If you've been driving around Trenton in the past week or so, you've probably seen this guy a time or two! It's been stop-start, mostly stop, in the downtown area since GDOT (the Georgia Department of Transportation) began its resurfacing of Main Street, AKA Highway 11, from city limit to city limit.
Those of us who've been here long enough to know our way around the center of the universe have a Trenton Bypass or two up our sleeves, but some things shake even the canniest of us--even The Planet!-- to the core. When northbound traffic briefly routed
clockwise--the wrong direction!--around the historic Dade County courthouse last week, for one heart-stopping moment it was as if the mighty Nile had reversed its course and the stars begun to fall.
But there's good news on that front. Patrick McWhorter of GDOT in Rome told The Planet that the resurfacing had pretty much wrapped up Tuesday and that the temporary lane striping should be finished by the end of today, Wednesday.
"We have a 15-day wait before we can put the permanent striping on, to let the asphalt cure out," said McWhorter. That, he says, makes for better paint adherence to the surrface. "The only thing I think they have left to do is cut the loops to get the wiring back to the signals, and then the permanent striping, which should be done within the next month."
So those of us old enough to hate change of any kind will be comforted to know that life will shortly go back to normal -- with one exception. What's missing from the picture at left, a view from Ingle's to the Highway 11/Highway 136 intersection?
Well, lane striping for one thing, but that's coming back. What will not be returning is the concrete barricade that cleanup volunteers so lovingly repainted only this April during Trenton Streets Commissioner Monda Wooten's citywide cleanup. That comforting yellow triangle that always made The Planet feel so happy and secure, safe from hurried motorists making sloppy left turns into the Ingle's, is history, says McWhorter. It had to go to bring the city's pedestrian ways up to code.
"That was part of the reason that they had to take that island out at the Ingle's, so there could be a crosswalk across through there," said McWhorter. "There won't be a concrete island but there will be a painted barrier there so the lanes will be separated."
Next: Dade Planet readers with good memories will remember that Georgia Power will close its walk-in business office on Thursday, Oct. 20. But, said a sign on the door when
The Planet popped by on Wednesday: "We are here in so many other ways." You can pay power bills in person at Ingle's or Food City, or any Walmart, Kmart or Walgreens, reminded the sign; or go to
georgiapower.com/paymentlocations to find other payment sites.
A lady identifying herself only as "Mildred," who was visiting the Cedar Lane office to pay her bill, said she'd just learned the place was closing up today. "I don't have a computer so I can't pay online," she said.
But Mildred said she wasn't worried about it. "I'm in the Ingle's all the time," she said. And if the two cashiers inside were worried about it, they weren't letting on to The Planet, either. One said they still had jobs with Georgia Power, and affirmed that the building would still be used by the power company to store equipment and dispatch repair crews.
If you have questions about paying your bill, starting or stopping service, or anything else related to your Georgia Power account, you may call the company at 1 (888) 660-5890 or visit georgiapower.com online.
Fixin' to be Fred's: In cruising the highways and byways of the center of reality and human consciousness to research this article, The Planet also noticed that the new Fred's "supercenter" on South Main is coming along nicely. Thus The Planet called up the old Fred's "not-so-super center" and asked for an ETA. "We're supposed to be moving in in January, said a cashier who identified herself as Penny. "They haven't told us any more than that." That was good enough for The Planet!
Garden Statuary in the Raw
And who could travel south from City Hall toward the square without pausing to admire the autumnal splendor of The Lily Pad's floral displays? The riotous rainbow colors of the multitudes of mums in front of the Highway 11 North fruit stand and garden center may yet cause traffic pileups, but who's complaining? Not The Planet, who old-timers may remember began life as a garden writer!
And if anybody ever complained about the deshabille of certain garden statuary displayed at the Pad, presumably nobody is now, because Trenton's local avatar of David is once again as gloriously starkers as Michelangelo first sculpted him.
In summer 2015, The Lily Pad made headlines for shielding local sensibilities from the rampagous male nekkidity of David and his plaster brethren--at that point, there were more than one--with prim little skirts or aprons. Now the garments are off, and David is naked once more!
And that seems the right datum with which to end this news roundup. Given the marvelous complexity of the universe, and Trenton's strategic location at its throbbing epicenter, The Planet may yet come up with still more enthralling local tidings, but frankly, such would be hard to conceive of nor yet to grasp.
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