TUESDAY, OCTOBER 6, 2026 · Issue No. 67 · 11 min read
Council votes to protect Birmingham Park for good
Your House District 47 question is due by 5 p.m. today. Plus a $340,000 plan for the Thompson Road bridge.
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In this issue Birmingham Park. Council voted to protect it permanently. Plus a Thompson Road bridge plan that could bring school buses back, and why the tax-rate vote moved to Oct. 19. Your vote. Send your House District 47 question by 5 p.m. today. And. Your Crabapple Fest favorite and a new poll. Wins for Milton’s band and cheer teams. Mozart on Saturday, The Blotter and the library’s Oct. 12 reopening. |
Top of Mind
the one thing to know this morning
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Birmingham Park, to be protected for good. Council voted unanimously Monday night to put about 185 acres of Birmingham Park, the city-owned park in northwest Milton, under a conservation easement, a permanent agreement that protects the land, held by the Georgia-Alabama Land Trust. The city will still own and run the park. The land trust will monitor it and enforce the easement’s protections for wildlife habitat, open space, scenic views and water. Those protections stay with the land for future generations.
Hiking, horseback riding and wildlife watching will continue, said Sara Leaders, the city’s community development and public works director. New activities and improvements will need advance notice and the land trust’s consent, though the agreement leaves room for more parking and a restroom, she said. The city expects to sign and record the easement in the next few days. Mayor Peyton Jamison, who announced the plan in his State of the City address in January 2025, called it “the first of hopefully many.”
Monday night at City Hall |
Permanent protection for Birmingham Park Approved |
Thompson Road bridge No vote. Staff plans repairs now, replacement later |
2017 trail plan dropped from development rules Approved |
Property tax rate Vote moved to Oct. 19 |
Development Authority seat for Brandon Cox Approved |
Every vote was unanimous. Council member Doug Hene was absent. Watch the meeting |
Council Watch
what the city decided, and what it is about to
The Thompson Road bridge. The bridge just north of Redd Road, built in 1962, has carried a 10-ton weight limit since March, after the state’s inspection found crumbling concrete and exposed steel. The bridge will have to be replaced, Deputy Public Works Director Rob Dell-Ross told Council. The question is when. Staff recommended about $340,000 in structural repairs and preventative maintenance, an estimate with a 20 percent cushion, paid for with the county transportation sales tax. That would buy “likely closer to 10 years,” he said, while repairs alone, about $260,000, might buy five.
School buses, kept off the bridge by the limit, could return even before the repairs are done, staff said. Once the state agrees the work is coming, a state letter to Fulton County Schools could let them back on. The work could come during a closure, possibly a partial one, around Thanksgiving or the winter break.
Staff will also ask the state to move federal bridge money from the Clarity Road bridge to this one, for a replacement that would take three to four years. Council took no vote. Staff asked for direction and was told, “I think you got the head nod.”
Trails, from scratch. Council also voted to take the 2017 Milton Trails Blueprint out of the city’s development rules. Gone are the rules that required some private developments to build trails or set aside land for them, the breaks on development fees for building trails, the Blueprint’s trail standards and its map. It is the step staff proposed in September, as we reported then: drop the Blueprint and write a new trail plan with residents. The draft long-range plan update (below) lists that plan, covering sidewalks and multi-use paths, as one of its action items.
The tax rate, Oct. 19. Council moved its vote on the city’s property tax rate to its Oct. 19 meeting. City Attorney Ken Jarrard said he asked for the delay. State law requires the city to advertise a five-year history of its tax rate before the vote, and the ad had an error. He didn’t know that it was fatal, he said, but “I tend to be an abundance of caution sort of guy,” so it will run again. The city has also had to go to court over its temporary order to collect taxes, he said, a problem that stemmed from “another jurisdiction that helps us with our assessments” and “had nothing to do with Milton.”
The long-range plan. Staff walked Council through the last piece of the five-year update to the city’s comprehensive plan: 27 action items, from a strategy to keep large lots and a park for Deerfield to the city’s first economic development plan. Council members asked for some Deerfield and green-space work to come sooner. A vote to adopt the update is expected later this month.
Also Monday. Council appointed Brandon Cox, a development manager with Toro Development Company, to a new eighth seat on the Development Authority. It approved a license that lets Smash by Vice on Heritage Walk serve alcohol at catered and special events. It also approved four maps that divide or redraw lots, including one dividing 62.7 acres at The Reserve at River’s Edge into six lots. During public comment, one resident spoke in support of Restoration Church’s plans for a Milton campus. Afterward, Council met in a closed session on personnel, land acquisition and litigation.
Your Vote
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Today · 5 p.m. Your House District 47 questions are due. |
Last call for your question. You have until 5 p.m. today to send us a question for the two candidates in House District 47, the Georgia House seat on the ballot in 11 of Milton’s 13 precincts (My Voter Page shows yours). Reply to this email, or send it through the form on our House District 47 page. On Sunday morning we invited both candidates, Democrat Lindsay DeFranco and Republican Jack Miller, to take part.
We’ll send the questions to both campaigns Wednesday and print their answers word for word on Oct. 13, the day early voting starts.
The dates. Registration for the Nov. 3 election closed Monday. Our 2026 voter guide covers every race on Milton ballots.
- →Early voting: Oct. 13 to 30, weekdays from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m., plus two Saturdays, Oct. 17 and 24, from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., at any of Fulton’s 32 early voting sites. Milton’s is the library at 855 Mayfield Road. Fulton’s early voting page also lists Sunday hours.
- →Absentee ballots: applications have to reach county election officials by Friday, Oct. 23. You can apply online.
- →Election Day: Tuesday, Nov. 3. Polls are open 7 a.m. to 7 p.m.
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You Told Us
Sunday we asked for your favorite part of Crabapple Fest. Browsing the vendors came out on top, picked by 19 of the 47 readers who answered, more than twice as many as chose the KidZone (9).
Your favorite part of Crabapple Fest | ||||
Browsing the vendors
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The KidZone
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The food
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We didn’t make it this time
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The new music stage
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47 readers, one tap each. It isn’t a scientific poll, just the readers who tapped. |
Still time for your photos. We said we’d print your best fest photos today, but none had reached us by Monday night. Good ones still have a spot in Thursday’s issue: reply to this email with the photo and the name to credit. Please send only pictures you took yourself, and skip close-ups of other people’s children. By sending one, you’re giving us permission to print it.
Reader poll · One tap What should Crabapple Fest add next year?
Tap once and you’ll see how everyone else voted. Results Thursday. |
Bragging Rights
The band. The same Saturday as Crabapple Fest, Milton High’s marching band won the Georgia Marching Band Collective’s contest at Mill Creek High School in Hoschton. Its 90.5 was the highest of the 13 scores posted for the day, ahead of Buford’s 89.88. The band also placed first in music performance, visual performance, general effect (the judges’ score for a show’s overall impact) and percussion, and third in color guard. Its next competition will be Saturday, Oct. 10, at Northgate High School, according to the band’s calendar.
The cheerleaders. Milton’s JV and varsity competition cheer teams each won first place Saturday at the Seckinger High School Invitational, Milton High’s weekly update said Sunday. Both teams will compete again this Saturday at Creekview High.
Know a Milton student or team that won something? Reply to this email and tell us.
Mozart in Milton
Music Milton, the Milton nonprofit that puts on classical, jazz and bluegrass concerts, will open its second season Saturday at 7:30 p.m. with an evening of Mozart at Birmingham United Methodist Church, 15770 Birmingham Highway. Clarinetist Laura Ardan, who retired from the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra after 39 years as its principal clarinet, will join the Vega Quartet (Emory University’s quartet in residence) and Music Milton’s artistic director, William Ransom, at the piano. The program includes the G Minor Piano Quartet and the Clarinet Quintet.
Tickets are $40, or $10 for students, on Music Milton’s ticket page. Seating is general admission, and Music Milton says doors usually open half an hour before the music starts. For families, the Gary Motley Jazz Trio will play the season’s free concert on Sunday, Nov. 1, at 4 p.m. at St. Aidan’s Episcopal Church on Cogburn Road. All five concerts are on Music Milton’s site.
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The Scoreboard
every game, both schools, the night it finishes
This week · Friday night | ||||||
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Overall records from our results; region records and Marist’s record from MaxPreps. Rankings: MaxPreps, Oct. 4. | ||||||
Volleyball. Both teams will play region tournament matches at home tonight at 6. Cambridge will host Centennial. Milton’s opponent wasn’t set when the school sent its schedule. That schedule also lists tournament matches for Milton at Riverwood on Wednesday and Thursday.
Also this week. Softball: Milton will host Roswell tonight at 5:30, and Cambridge will host Pope on Wednesday, also at 5:30. Flag football: Milton plays Riverwood and Lanier tonight at Lanier High, at 7 and 8 p.m., and Cambridge will take on Forsyth Central at home Wednesday at 6, then Mountain View at 6:30. Every schedule and score →
The Blotter
police and fire calls worth knowing, Tuesdays
Sept. 28 to Oct. 4. From police and fire dispatch traffic. A dispatch call is a report, not a finding, and we write it that way. Streets, not house numbers. No names.
- →Birmingham Highway near Dorris Road, Tuesday, Sept. 29, 9:51 p.m. Officers were sent to a report of a suspected burglary.
Of the dispatch calls we track, 46 were in or near Milton that week, 43 of them police calls and 3 fire calls. Most of the ones we didn’t print were crashes, alarms, noise complaints, suspicious-person calls and two calls about dogs. Something on your street we should look into? Reply to this email. Every item we have printed is on our map, along with how The Blotter works.
Follow-Ups
License plate cameras. On Monday we sent the city a letter about our story on Milton’s license plate cameras, set to run Thursday, Oct. 15, asking for a response by 5 p.m. Oct. 12. We also sent the mayor and each councilmember the same three questions about the program, and we’ll report every answer we receive.
The Agenda
public meetings this week and next
This week’s public meetings. Monday’s Council agenda and the city’s preview of it cover the votes above.
- →Tue, Oct 6 · 6:00 PM: Design Review Board Meeting · City Hall
- →Wed, Oct 7 · 4:30 PM: Development Authority (the city’s economic development board): a tour of properties in the Deerfield area, then a 5:30 meeting at City Hall (agenda)
- →Thu, Oct 8 · 6:00 PM: Greenprint Steering Group Meeting · City Hall, Milton Room
- →Mon, Oct 12 · 6:00 PM: City Council Work Session · City Hall
This Week in Milton
the calendar, day by day
The forecast. Today, patchy fog then sunny with a high of 77. Through Saturday, highs run from 76 to 84, with lows from 52 to 56. Rain chances reach 34 percent Saturday and 55 percent Saturday night.
The library reopens Oct. 12. The Milton Library stays closed for the rest of this week, and its programs until then are canceled. On Monday, Oct. 12, a Fulton County Schools holiday, its calendar lists five programs, among them a preschool storytime with the Georgia Farm Bureau at 10:30 a.m. and a scrapbooking class for ages 8 to 14 at 11. The library asks you to register for both. Scrapbookers need to bring six to eight printed photos.
Tuesday, October 6
- →9:30 or 10:30 AM · Toddler Tuesdays: Music Together (pick one class) · Broadwell Pavilion (free)
- →5:00 PM · Art with Rani: realistic drawing (ages 9 to 16) · Community Place, Milton City Hall
- →6:30 PM · Trivia Night at Six Bridges · Six Bridges Crabapple (free)
Wednesday, October 7
- →6:30 PM · Music Bingo at Six Bridges · Six Bridges Crabapple (free)
Friday, October 9
- →6:00 PM · Live Music at Six Bridges · Six Bridges Crabapple (free)
Saturday, October 10
- →6:00 PM · Live Music at Six Bridges · Six Bridges Crabapple (free)
- →7:30 PM · Mozart in Milton: Music Milton opens its second season · Birmingham United Methodist Church ($40; $10 for students)
Sunday, October 11
- →3:00 PM · Live Music at Six Bridges · Six Bridges Crabapple (free)
Monday, October 12
- →10:30 AM · Special Storytime with Georgia Farm Bureau · Milton Library (free)
- →11:00 AM · Get Creative! Scrapbooking Class (ages 8 to 14) · Milton Library (free)
- →1:00 PM · Beyond the Generation: Tech Help for Older Adults · Milton Library (free)
- →6:00 PM · Monday Math Tutoring · Milton Library (free)
- →7:00 PM · Volunteer Orientation · Milton Library (free)
