Mayor Conley addresses the 'Business Women of Blairsville'
By KATHLEEN McKEVITT Sentinel Writer

Mayor Jim Conley talked mostly about the airport, the state of the City and the plans of the Downtown Development Authority, when he met with the Business Women of Blairsville this week.

The Mayor opened his comments with "you probably wonder when we're going to stop digging in the streets?" Most local city businesses have been affected over the last year or so by continuing repair to the water system throughout the city.

The Mayor explained that water lines were installed around the mid-1940s when no mapping was done, and no plans were laid, so he says, "it is a maze of unknowns. Where one line meets another can sometimes only be discerned by digging up the street to find…nothing, or the wrong something."

Now, it would seem, however, that there is "light at the end of the tunnel!" and according to Conley, it should be only a matter of weeks before the work is finally completed.

The Mayor went on to tell the group that the City is now due for a total surface work of the roads from Old Shoe Factory road to McDonald's. "We'll take the gravel out and put blacktop in, probably during the summer months."

Conley said, "the extension to the airport was completed in 2005. What it took to accomplish that were some building relocations and displacements." The present day Chamber of Commerce building was moved to where it is from the airport area.

There is more construction to come. There is 1200 feet that can be used and it needs to be opened up for visual and instrument approach for pilots. We need to eliminate those obstructions.

There are 30 hangers at the airport now and the Mayor says, "if we had 50 more we could fill them immediately." Two thirds are used by local people, three were actually built by local people. As growth comes to the area we will need a new county road from Interstate 515 to the new terminal area.

"We would need over a half-million dollars to build a new terminal, but would have to acquire property first, but that would all be a 2008 consideration," according to the Mayor.

The Mayor closed his comments by saying that "the hardest thing of all is making things happen quickly enough." We need so many things, like good guidelines for clear cutting; looking at the many requests for commuter flights into our airport; working on the downtown area; building the new sewer and water system, to name a few. "Oh, and remember...." he said, "April 28th is clean up day and it's not to late to sign up."

The Business Women of Blairsville is a group of entrepreneurial business women in Union County. Their first annual EXPO is being held at the Brackett Room behind United Community Bank on April 28 from 10 a.m. - 4 p.m.