Commissioners Hear from CGEMC

The Jasper County Commissioners met in a work session Monday evening to interview the last two candidates for the Public Facilities Authority (PFA), and hear from Herschel Arant with Central Georgia Electric Membership Corporation (CGEMC).

The commissioners have been interviewing people for the PFA for some time now, and the last two candidates were at Monday’s work session. Bill Nash said he bought land here in 2011, and has lived here since 2015. He said he lived in Gwinnett previously, and saw it grow, and he believes growth is headed this way. He talked about anticipating the needs and being ready. He is a retired architect and planner by profession.

Commissioners also heard from Rusty Bullard who said that the PFA is a fairly important authority as it is a conduit for the commissioners to spend money beyond their terms. He said he didn’t think it would have to meet often, but that it will make important decisions and it is an important position.

Commissioners are planning to make a decision on the members at next Monday’s regular meeting.

Next, they heard about the broadband initiative that CGEMC is undertaking with its partner Conexon. He gave the statistics on the number of locations in the county that are unserved by broadband. CGEMC provides electric service to about 85 percent of the locations in Jasper County that are unserved by broadband.

He talked about the sales tax revenue and property tax revenue that the service will provide to Jasper County. He also said that Monroe County has offered to put in considerable money to be the first location that CGEMC expands the service to. He asked Jasper County if it would be interested in helping with expenses, and thereby speeding up the process that is expected to be complete in about four years.

He said he could not give a definitive timeline when the broadband expansion will come about in Jasper County, saying he is approaching each county with this information.