Mills: Filling Evans' DOT seat an urgent matter

GAINESVILLE - State Rep. James Mills, dean of the Hall County state legislative delegation, says filling the vacancy left on the state Department of Transportation board by Thursday's resignation of Mike Evans should be an urgent matter.

"We need to move forward," Mills said. "We have work that needs to be done and roads that need to be built. We don't need to be spinning our wheels on things that keep us from getting the job done."

Mills said Lt. Governor Casey Cagle and the House Speaker Glenn Richardson will have to call together state Representatives and Senators from the 9th Congressional District to vote on a replacement for Evans. Evans, who is from Cumming, had represented the district, which includes Gainesville, since 2003. He was just re-elected to another term in January in a bitter fight in which Richardson tried to block his re-election by the 9th District legislative caucus.

Evans, who had been serving as chairman of the DOT board, announced his resignation Thursday in order to pursue a "personal relationship" with state DOT Commissioner Gena Abraham. (See separate story).

http://accesswdun.com/article/2008/4/207128