By Annie Piekarczyk / STAFF

Milton held its second town hall meeting last Wednesday, hosting well over 100 residents to discuss possible ideas for revitalizing the Crabapple area. However, even with an attendance that Milton’s fellow cities would drool over, the residents had very little to offer in the way of questions or feedback.

Hosted by Councilmembers Karen Thurman and Bill Lusk, the meeting was to inform residents who might not regularly go to Milton City Council meetings, and to gain their feedback, but it ended up becoming a forum where local business owners pitched proposals for branding and grand ideas that the audience passively accepted.

“This is a question and answer session,” said Mayor Joe Lockwood, despite the few questions posed by the large audience.

Councilwoman Thurman explained beforehand, “We really want input from [residents].”

Milton resident Buck Bell introduced the concept of transforming Crabapple into a destination for the city. “To be a destination city, people need to know what Crabapple is, who Crabapple is. We need to create awareness before there will be a demand,” said Bell. He also put together banners advertising Crabapple with a country look and feel to them with different words on each banner such as “grow,” “enjoy,” “play,” “laugh” and “live.” Once money is raised for the banners, they would be displayed on Highway 9 and Birmingham Hwy. Bell said if Crabapple is not branded as the place to go, it will remain a place where people just drive by. 

John Adams, a local developer, had similar ideas, but instead of branding Crabapple, he proposed creating a Milton town center where people can integrate their lives – social and otherwise. “Town centers are integral to the success of social utility of our lives,” said Adams. “[Today] you can live in your house and never meet your neighbors. A town center will draw people together.” He proposed a town center that would foster interaction that’s become a rarity in today’s fast-paced lifestyles. A map of his town center included a library, outside auditorium and city hall all within walking distance from one another.

How this would be accomplished within Crabapple’s already stretched master plan was not made clear, nor was the reasoning behind pitching a town center by a developer who had neither been vetted, nor discussed his plans with other business leaders.

Before and after the presentations, Mayor Lockwood made sure to emphatically proclaim that most, if not all, of the proposed ideas had not been heard by members of the city council or him, but that the ideas were being proposed to receive feedback. 

As emphasized by council members Lusk and Thurman, input and response is more than welcome. Most residents ended up filling out surveys after the meeting, but they didn’t bring up any questions during the session. While the speakers didn’t receive a lot of the expected feedback or reactions during the meeting, there is sure to be some talk of all the proposed ideas in the coming weeks. 

Safe Routes

Milton County has also recently made an initiative to help children get to school more safely. A transportation engineer from Milton Public Works spoke about specific infrastructure projects included on the Safe Routes to School Grant Application. Some of the projects included filling in sidewalk gaps, installing new sections of sidewalk/trails, improving school zone signage and improving crosswalks. Milton requested up to $500,000 for those eligible projects through Georgia Safe Routes to School. All of the projects would be carried out by Georgia Department of Transportation. Thurman said they should know in two weeks exactly what Milton will be allotted.