County Establishes Solid Waste Authority
The Jasper County Commissioners Monday met and, after a closed session, voted to establish a seven-member solid waste authority for the county.
The action came after the commissioners had reviewed a presentation by County Manager Karen Degges about the landfill.
The report showed the landfill, which is considered an enterprise fund, and therefore supposed to be self supporting, losing money every year for the last 18 years. It also showed projected costs to continue the operation of the landfill as is, to close the landfill, or to lease it to another entity and allow outside waste, or to use it to convert waste to energy.
Commissioners and those in attendance reviewed the options before the commissioners went into closed session to discuss personnel, property acquisition and pending litigation. The landfill option could not legally be discussed in closed session.
However, when the commissioners came out and voted to form the authority, county attorney Jim Alexander indicated he had a resolution which is what they voted to approve, but that it needed to be cleaned up. The News had not received a copy of the resolution as of 5 p.m. Tuesday.
There was no discussion about how the members of the authority would be chosen, how long the terms would be or what their authority would be. Mr. Alexander said he would like names for the authority by the next meeting which is scheduled for April 6.
Earlier in the meeting, commissioners agreed to purchase four sheriff’s vehicles on a lease purchase program with the initial two years’ payments’ coming from the Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax (SPLOST), and the remainder to be included in the sheriff’s budget as hsi SPLOST funds will be depleted by that time.
The county manager presented a schedule for replacing the sheriffs; cars, as he currently has nine with more than 200,000 miles on them. Sheriff Donnie Pope spoke to the commissioners about hsi dire need for patrol cars at their meeting on March 2, prompting Monday’s meeting.
Also at Monday’s meeting, commissioner agreed to spend mo more than $4,500 on repairs to tanker 6 for the fire department.
During the commissioner’s remarks, Commissioner Doug Luke asked for an update on the paving project, and learned that Avant has been completed, and the county manager said she would find out what road the contractor is now on. He also named two more roads that need to have potholes patched—County Line Road and Morrow Road.
Commissioner Bruce Henry questioned when the audit would begin, and Finance Director Mike Benton said that the accountant, Mark Hardison, was trying to see when he could schedule a time to come and begin work.
Several items for the recreation department were taken off the agenda
