Duluth held its monthly Mayor and Council meeting Monday, October 10th at Town Hall. Mayor Harris and all five council members were present, along with some city officials.
The first item on the agenda was a surprise to at least one of the attendees. Mayor Harris recognized Teresa Lynn for her 30 years of service as Duluth’s City Clerk. The proclamation the Mayor read outlined Ms. Lynn’s numerous contributions to Duluth and designated October 10 as Teresa Lynn Day in Duluth.
Councilman Greg Whitlock also thanked Lynn for her service, pointing out that her expertise is well known in the other city governments he’s interacted with in Georgia.
The meeting’s Consent Agenda, which consists of items that had been reviewed and discussed in previous meetings, was approved. One item regarded amendments to various sections of the Duluth City Charter and Code of Ordinance. The Council meeting documentation said these amendments are intended “to create consistency with state law, modernize the code and clean up clerical omissions or errors.”
Several sections of the Code are being updated. A complete list of changes can be found in the Council meeting documentation on the Duluth website.
Other Consent Agenda items involved budget amendments. One amendment will add $500,000 in revenue and $450,000 in expenditures to the Workers Compensation Fund to support claims through the end of the year.
Another amendment will fund the hiring of Town Green Liaisons to assist with monitoring student after school activity on and around the Town Green. It is expected that the liaisons will work in groups of two for approximately four-hour periods on an as-needed basis.
The final item on the Consent Agenda waived the signage fee and location requirements for the Annual Women’s’ Club of Sugarloaf Country Club (WCSCC) Charities Turkey Trot. This is an annual race with proceeds going to four Duluth charities.
Next, the Council approved a rezoning case, number Z2022-003, which involved rezoning two lots on Duluth Highway for the relocation of the Duluth Food Co-op. The Co-op is currently located just off Buford Highway near the Proctor Square apartment complex.
With the pending redevelopment of that entire block for the Marlowe Duluth community, the Co-op needs to move to the nearby Duluth Highway location.
The final agenda item was to approve a contract between the City and Norfolk Southern Railway for a preliminary engineering design of new four-quad gates at the Duluth Highway / SR 120 crossing. These new gates will be required for the railroad Quiet Zone being considered for downtown Duluth.
It was noted in the meeting that the Quiet Zone has not been approved yet — that is a separate process — but this contract will pay for the required engineering work. A separate agreement is already in place for the engineering work at the Davenport Road and Brock Road crossings.
Additional information about all the meeting business can be found on the Duluth city website at duluthga.net.
