The Peachtree City Council has elected to keep the digital recordings of its meeting indefinitely.
Their decision Thursday night was a switch from the recommendation by city staff, which was to have the recordings ditched after one year. The Georgia Secretary of State’s office recommends they be purged after the minutes for that meeting are approved, according to Administrative Services Director Nikki Vrana.
Councilman Eric Imker said it’s not much trouble for the city to keep them indefinitely, just the cost of digital storage.
The city switched to a digital recording system years ago, but also has some audio tapes left over from the older recording system that also will be kept.
Councilman Doug Sturbaum said he also had concerns about getting rid of the recordings after one year. Councilwoman Kim Learnard said she was OK with keeping the recordings indefinitely.
Staff did share a concern about whether the recordings could be played back in the future if technology changes. Imker replied that the point was simply to keep them, but that council would not dictate the format of the recordings.
In other business, council was updated on the intermittent closings of the access road leading from Peachtree Parkway through the Walgreen’s construction site.
Learnard said the scenario has been very confusing because the access to the golf cart path has been cut off intermittently over a long period of time. She also was curious because she has seen golf carts use the access road used by cars, despite a large orange sign saying “no golf carts.”
City Manager Jim Pennington said carts have been allowed to use the access road, but the sign remains most likely for liability reasons.
“This is a construction zone and you do go through at your own risk,” Pennington said.
The good news is that the matter should be resolved in time for the July 4 holiday weekend, Pennington said.
The construction project was delayed when bad soil was discovered and new soil had to be brought in, he added.
Pennington also noted that there was no new information on the study at the Kedron pools to determine if the underground anchoring system was suitable for a new “bubble” structure. Pennington said he was concerned about the timeline as the entire project might not be up by October when it normally is.
