MOULTRIE — County commissioners discussed options to address what a resident called a “dangerous” intersection earlier in the year.

In January, Monica Rolax told the Colquitt County Commission about her safety concerns regarding the intersection of 10th Street and Tallokas Road. At last Tuesday’s meeting, County Administrator Chas Cannon reminded the commissioners about Rolax’s presentation.

During the January meeting, Cannon put up a picture of the intersection on the screen for the commissioners to look at while Rolax was speaking.

“There has been three accidents, right there, where you see that car coming, within the last three months,” Rolax said, pointing to the picture. “And it’s just very dangerous.”

She said one accident left a car turned-over in the ditch and there was another one that was hit and went into the ditch.

Rolax said she lived in Sloan Village, which is at the intersection. She said when they hear the accidents, they run up from her house to see about the people.

“And every time we hear the accident. … you can hear it. And my concern is, you know, the first responders are coming but I do not want them to come and clean-up corpses,” she said.

She also said she knew the first responders were doing everything they could to arrive very quickly to the accidents.

Rolax said she thought the intersection needed a roundabout or a red light. James Scott, who also voiced his concerns, said vehicles had knocked the stop sign that was there down two or three times.

“And the second accident that happened, the stop sign was not even up, ladies and gentlemen,” Rolax said.

She said she felt if they could do something to make the intersection a little bit safer, it would stop the accidents from happening.

“It’s a 45 mph there but I just think we need something, guys,” she added.

She said she personally would like to see a roundabout instead of a traffic light because people would just try to fly through the yellow light.

Cannon said he would get in touch with DOT and see what they could do. He said, the course of action may be a roundabout.

“That’s not a fast process,” he told her and Rolax replied, “That’s fine.”

At last Tuesday’s meeting, after putting up the same picture of the intersection on the screen, Cannon introduced Bill Kent from Innovative Engineering.

“The issue’s kind of been that folks are turning left, there, and they’re having little accidents. Right there. A good many accidents,” he said indicating on the picture.

Then he showed them an aerial picture of the intersection and Kent said, “That’s what it looks like today. The lanes don’t line-up and when you’re going north on Tallokas, you got a left-turn dedicated lane, you’ve got a turn right but then, coming the other way, you’ve got a left thru and then dedicated right turn.”

He said, when he had gone out to look at the intersection, he had seen what Cannon described, actually happening.

“Somebody was trying to turn left going southbound and the traffic got backed-up and somebody got a little impatient and they zipped around through the right turn lane to get around. Now, luckily, nobody was turning left in front of them, there,” Kent said. “You’ve also got Tallokas Street, which comes in at an odd angle, very close to the intersection.”

Kent said they had looked at five different options to address the intersection.

“I looked at the accident reports. Nothing in the reports led me to believe, ‘Oh, there’s the problem.’ Each of the accidents that were there were varied things,” he said. “Nothing that would say, ‘Here’s what you need to do to improve the intersection.’ So, what else can we do?”

Kent said one option was to put in a traffic signal and leave the road just like it was. Another option, he said, was to widen and align the intersection so that all the lanes lined-up with each other. However, they needed to acquire a right-away to make it happen, he said. He showed a photo, on the screen, illustrating the option.

He then said they could look at doing a large traffic circle like the one on Highway 37 and Industrial Boulevard and he showed that option on the screen.

“Then, we looked at, ‘Well, what about the traffic circle like over here on Fourth Street?’ And that’s what it would look like, there,” Kent said, pointing to the screen.

He said putting in a traffic signal would cost somewhere between $250,000 to $400,000. Then, he said to do the widening and alignment of the intersection would cost between $500,000 to $750,000.

“The large traffic circle, three or four million, The small circle, somewhere between two to three million,” he said.

“There you have it. There you go,” said Cannon. “And option five is to continue to monitor.”

He put up the slide of what the intersection would look like if they widened the area and aligned the roads. There was further discussion on that option and what it would entail.

Cannon said he thought widening the intersection and aligning the roads was the better option. He then asked Public Works Department Head Stan Kirksey if it was something they could do internally with county employees.

“No,” he replied. “It would have to be contracted out.”

Cannon also said they could ask DOT for some help monetarily. He told them if they wanted to settle on a possibility, he could look into it.

“This is probably the best bet, right here,” he said.

After further discussion, the commissioners decided they would look into the option of widening the intersection and aligning the roads.

According to E-911 Director Teresa Warburg, there have been a total of eight accidents over the past three years. There were six without injuries and two with injuries. So, far, this year, there have been three accidents; two without injuries and one with injuries.