The Fayette County Board of Education on Dec. 1 unanimously approved an $81,000 bid to install cart paths and parking spaces to accommodate golf carts at the Starr’s Mill school complex.
Though the project cost was initially estimated at up to $125,000, Facilities Director Mike Satterfield said the low bid from Southside Striping LLC was $81,400. The high bid for the project was $196,000.
Satterfield said that, weather permitting, the bulk of the work can be completed in the next two weeks. The portion of the project dealing with installing a raised crosswalk will be completed during Christmas vacation, Satterfield said.
Starr’s Mill High School will be responsible for handling golf cart permits and initiating the process for carts to access the campus.
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’s portion of the 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.
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 idea for installing cart paths along Redwine Road and on the Starr’s Mill campus came from a project undertaken during the summer by interns working with Fayette County government.
