Proposed Soperton City Truck Routes Hot Topic

City truck routes were the top topic for discussion at an almost 2 hour long Soperton City Council Community Forum on Thursday night, October 16, 2025.

Approximately 25 city residents and property owners, including truck drivers that live in the area, attended the meeting to voice their opposition to the proposed ordinance.

Mayor John Koon opened the meeting by presenting the city’s need for the proposed city truck route ordinance and explained how the ordinance is designed to prevent further damage to the city’s aging infrastructure, damage which includes water and sewerage lines as well as damage to the city streets. The Mayor explained the damage is caused over time by heavily loaded trucks traveling the city streets on a regular basis.

Bill Torrance, former Vidalia City Manager serving as public works consultant for the city, supported the city’s position and explained heavy truck traffic over time causes damage to the street surface and underlying infrastructure due to the weight of semi trucks.

Both Torrance and Koon were met with immediate opposition by those in attendance, many of which strongly and loudly voiced their opinions about the ordinance. Local truckers challenged the city’s position and countered that their trucks weigh less than school buses and the city’s trash trucks which regularly traverse the city's streets.

The truckers complained the ordinance would restrict semi-truck drivers from parking their vehicles at their homes located on city streets, causing the drivers to have to find parking elsewhere and pay fees, as well as causing inconvenience to family members who would have to pick up and drop off the drivers, often at extremely late or early hours.

To this point the mayor revealed the city’s plan to build a designated semitruck parking that would be a well lit fenced area for truckers.

The truckers questioned the city’s proposed parking lot plan but also said if neighboring towns could figure out how semitruck drivers could park at their homes located on city streets, they felt Soperton could then do the same. Jodi Bush, wife of truck driver Tony Bush, owner of Million Pines Trucking, LLC distributed to the council copies of a signed electronic petition which supports their position of the city approving home parking for semi-trucks living inside the city. The truckers believe they are within their legal rights to park at their homes, and Bush asked the mayor directly, “Do we need to bring in lawyers? Because we will.” The mayor assured Bush and others that the issue could be resolved effectively between the truckers and the council. The meeting ended with no decision made by the governing body, and Mayor Koon suggested that the truck drivers present return Monday at 5:30 p.m. before the regularly scheduled city council meeting to continue constructive discussion on the matter.