Roads Are Subject of Mondays Meeting

The Jasper County Commissioners again had an hour-long work session before their meeting Monday to discuss roads. And, again, the commissioners worked from a list that those in the audience did not have, and the commissioners did not agree on, so it appears no progress was made.

Public Works Department head Will Brown was present at the meeting, and he told the commissioners again that with the staff and equipment he currently has, he feels that about three miles of road can be triple-surfaced in-house each year. When asked how long it would take to do one mile, Mr. Brown answered about three weeks.

When questioned about the price, Mr. Brown says it cost about $50,000 to treat a mile of road, and with that the road would remain decent for five to seven years, if maintained.

During the regular meeting, commissioners heard from a half-dozen constituents who want their roads paved, improved, or merely maintained. Two people spoke on animal control, and former EMS director Jeff Bratcher addressed the commission about his dismissal from the county.

He said he was an ethical man serving the county. He told some of his background, such as being a paramedic at Grady Memorial Hospital. He said the Secret Service would call him when the president was in town, as he was considered in the top one percent of paramedics in the country. He closed by saying he came to the meeting so he could show his children the man that took away his job.

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But before hearing from the public, the commissioners had to approve the agenda, and any changes thereto. The first item under new business was road priorities. County Manger Greg Wood said he went ahead and included that item so that if the commissioners reached agreement in the work session, a plan could be put into place. Commissioners voted 3-2 to remove that item from the regular agenda.

On the subject of roads, commissioners did agree to purchase a traffic counter, and they voted to let the county manager advertise for bids on the Post Road project. Commissioner Charles Hill asked about the Deerfield Farms project and Mr. Wood said staff is working on that but it won’t be ready for bid before the next time the commissioners meet.

In addition to the regular financial report, Assistant County Manager and Chief Financial Officer Lorri Smith presented a report of Jasper County Property Tax Levies and collections for the last seven years. The report only concerns property tax, not vehicles, timber, mobile homes, etc.

The report shows current collections which are defined as anything collected by the end of February, two months after the due date, typically fall below 90 percent of what was levied. However, as the dollars come through after that date, the collection rate increases significantly.

For example, in 2007, 84.73 percent of property taxes were collected by the end of February. However, now 99.34 percent of 2007 taxes have been collected. For the current year, collections are at 89.10 percent, but that number will increase in the months to come, explained Mrs. Smith. She said she would continue to provide this report.

Commissioner Chairman Alan Cox said, “It looks like the tax commissioner is doing a better job than we thought.” Commissioner Jack Bernard, who has been very vocal about the “poor” tax collection rate agreed.

The county manager gave commissioners an overview of the animal control committee meeting held two weeks ago, acknowledging that three commissioners were there, so they knew what went on. He said a brief history of animal control was presented followed by a facility review, and a review of the animal control officers duties.

He said that the humane society, Dr. Jennifer Proctor and one other person indicated they wanted more information, but that most of the questions presented were answered. He acknowledged the need to make the building compliant with the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA).

There was then discussion as only local veterinarian uses the crematory for credit. She provides euthanasia services to animal control. They agreed that the exchange should be ended—that the vet be billed for crematory use, and the county pay for the vet’s services.

Commissioners voted to contract with Teamwork Systems, Inc. for the county’s random drug testing. Commissioner Mary Patrick suggested competitive bids should be sought, but after discussion, they agreed to move forward with using the recommended company. Human resources chair Sharon Robinson said that she got the name of the company from the school’s bus shop, and that is who they use.

In other action at Monday’s meeting, commissioners:

•Approved opening new checking accounts for the new Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax (SPLOST) proceeds.

•Approved facility request forms for the senior center and the recreation complex.

•Approved several bud-get amendments. One was to allocate electricity usage by department, and another was to increase the amount paid for fire calls. Mrs. Smith said that there were more volunteers and more calls, so the amount budgeted was not sufficient. Lastly, they approved an amendment to cover fees paid to refinance bonds for the Four County Development Authority.

Commissioner Patrick expressed concern about the fees paid in conjunction with this, saying the fees to the attorneys totaled $12,000.

•Heard an update from Greg Wood on where community service can be done in the county, particularly by juveniles. He said that he checked, and that throughout Georgia almost no one uses volunteers at animal control. He said he has not yet checked with the recreation department. He said one drawback is the youth are only available on Saturdays.

Then the commissioners got into a discussion of how prisoners could be used for a lot of jobs around the county.

•Commissioner Patrick said she wanted to be sure she understood the procedures for getting information. She said that the board should encourage the county manager and others that the commissioners should be able to get documents when requested. Chairman Cox told Commissioner Patrick if she had problems to contact him.

•Agreed to let department heads seek grants that don’t require a local financial match as long as commissioners could review grant requirements before a grant is accepted.

•Discussed that code violations do not have to be reported. If the code enforcement officer sees a violation, she can write it up even if no one has complained.

After spending more than a half hour in closed session discussing personnel, the commissioners came out of closed session and adjourned without taking any action.