The end of January 2015 — that’s when students may be driving their golf carts to and parking them at the Starr’s Mill school complex south of Peachtree City.
A Nov. 17 vote by the Fayette County Board of Education will result in the installation of cart paths and parking to accommodate golf carts at Starr’s Mill school complex.
The recommendation by Superintendent Jody Barrow and a unanimous vote by the school board will have the project go out for bid, with Facilities Director Mike Satterfield estimating the cost of the project at $120,000-125,000. The board must vote again to approve the winning bid in December.
The project will have a raised crosswalk along Panther Path between Peeples Elementary School and Rising Starr Middle School. A nine-foot cart path will extend 1,000 feet to the site of a parking area for 250 golf carts and a second raised crosswalk. Another cart path totaling 900 feet will extend across the front of the middle and high schools. Rounding out the project will be the provision for another 50 golf carts on a seldom-used access road on the southeast side of the complex.
The school system recently conducted survey of parents and students in grades 8-11 at Rising Starr Middle School and Starr’s Mill High School that showed 54 percent would drive a golf cart to school instead of a car. The survey also showed that 39 percent would drive a golf cart until the student was old enough to drive a car while 7 percent said the student would not be allowed or able to drive a golf cart to school.
Asked if there were any concerns about the safety of student drivers of golf carts to the high school, 61 of the 105 responses to the question said they had no concerns while 24 had concerns about crossing Redwine Road, five had concerns about driving on campus, four were concerned about driver inexperience, two had concerns about crossing Ga. Highway 74 and one was concerned about crossing Robinson Road.
The survey ran from Oct. 27 through Nov. 10 and included 242 responses. The survey was editable by parents, the school system said.
The school system’s portion of the potential cart path project is much smaller in scope than the portion for which the county would have responsibility.
Fayette County Public Works Director Phil Mallon said that portion of the project exists essentially in two parts. One of those is the area closest to Panther Path which includes a parallel cart path on the west side of Redwine Road and a cart crossing. The county is currently preparing an in-house cost estimate for that project, Mallon said.
The other portion of the project includes the areas to north which extend to the Birkdale Drive/Quarters Road area. Mallon said federal funds will be available for that portion of the project. The county is currently in the procurement phase to hire an engineer to conduct the design process.
