P&Z Staff Is Tasked with Much

Interviews with the Planning and Zoning (P & Z) Department were scheduled a few weeks from now. Then I went to a Board of Commissioners (BOC) meeting, and changed my mind. I decided to jump P & Z interviews to the front of the line.

Building Inspections, Business Licenses, Code Enforcement, Alcohol Licenses, Comprehensive Plans, Zoning Ordinances and Variances all fall under the umbrella of the Jasper County Planning and Zoning ( P & Z ) Department, which falls under and takes its direction from the Jasper County Board of Commissioners (BOC) and the County Manager.

A 25 year veteran of the U.S. Army and U.S. Air Force, Building Inspector Doug Attaway worked as an aircraft mechanic while in the armed forces. With bright eyes and a mischievous grin, he told me he came to Jasper County Planning and Zoning (P & Z) about 13 months ago.

“I’ve always been inspecting things,” he said of his years as an aircraft mechanic, following instructions and learning codes. “Now it’s just a di?erent book,” he added.

Growing up in Loganville, and traveling the world during his military career, he landed at the Robins Air Force base in Warner Robins, for his last duty station. Moving to Monticello after he retired, he worked for a year as a combined code enforcement o?cer and building inspector in Morgan County before making his way to Jasper County.

His primary responsibility is to inspect residential new builds (commercial building inspections are contracted out to a private contractor) and renovations when the scope of the renovation includes systems and work that require inspections.

The abbreviated version of Attaway’s work includes the inspection of any permanent structure larger than 120 square feet. Whether a pole barn, a she-shed, a man cave or a garage, it’s that simple. If the building is over 120 square feet, no matter its use, it requires a permit and gets inspected. For renovations, if they include moving walls and/or plumbing and electrical systems or if adding bathrooms and room additions, to name a few, inspections are required.

Attaway follows the GA International Residential Code, his bible of sorts, for building inspections. It is the law. Building codes o?er minimum design and construction requirements with a primary goal of ensuring safe structures.

When he’s not traveling throughout the county providing inspections, he enjoys fishing and hunting and growing sunflowers on his property with his wife.

O?ce Manager Beverly Belcher Hardeman, born and raised in Jasper County, is also a veteran. Serving nine years in the U.S. Army, she worked in medical and dental supply. Stationed in Germany for part of her tour, she liked Germany so much she reenlisted to be able to stay.

Her sister Mary Standifer and her son Victor Belcher also live in Jasper County. She is a grandmother to three grandchildren, ages nine through 21.

She worked at Ga.-Pacific for 26 years, working with the company until the day they shut their doors. She had a temporary position with the BOC before her job at P & Z. Now at P & Z for about four years, Hardeman manages the o?ce and handles, among other things, walk-in tra?c, phone calls and building permits.

O?ering that her work at P & Z is “the last stop before retirement,” she likes living in the country in Jasper County now that as she says she is older and more settled. She loves watching old westerns on TV and enjoys taking trips to Atlanta to get away.

“I like meeting people. I love dealing with people,” Hardeman said. And of her colleagues, “I love my crew here,” she stated, describing Judy, the P&Z Director, as someone who genuinely cares about her work.

Code Enforcement O?cer Freda Webb, a 1983 graduate of the University of West Georgia with a degree in Criminal Justice worked for seven years as a Marta transit police o?cer in Atlanta. She worked in the jail at the Jasper County Sheri?’s O?ce and worked for a few years at her mother’s childcare center caring for infants, a job she loved and found very rewarding.

Armed with a cell phone, her communications skills and a prayer she says anytime she goes on a call, Webb responds to complaint based enforcement calls. She prefers working with people to help them fix whatever the code violation is rather than writing tickets or going through the courts. She is mindful of the person making the complaint, careful to balance the human factor into the equation while working to ensure compliance with codes.

A Jasper County native, she lives in Jasper County with her father. She has a daughter in Atlanta who works in retail while working towards her education to be a nurse. Webb hails from a family of service, with her Dad, uncles and cousins serving in the military or law enforcement.

She started her job with P&Z just over three months ago. “I am a people person. I love to help. I try and place myself in these peoples positions and try to go the extra mile to help people.

“These people are human beings first,” she told me.

Code enforcement complaints range from overgrown grass, abandoned houses, people living in sheds or recreational vehicles (RVs) and yards filled with trash, abandoned vehicles and junk. Tearing up, she shared a hard story of a young couple working as fast as they could, doing the best with what they had, trying to clean up their family property after a complaint of tall grass, abandoned vehicles and junk in the yard had legitimately prompted a call to code enforcement.

Complaints of people permanently living in recreational vehicles (RVs) are on the rise, and though some areas of the county do allow for up to one year of temporary living on the property in an RV while actively building a house, permanent RV living is not allowed.

When she’s not working, she loves to walk. At one time weighing 400 pounds, walking and drinking lots of water and eating as many salads and vegetables as she wants help keep her fit. She likes spending time with her daughter and she enjoys reading mystery books and The Bible, a way to help her escape and take her away from the daily worries of her job that she often takes home with her.

“I love these people,” O?cer Webb said of her co-workers. Tearing up again and taking a minute before she spoke she said “especially Judy, my boss. She is a remarkable woman. She cares about this dog gone community.”

P & Z Director Judy Johnson has worked for 20 years with building and planning and zoning departments. Working first as a temporary building permits clerk, she has worked most of those 20 years in key positions in Newton County, learning a myriad of responsibilities related to planning, zoning, enforcement and new building construction.

“My primary goal and responsibility is to protect the county and those who live in it,” Johnson o?ered. “I have to stop and look at the big picture. That requires listening to the situation, looking at the codes we have while trying to be fair to everybody in order to come up with the best plan.”

Johnson tries to ensure that cases are resolved in a reasonable time frame, while also ensuring that the P & Z department exhausts all opportunities for people to come into compliance.

Successful resolution of enforcement cases are judged by the property improvement that takes place through the county, not by how many citations are written.

She facilitates the work on Jasper County’s Comprehensive Plan, the county’s guide for the next 20 years, to ensure compliance with the plan, including updating Jasper County’s subdivision ordinances, all while also making sure not to violate the Fair Housing Act and to follow state guidelines so as not to lose any state and federal funding or grant monies.

She works closely with the Board of Commissioners, the Board of Appeals, the Planning Commission and local governmental agencies through Intergovernmental Agreements (IGA).

Johnson guides the process, following the chronological steps that exist for everything from variance requests, citizen driven zoning petition requests, alcohol permits and building permits. Petitions start in the P & Z o?ce, go before the Planning Commission and are presented to the BOC. Public hearings are held and multiple meetings and work sessions take place. Hardship cases are reviewed, precedents are researched, and by law, all are advertised.

There is a need for at least an entire article dedicated to the zoning process alone, or maybe even better a forum that covers the zoning process and codes enforcement.

Originally from Oxford, Ala., she moved to Georgia almost 20 years ago to give her children a better educational opportunity. She is the mother of five children ages 28-34 with four sons and one daughter, including one set of twins. Her youngest son and his wife make their home in Jasper County. One son, a ghost writer and a passion for writing plays, lives in Knoxville, one son is an assistant manager with Home Depot; her twins work for separate sprinkler system companies and her daughter, the youngest, has a restaurant industry background.

Johnson describes herself as a homebody, enjoying time with her three fur babies, peacefully admitting, “I lead a very quiet life.” To help her decompress when as she says her “brain gets tired of working,” she enjoys watching sit-coms and crime and mystery TV shows. Reading is her favorite escape.

Johnson shared, “I love helping communities and I love helping people. I’m good at what I do.” She knows it can be hard on folks who live on or near family farms and she is not unsympathetic to their concerns when families want to subdivide and sell their farms for the highest value and best use. She understands the codes and ordinances and the processes in place, describing herself as nerdy for her love of all things ordinances and codes.

On a personal note, I urge people to attend their BOC meetings. It’s an eye opener. I appreciate those who care enough that they attend regularly and speak up. I beg however, before someone stands up and attacks and points fingers to remember what O?cer Webb’s momma used to tell her, that every time you point a finger at someone you have three pointing back at you.

The Planning and Zoning Department is open Monday-Friday 8:00am-can be found in the Jasper County Courthouse at 126 W.Greene St., Suite 17, Monticello GA and can be reached via phone at 706.468.4940.