The state Department of Transportation’s board on Friday aired its concerns over gaps in the DOT’s top leadership in a closed meeting with DOT Commissioner Vance Smith.
Following the meeting, Board Chairman Rudy Bowen said that he was confident the issues would be addressed, and that Smith would hire people to fill top posts that were vacant or soon to be vacant, including the deputy commissioner position. The board used to have approval over the commissioner’s top deputies, but following a new law in 2009 it no longer does. It still has the power to hire and fire the commissioner.
Smith declined to comment.
ARIEL HART
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Outdoor advertisers can start taking chain saws to trees that block their signs under legislation signed into law Thursday by Gov. Nathan Deal
House Bill 179 allows billboard owners to clear-cut trees on the public rights of way in front of their signs. The measure passed the Legislature this year after a decade-long battle between the industry and advocates of beautified highways. APRIL HUNT
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The Brookings Institute has ranked Atlanta 91st out of 100 metropolitan areas for overall access to mass transit, according to a study released Thursday. It found transit access worst in the South, and best in the West.
Metro residents with transit access could only reach 21.7 percent of the region’s jobs within 90 minutes, ranking metro Atlanta 85th out of 100, according to the report.
ARIEL HART
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Georgia College & State University President Dorothy Leland was recommended to be the new chancellor of the University of California Merced campus Tuesday.
Pending approval, Leland, a California native, will begin July 1.
She has served as Georgia College's president since 2004. The State Board of Regents will form a search committee to look for her replacement. LAURA DIAMOND
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