Commissioners Pass Road Projects

In a special called meeting Tuesday afternoon, the Jasper County Board of Commissioners (BOC) passed a motion by Commissioner Jack Bernard to approve $250,000 ($50,000 for each district) to pay for paving eight-tenths of a mile of road, patching or other road improvements, to be completed in-house by October 1, 2012, with funds left from the 2005 SPLOST, with each commissioner to submit their roads or projects to the County Engineer Will Brown by the end of the day Wednesday.

The motion was seconded by Board Chairman Alan Cox, and passed on a 3-2 vote with Mr. Bernard, Mr. Cox and Commissioner Mary Patrick voting to approve and Commissioners Carl Pennamon and Charles Hill voting against.

The only item on the agenda of the called meeting was “Roads,” and there were several proposals and a great deal of discussion prior to the motion that passed.

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The discussion began with the need to replace three of four bridges on Post Road, and after much discussion it was decided there was only enough money to replace two bridges and they would need to be done in the summer when school was out so as not to disrupt the traffic of school busses.

At this point Mr. Pennamon asked Interim County Manager Lorri Smith what was the exact purpose of the called meeting.

Ms. Smith said it was to try to figure out how we can pave five roads with the $250,000 from the 2005 SPLOST during the remainder of the year. And that the only way she thought that could be done was to contract it out and not do it in-house, however that would increase the cost by approximately $125,000, which would have to come out of the contingency fund.

Mr. Cox asked if it was possible to do it in-house.

Ms. Patrick said, if so we can vote to pass it and the incoming BOC can change it.

Mr. Bernard said that’s why we should use a contractor and do it now.

Ms. Patrick said the BOC had a huge deficit when she came on board, and she wanted to leave the incoming BOC in a better position. She added that the BOC did not have to borrow any money this year, and if the next BOC came in with a small contingency fund and something happened they would be in trouble.

Mr. Pennamon said if the road projects were that important they should have already been addressed.

Mr. Hill said a $125,000 deficit would leave the incoming BOC in a mess.

Chairman Cox said he thought what he was hearing was that if they were going to make this work they had to do it in-house, and as far as whose road was done first should be left up to the public works director.

Public Works Director Will Brown said he didn’t think it was up to him to choose the roads, even though he did know of three dirt roads that were shovel ready. He went on to say that if the BOC chose to do the work in-house and complete it by the end of October, that other services in the county would suffer. Mr. Brown added that if the BOC would give him a list of desired roads and let him take a look at them he would be able to tell them which ones he could get done.

Mr. Pennamon said that the money would only cover eight-tenths of a mile in each district and that was ridiculous, and that as long as the roads were in Jasper County, who cared.

Mr. Bernard said the BOC needed to give Mr. Brown the eight-tenths of a mile each commissioner wanted in their respective districts and get it done by the end of October.

Mr. Cox agreed and at that point Mr. Bernard made his motion.

Mr. Brown told commissioners that the three dirt roads that are “shovel-ready” were Alcovy Road, Jeffries Road and Bear Creek Road.