Soperton City Council Approve New Truck Ordinance to Preserve City Streets

The Soperton City Council approved a new ordinance preventing large trucks from driving on city streets during their monthly meeting on August 18 in the Soperton City Hall.

The ordinance is designed to prevent further damage to the city’s aging infrastructure, including water and sewer lines, as well as road pavement on street corners. These infrastructures become damaged over time due to the strain of trucks with heavy loads passing over on a regular basis, with some roads requiring extensive work.

“It’s not intentional on the truckers’ part, it isn’t,” said Soperton Mayor John Koon. “It’s just part of it, you know.”

The ordinance will not take effect immediately, first requiring three readings in subsequent meetings before passing into law. Following the final reading in October, the law will also allow a grace period directly after, allowing truckers to adjust before enforcement begins.

A public information meeting will also be planned soon after the final reading to instruct citizens on the law’s aim. The city also plans to build a gated parking lot for local truckers to store their trucks in, and have begun looking at properties for construction.

The council also approved Cardinal Drive, Hyman Avenue, Bell Avenue Extension and the City Hall parking lot for the 2026 Local Maintenance and Improvement Grant (LMIG) projects, which will include pavement and repair efforts. 

The city will also begin utilizing a rating system to determine future street projects, ranking streets from one to five based on factors such as the time since its last repair. Streets ranked higher will be given more priority for future repair efforts.

The council also approved $3,000 for the purchase of a new extractor for the Soperton Volunteer Fire Department, at the request of Fire Chief John Johnson.

An extractor is a device similar to a laundry machine, which uses a combination of water, a citric acid base and centrifugal force to clean firefighter’s turnout gear of carcinogens and toxic fumes accumulated while in service. These chemicals cling to the gear at a molecular level and cannot be removed by a standard washing machine.

“It’s dangerous enough for our firemen to be able to go into a fire, but having those carcinogens come out and then getting on you, you know, after a period of time because they’re not clean, picking it up and things like that,” said Koon. “We’re trying to protect our firemen.”

The fire department previously owned an extractor, but the machine broke and the company which produced it had long since gone out of business, leaving repair impossible. Since then, firefighters have been shipping their gear to a cleaning facility in Atlanta with a two to three week turnaround time.

The Treutlen County Board of Commissioners have also approved spending $6,000 for the extractor, as the extractor will be used by both the Soperton Fire Department and the Treutlen County Fire Department.

“We have a great working relationship with the county,” said Koon. “It’s unbelievable, I mean, we both have the same vision to make Treutlen County and the city of Soperton even better than what it is, so we appreciate them.”

The council also voted to move their September meeting to Monday, September 8, as Mayor Koon would not be able to attend the original meeting date of September 1. The meeting will see a work session followed directly by the main monthly meeting.

The council also moved the public trick-or-treat to Thursday, October 30, as to not conflict with the Treutlen County Vikings football game on Friday, October 31, or the Million Pines Arts and Crafts Festival on Saturday, November 1.