedar Grove Cemetery.

Tickets are $8 and customers can eat on site or take out the food which features fried cured ham or sausage patties, grits, scrambled eggs, homemade biscuits, jelly, syrup, assorted gravy and beverages. Also featured will be a bake sale and mayhew jelly available for purchase.

Rider course scheduled for experienced motorcyclists

ALBANY — The Georgia Motorcycle Safety Program is offering the Experience Rider Course on April 12 a the Customer Service Center, 1108 W. Oakridge Drive, from 8 a.m. until 6 p.m.

The one-day workshop is designed to improve the skills of experience motorcyclists to work on braking, maneuvering and turning. The course teaches street strategies necessary for survival.

Using their own motorcycles, participants will practice the techniques of managing traction, stopping quickly, cornering and swerving.

Participants must have six months or 500 miles driving experience and provide a signed waiver.

For additional information about the course requirements, fees and registration, visitg http://www.dds.ga.gov/motorcycle/gmsp/expridercourse.aspx.

DOT to target roadside garbage during Litter Pick Up Week

TIFTON — From the comfort of a vehicle it’s easy to overlook the bottles, cans, paper, bits of tires and other debris that litters Georgia’s roadsides.

The Georgia Department of Transportation aims to increase public awareness of the unsightly and expensive problem during Litter Pick Up Week, April 7-11. The statewide initiative is traditionally recognized during the first full week of April.

“We do litter pick up right before we start mowing. That way we don’t hit paper and tear it into a million pieces and scatter it all over the road,” Southwest Georgia District Maintenance Engineer Stacy Aultman said.

DOT maintenance crews mow from April through the end of June.

All other maintenance activities will stop, except for emergencies, as employees remove trash from the right-of-way of high-visibility, four-lane state routes in southwest Georgia. Employees of this area and inmate crews collected 8,851 bags of trash from 1,338 miles of roadway during last year’s Litter Pick Up Week. The total does not include larger items that had to be hauled to landfills. GDOT’s southwest district encompasses the counties of Atkinson, Baker, Ben Hill, Berrien, Brooks, Calhoun, Clay, Clinch, Coffee, Colquitt, Cook, Crisp, Decatur, Dougherty, Early, Echols, Grady, Irwin, Lanier, Lee, Lowndes, Miller, Mitchell, Quitman, Randolph, Seminole, Terrell, Thomas, Tift, Turner, Wilcox and Worth.

Litter Pick Up Week 2013 cost the southwest district $141,011 in equipment, supplies and labor. Statewide in 2013, GDOT spent more than $12.8 million removing litter and collected more than 151,000 bags of trash.

Motorists are asked to watch for signs alerting them of roadside activity and slow down as they approach areas where road crews are working.

Lane closing on Westtown Road to allow power pole replacement

ALBANY — One lane of traffic in the 1800 block of Westtown Road near Industry Drive will be closed Tuesday through Thursday and again on April 14 and 15 to allow Georgia Power Transmission Construction to replace transmission power poles.

Georgia Power Transmission Construction will have flagmen on the scene to direct traffic in addition to other traffic control measures such as barricades. City of Albany officials say motorists are advised to use caution and obey flagmen directing traffic.