A total of $490,000 has been allocated by officials with the Georgia Department of Transportation for a major road resurfacing project on the campus of Central State Hospital in Milledgeville.

News of the resurfacing project, which will come in three phases, was learned Thursday after state Rep. Rick Williams received a telephone call from GDOT committee chairman Jamie Boswell.

“We’re very excited about this news,” Williams told The Union-Recorder during a telephone interview Thursday afternoon.

A couple of weeks ago, Williams said Boswell visited with him, as well as Baldwin County Commission chairman Sammy Hall and Commission vice chairman Tommy French.

“We were looking at the Highway 49 project and the traffic light out there at Baldwin High School,” Williams recalled. “While we had him (Boswell) in the car, we took him on out to Central State and drove him around so he could see, firsthand, to familiarize himself with what members of the Central State Hospital Local Redevelopment Authority have envisioned for the future of that area in terms of new job creation.”

Williams said a short time later, they scheduled an Aug. 8 meeting with GDOT Commissioner Russell McMurry.

Several city and county officials journeyed to Atlanta for the meeting, including Williams, Milledgeville Mayor Gary Thrower, City Manager Barry Jarrett and Hall. At least two officials with the Central State Hospital Local Redevelopment Authority (CSHLRA) also took the trip. They included Mike Couch, the group’s executive director, and Dudley Rowe, who serves as the group’s vice chairman.

“We met with the commissioner and his deputy commissioners and of course made the pitch for the funds to resurface several roads at Central State,” Williams said. “Hopefully this will be just the beginning of the start of funding for this project, and that we’ll get some more funding next year and in 2019.”

Williams applauded GDOT commissioner McMurray for making it happen.

“He was very impressed,” Williams said. “He’s been to Central State; he’s been to Milledgeville. He’s impressed with what we’re doing. I really want to thank Mike Couch and the Central State Hospital Local Redevelopment Authority. They have really, really worked hard along with the city and the county.”

Future plans to start up the Bobby Parham Kitchen on the campus of Central State, along with other job creations on the campus, played a big role in securing the funding for the resurfacing project, Williams said.

Couch said he couldn’t thank the GDOT commissioner and his staff enough for considering funding the project.

“They have been highly receptive and they understood right away that we’re trying to create jobs,” Couch said. “When you look at what we’re doing, this first tier of funding, we’re looking at two things: number one, roads that connect the campus to a major highway such as U.S. Highway 441 or Vinson Highway and West Broad Street, as well as Swint Avenue coming from downtown onto the campus. We’re also looking at the roads that service our current job producers — that being Bostick Nursing Center, Youth Challenge Academy, BDHDB, and the Georgia War Veterans Home.”

Couch said he and members of the CSHLRA want to create what he called “the right path” coming into campus.

“We’ve got people spending lots of money, so we have to get decent roads for them to get to their facilities,” Couch said.

He said learning that the resurfacing project was going to receive the funding from the state for the first phase was “very exciting.”

Couch said while he was personally excited about the news, he said he was actually more excited about the way the local community had come together to support the project.

“It started with Rick (Williams) taking the delegation up — the mayor and the commission chairman, Mr. (Dudley) Rowe and myself,” Couch said. “We presented a compelling case. I think Commissioner McMurray said it best: ‘You came prepared and you came with your leadership. That’s the right thing to do.’”

Couch said it truly is an exciting time for everyone involved in supporting the vision that members of the CSHLRA share.

“We’re very excited and we have a lot of reasons to feel that way,” Couch said.

The funding from the state for the road resurfacing project at Central State is excess money not distributed for LMIG projects for cities and counties, Couch said.

“They look for projects like this that are worthy to take to the state board to see whether they can distribute some of that money to fund projects like ours,” Couch said, noting that this would not effect the city or the county’s LMIG funding, whatsoever. This is actually money that is controlled by Commissioner McMurray and his board of directors.”

One of the facilities that will benefit from the road resurfacing project at Central State is the Bostick Nursing Center, which opened earlier this year.

“I’ve got a $21 million facility that is on a pretty beat up road,” Couch said. “The road has some pretty large pot holes. This is the kind of news that let’s Dr. Carlos Musso know that our community is in there with him and support of him and his vision to create hundreds of jobs in our community.”