By Alicia Couch Payne
On Tuesday, January 22, 2019, representatives from Gwinnett County will hold the first of many public meetings about MARTA. The meeting allows Gwinnett County to explain the contract that the county entered into with MARTA to bring the public transportation system to Gwinnett and the 1% sales tax increase that goes along with it.
Gwinnett County Commissioners and MARTA’s Board of Directors have already worked out the details and approved the contract to bring it to the county but it must still pass a public vote. The matter will appear in a referendum scheduled for March 19, 2019.
By law, county officials cannot try to sway voters for or against the passage of the MARTA referendum. County officials can only educate the public on the specifics of the contract that they worked out with MARTA including the sales tax increase.
The first of many public meetings over MARTA coming to Gwinnett County will be this Tuesday night, January 22nd from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. at Bogan Park’s Community Room located at 2723 North Bogan Road in Buford, Georgia. If you cannot make that meeting, below are a list of the public meetings in our area.
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- January 22nd, 6 – 8 p.m. – Bogan Park’s Community Room, 2723 North Bogan Road, Buford GA
- January 30th, 6 – 8 p.m. – George Pierce Park’s Community Room, 55 Buford Highway, Suwanee GA
- February 12th, 6 – 8 p.m. – Sugar Hill City Hall, 5039 West Broad Street, Sugar Hill, GA
- February 28th, 6 – 8 p.m. – Gwinnett County Fire Academy, 3608 Braselton Highway, Dacula GA
To vote in the transit referendum, voters must be registered by February 19th.
Early voting will begin for in-person voting at the Main Elections Office on February 25th and continue daily from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m., including Saturdays and Sundays until March 15th. The Main Elections Office is located at 455 Grayson Highway, Suite 200 in Lawrenceville.
There will be seven satellite branches for early voting. The voting there runs from March 4th to March 15th, daily including Saturdays and Sundays from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. The closest satellite branch to the northern Gwinnett area is going to be at Bogan Park located at 2723 North Bogan Road in Buford.
To request an early voter absentee ballot, see a full list of meeting locations, and additional information about voting in the transit referendum, please visit Gwinnett County’s website at www.gwinnettcounty.com/web/gwinnett/Home.
