Five Member Commission Has Meetings

The Jasper County Commission met for a work session and called meeting Monday, naming Charles Forsythe to be the fifth member of the Public Facilities Board, and learning more about the Central Georgia EMC broadband initiative.

The commissioners met first for a work session to hear from Herschel Arant with EMC and to discuss littering signage. Then they went into a called meeting so they could take action which they did by naming Mr. Forsythe to the PFA. They also voted to allow Commission Chair Bruce Henry to negotiate with CGEMC about the broadband to determine what Jasper County would have to pay to become next in line.

All five commissioners voted in the decision to name Mr. Forsythe to the PFA. Previously the four members of the board tied on their choice for the fifth member of the PFA with this time around, the majoring voting for Mr. Forsythe.

The board has been short one commissioner since District 1 Commissioner Carl Pennamon got sick last year, and ultimately died. His seat was filled in a special election last week, from which Sheila Gantt-Jones was elected commissioner. She was sworn in last week by Judge Andrea Brown in Probate Court, and participated in Monday’s meeting. The other commissioners welcomed her to the meeting.

Mr. Arant said he had more information than the last time he was here. He said that if the county helps fund the broadband, it could expect EMC to start putting in broadband as early as late August or early September, with the first customers coming online late this year or early next year. Installation throughout the county would be complete by December 2022, with all CGEMC customers in the county having access by then.

That is well before the end of the project which is expected to take until 2025, he said, indicating that if Jasper County didn’t pitch in it could take until then to get broadband to local customers.

All Jasperites do not have CGEMC, so District 3 Commissioner Don Jernigan questioned if CGEMC was working with Georgia Power to service those customers. Mr. Arant said discussions had not begun with Georgia Power. Other electric customers here are served by Snapping Shoals EMC and Tri-County EMC. Tri-County EMC has announced it is rolling out broadband to its customers, similar to what CGEMC is doing.

Work has already begun in Monroe County which contributed $1.4 million to the project. Butts County has also paid to speed the project along, but not as much as Monroe County did, apparently from discussions at Monday’s meeting.

Commissioners had examples of signs that will be erected to combat littering. Commissioners agreed to determine how many signs are needed in each district and County Manager Mike Benton will get a couple of mock-up signs to determine what they will use. They agreed that either 18×24 or larger would be good. They discussed putting the fine for littering on the signs. They also talked about putting the signs on existing posts rather than erecting new posts, as they have to be cut around.

As for the PFA, Mr. Forsythe joins District 4 Commissioner Gerald Stunkel on the board along with Hal Harris, James Thiele, and William Nash. The board’s first meeting is planned for Monday, April 12 at 6 p.m. in the County Commission office.

At the end of the meeting, commissioners went into closed session to discuss potential litigation and real estate.