Safer streets and skate park talks focus of Albany meetings

Yahoo

27-03-2025

ALBANY – Developments in pedestrian safety and recreation moved forward this week in Albany while other proposed developments stalled.
The first part of the week saw discussions about the future of Albany's skate park in an Albany Recreation and Parks meeting, as well as the second and final open house for input on the city and county's Safer Streets for All grant. Both projects aim to make Albany and Dougherty a safer and better place for the community.
Foresite, the engineer and consulting group developing a plan to improve local road and pedestrian safety, hosted the final open house Tuesday to inform the community while also gathering suggestions.
Doug Stoner, Foresite's director of business development, said the SS4A grant is the first time the Federal Highway Administration has given grants directly to local governments. The grant has $1 billion in funds to be used across the country for safety-related projects.
The group displayed slideshows and posters with data, including locations of 'high injury networks,' where the most vehicle accidents with injuries or fatalities occur. Sections along Oglethorpe Boulevard were highlighted most frequently.
Kathy Culberth, a 68-year-old Albany resident, said she often feels unsafe driving at night, especially on Oglethorpe Boulevard and Oakridge Drive, due to a lack of lighting making it difficult to see road medians and pedestrians.
She told representatives from Foresite that she'd like to see more lights, signage and bike lanes.
These suggestions are potential measures that could result from Foresite's data findings. Recommendations can be both physical – like more signage – or policy-oriented, like an educational campaign on wearing seatbelts.
The group already has proposed measures for some dangerous intersections. These are projected to reduce accidents by as many as 11 per year in particularly high-incident areas.
Erik Steavens, Foresite's transportation program manager, said the number of car accidents are spread evenly across the city and county. He said most of the accidents are behavioral in nature rather than due to faulty infrastructure. Data found that many car accidents and injuries occurred due to excessive speeding, unfastened seat belts, distracted driving and not obeying signage.
'You look at almost every intersection in Albany, and there's been some sort of incident or accident, maybe not fatal or serious,' Steavens said.
The city and county will be reviewing Foresite's completed plan by late April. Steavens said it'll be a competitive year across the country to receive the grant, as local governments scramble for the federal funds out of concern that they will soon no longer be available under the current administration.
While the Safer Streets for All plan development moved forward, movement on the project to build a new skate park hit a wall Monday.
Alex Ranew, the president and founder of Southwest Georgia Skate, a nonprofit that formed after the demolition of Albany's Riverfront Skatepark, presented potential locations for a new skate park at the Albany Recreation and Parks meeting Monday.
Since the demolition of the Riverfront Skatepark, groups of skaters have been gathering at Riverfront Park with makeshift ramps and obstacles. Still, Ranew said they need a safe place to congregate.
This was Ranew's second time speaking at one of these meetings. The first was to get across the significant impact the skate park had had on the Albany community and why it was crucial to rebuild a new one with the city's help.
He came to the first meeting equipped with expectations, standards and logistics for the new skate park. Albany Mayor Bo Dorough was not present for the first meeting but attended the second.
Ranew said he left Monday's meeting feeling that the skate park project isn't being taken seriously by city leaders.
Ranew presented several potential locations. Some were already owned by the city or county, like Riverfront Park or the Albany Civic Center Parking lot. Others, like a space across from the skate park's old location at 200 East Broad St., would have to be purchased.
Dorough expressed confusion on whether SWGA Skate wanted the city to be involved in the project. Ranew said he believes this confusion stems from Dorough's absence from the first meeting.
'He was asking me questions that I answered at the last meeting,' Ranew said. 'I feel like he was pessimistic.'
Ranew was clear about wanting to partner with the city.
Leaders continued to push for a potential new skate park at Tift Park, which has other recreation developments in play. Dorough said this would make things like maintenance of the park easier on city staff and allow for the use of existing facilities like bathrooms. The SWGA Skate crew has been adamant that the new park location needs to be downtown, mainly for accessibility.
City Manager Terrell Jacobs said if the city is going to use SPLOST funds to aid in building a new skate park that it must be an amenity that will benefit the entire community – 'not just a segment of the community.'
'We don't mean to say 'we're going to pay for it so we're going to do it our way,'' Dorough said. 'We want you to be included. If y'all want to partner with us, we're excited about it. … I'm just not convinced that downtown is the only place people skateboard.'
Ward IV Commissioner Chad Warbington brought up the potential of using the old site once GDOT is finished using it for the Oglethorpe Bridge Project, which is supposed to be completed in a year.
There was discussion of the former Rabbit Man store that bordered the park being turned into some other retail spot like a smoothie shop with WiFi.
Ranew said he didn't know that the original skate park location was an option, and that it would be ideal.
'We just need to make sure it won't be destroyed,' he said. 'We want to make sure that the skate park will be there.'
He also expressed concerns to The Albany Herald about the Oglethorpe Bridge project being delayed for more than a year, thus delaying the building of a new skate park.
Ranew said he left Monday's meeting disheartened at the speed of the project and that a location had not yet been pinpointed.
'Our current plan is to keep gathering together and thinking of solutions until we can get a skate park built,' he said.