Residents concerned after fatal hit-and-run

Dublin Mayor Joshua Kight addressed the recent fatal hit-and-run after two citizens brought it up during citizen’s comments during last Thursday’s Dublin City Council meeting. 

Rae Bloodworth was concerned about the scene not being cleaned up in a more timely matter, while Robin Dudley Williams addressed concerns about what the city planned to do to make the Southside safer after pedestrians Clarissa Robinson, 46, and Antonio Smith, 56, were killed in a hit-and-run Sunday night, May 12, on East Garner Street near Carolyn Watson Street. 

“This council is very concerned about the rise of traffic and speeding cars throughout the neighborhoods in Dublin,” Kight said. “It does seem like our neighborhoods have been subjected to speeding cars that has made it unsafe for adults, and children, to walk through neighborhoods.” 

During the last two years, the city council has started Project Slow Zone, trying to reduce the speed and traffic in the neighborhoods. 

“What happened … is a tragic and terrible reminder about this mission we are on,” Kight said. “This is something that we all care about and are concerned about. We have all been taking action on. We have tried to put all of the resources that we have in the city into increasing pedestrian safety for adults and children. Unfortunately, it wasn’t enough to save lives of people this past weekend, but we will continue in this effort and we will be able to make a difference and increase the safety, livability and quality of life of people who live in every neighborhood.” 

With Project Slow Zone, the city has been prioritizing streets with the biggest traffic problems, regardless of the neighborhood. Speed cushions and other traffic controls have been place d on the Southside and other neighborhoods in the city.

“Unfortunately we hadn’t got to Garner Street yet,” Kight said. “It is something that we have spoken with our account planner about. It will definitely be on the list of streets so that we can address that issue.” 

Councilwoman Tess Godfrey noted that Councilman Bennie Jones brought up the hit-and-run incident in pre-council.

“I think the city is listening,” Godfrey said. “We plan to do something with lighting on that side of town as well.” 

During council comments, Councilman Chris Smith said he hopes the city can “get a rush on lighting in those dark places in the south side and on Telfair so that we can prevent things like this from happening.” 

A day after the council meeting, the Dublin Police Department sent out a press release stating that they had arrested Deangelo Wilcher and Tykearah Fluellen, both of Dublin, in connection to the fatal hit-and-run. Wilcher’s vehicle allegedly hit the pedestrians at about 10:35 p.m., while Fluellen’s vehicle allegedly hit them four minutes later, police said. 

Fluellen was questioned about the accident and cooperated with officers. He was charged last week with leaving the scene of an accident with injuries. On Monday, Wilcher was charged with two counts of homicide by vehicle and one count of leaving the scene of an accident.

Earlier in the meeting, the city council agreed to work with Middle Georgia State University  to convert the schools’ tennis courts into pickleball courts since the city needed to demolition the pickleball courts at Hilburn Park. 

As the city does renovations at Hilburn, it was determined that they would need to demolish and reconstruct the pickle ball courts because of its current status of the concrete surface. Dublin City Manager Josh Powell informed council that the current pickleball courts at Hilburn Park are popular and usually have large crowds waiting to play during the evenings. 

“To alleviate that, we have contacted Middle Georgia State University about the idea of converting their tennis courts on their campus here in Dublin to pickleball courts,” Powell said. “They are excited about that and would like to partner with the city to do that.”

The city of Dublin’s staff received a low quote to convert the tennis courts into pickleball courts for $46,000. MGSU asked the city to make this as a contribution to their foundation and the school would pay for it, Powell said.

“Lighting is needed for the court and they would make it available for the public,” Powell said. “If we could get that done before doing the demolition at Hilburn, we will have a place for people to play pickleball.” 

Powell said MGSU has done this at their Macon and Cochran campuses.

“It has been wildly successful for them,” Powell said. “They have them open (there) until 1 a.m.”

Also at the meeting, the city council:

•Heard a first reading of an ordinance to annex 0.50 acres for CV Properties of Dublin LLC, located directly behind 105 Fairview Park Drive, to expand the existing medical office.

•Heard the first reading of the fiscal year 2025 operating budget for the city of Dublin, which will update the position and classification schedule for employees of the city. It will set criteria for the city’s retention incentive and adopt a five-year capital improvement plan for the city. The total budget for the city this year is $95.36 million.

“I want to thank the council members and staff,” Kight said. “I’m excited about this upcoming budget. If anybody is interested in the details of it, that information is available here at city hall and we will have a public hearing on it at our next council meeting (scheduled for June 6).” 

•Heard the first reading of an ordinance about the FY’25 water and sewer rates.

“Each year the council and staff evaluates our water and sewer rates and make the determination of any increases that may be needed,” Powell said. “This year the increase is 20 cents per a thousand gallons on both the water and sewer side.” 

Kight said the proposed increase is minimal.

“The minimum bill for a city resident will go from $24 to $24.80,” the mayor said. “This is just a marginal increase.”

•Approved the terms of a memorandum of understanding with the Georgia Department of Community Affairs Office of Downtown Development, the local Main Street program board of directors and the downtown manager of Dublin to maintain the city’s Georgia Exceptional Main Street City designation.

“We do this each year for our designation that DCA gives us,” Powell said. “This agreement outlines the terms of what we are required to do as a local main street to maintain that status.” 

Kight added that council is agreeing that the downtown program has a full-time downtown manager, that they have established boundaries for where the program will operate and that the city will provide financial support to the downtown program.

“We have been doing this for 30-something years,” he said.

•Approved a contract with Georgia Power for the installation of new street lights on the Madison Street Streetscape project. The installation calls for 16 lamp post-style lights along Madison Street from Church to Jefferson Street. The upfront cost will be $139,750 and the monthly cost will be $382.88. 

“Georgia Power will be responsible for these if they get damaged,” Powell said. “If there are any problems with them, they will replace them.” 

The upfront cost for the lamps will be paid from the Rural Downtown Development Grant the city received while the monthly cost will be paid for out of the general fund, Powell said.

• Approved the new residential and commercial garbage collection rates. According to information submitted by City Treasurer Blake Daniels, these rates are due to cost escalations in landfill fees, which includes a 13 percent rise in household garbage, 14.29 percent upturn in tires and a 12.24 percent increase in C&D. Residential garbage rates will increase from $25 to $29 a month while commercial rates will increase from $35 to $39.95 a month. The cost for an additional roll cart will go up from $10 to $18 for residential and $20 for commercial. 

Also, dumpsters will increase from $4.68 per cubic yard to $5.42 per cubic yard.

“The staff has done a comparison to other sanitation service providers and we feel like these are in line with what others are charging,” Powell said. “I’d like to point out that the city does provide lawn debris and yard debris pickup at no additional charge as well as we’ll do free bulk pickup in the city as long as it is within a 4×8 square size for pick up. The city is providing a very good service to its citizens.”

•Approved Charter Communications to relocate their facilities along Madison Street from overhead to underground as part of the Madison Streetscape project. The total cost will be $72,652.24.

•During citizens comments, Vonda Morton spoke to council about the history of the Pledge of Allegiance. For more than a year, Morton has been asking city council and the Laurens County Board of Commissioners to include the Georgia pledge at the beginning of their meetings.

– Powell addressed the sewer issues on Church Street from John Hall, after it was asked about during citizens comments. 

“We’ve got the contract finalized with the contractor,” he said. “The pre-construction meeting is (May 17).”