Milton’s plans for a roundabout at the intersection of Freemanville and Birmingham roads brought residents to a City Council meeting to call for the project to be moved westward, onto land already owned by the city.

Pleas to minimize the impact on private property owners came before the council approved a $40,000 task order to have engineering consultant BM&K PC provide pre-construction and right-of-way acquisition services — determining land values, conducting negotiations and preparing closing documents, among other tasks.

Tamara Didjurgis, whose family has a home and horses on the southeast corner of the intersection, said if the roundabout is built as planned, it would move traffic closer to her house, and a concrete median opposite a driveway would prevent her from getting a horse trailer in and out of her property.

“Since 2013, I’ve had to live with a lot of uncertainty,” Didjurgis said. “I have a daughter, and every time this boils up, she asks me, ‘Mommy, are we going to lose our house? Am I going to lose my pony?’”

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Austin Walters died from an overdose in 2021 after taking a Xanax pill laced with fentanyl, his father said. A new law named after Austin and aimed at preventing deaths from fentanyl has resulted in its first convictions in Georgia, prosecutors said. (Family photo)

Credit: Family photo