Boswell, Transportation Board Chair Linked In Connector Decision

Jamie Boswell received a copy of the letter sent Maxie Price by a senior Georgia Department of Transportation official clearing the way for a full access commercial median break on the Oconee Connector before Price did.

Price had written to Georgia Transportation Commissioner Russell McMurry on March 17 asking McMurry to confirm that a full access commercial median break would be included in the design of the new interchange at SR 316 and the Oconee Connector.

Boswell is a member of the Georgia Transportation Board and also owner of Boswell Properties, which is listing the 47 acres at the corner of Mars Hill Road and the Oconee Connector that Price wants to rezone for a large shopping center.

Rudy Bowen, chairman of the Transportation Board, passed to Meg Pirkle, chief GDOT engineer who reports directly to McMurry, “information” about Price’s request for a median cut and said he was looking into the request for Price.

The documents passed to Pirkle had both Bowen’s and Boswell’s names written on the top.

Engineers responded to Pirkle by saying the median break would not meet state standards for redesign of the intersection, but Pirkle overruled them and granted Price’s request nonetheless in a letter dated April. 6.

These new details of Boswell’s and now Bowen’s involvement in the decision to grant Price’s request for access to his property came to light as a result of the release by the Georgia Department of Transportation of a trove of documents in response to open records requests.

For more on this story, please go to Oconee County Observations.