HOGANSVILLE — City Council discussed making improvements to city streets and sidewalks during a work session Thursday night.

City Manager James Woods outlined three main projects the city is set to begin that will make use of the remaining amount of 2014 special-purpose, local-option sales tax, or SPLOST, funds.

One of the projects involves painting, or striping, dividing lines on city streets. Woods said that the city will be working with Two Rivers Resource Conservation and Development Council to complete the striping of the roads.

“We’re at the point now where we just have to get a list of the roads we need striped and compile a firm mileage number of how much striping we’ll need,” said Woods. “Once we’ve completed that, then we will request that Two Rivers come out and stripe the roads as soon as they can.”

Woods said that the city saves a large sum of money by working with Two Rivers as the company only charges for materials and labor for the road striping project. According to Woods, other companies would charge high markup rates to paint the city’s roads.

Another project the city will be looking to complete soon is placing stop bars in front of city stop signs. A stop bar is a 24-inch white bar that indicates the line a motorist must stop behind at a stop sign.

“We would be placing the stop bars ourselves,” said Woods. “We will be purchasing the materials and then laying them down and torching them into place. It’s a fairly easy process.”

Mayor Bill Stankiewicz said that the city hopes to have the road striping and stop bars completed by the end of August. The City Council also discussed paving and repairing drainage ditches around Myrtle Hill Cemetery.

Council members also discussed repairing the roadway at Bass Crossroads and Highway 54 near Interstate 85.

“This may be the most intricate project, but not the most expensive,” said Stankiewicz.

The city will be discussing the project and working in conjunction with Troup County Commission. Woods said that the city will be able to place bids on the project once financial plans have been discussed. The intersection roadway will be a concrete road instead of asphalt, which Woods said will give the pavement a much longer lifespan.

“I’m looking for the county to give their final approval by Aug. 10,” said Woods. “If we have the approval to begin the project by then, we will still be looking at going through the bidding process, which will take some time.”

Woods said that, barring any setbacks, the project may be completed sometime around the first of November.

City Council also discussed work planned at the Lake Jackson Recreation Area. The council plans to meet with engineers that will be working on the recreation area and also taking a field trip to another lake recreation area in order to gain a better understanding of how to approach installing additions to the site.

Council members also discussed how to use funds the city received thanks to a Local Maintenance Improvement Grant provided by the state’s Department of Transportation. The grant will be used to repair city sidewalks, as well as extend the sidewalk on Oak Street down to Tower Trail.

Changes to the city’s downtown zoning ordinance was also a topic of discussion during the meeting. Council members discussed the impact of allowing residential zoning for the floor level of downtown buildings and how such zoning could cause the downtown area to lose its historic appearance. City Council will be reviewing similar ordinances from other cities before making a decision on the matter.