County Accepts Grants for Emergency Services

The Jasper County Commissioners agreed to accept several grants to assist emergency services, and handled other routine business at their regular meeting Monday.

The Jasper County Emergency Medical Service (EMS) has been selected to receive an equipment grant of $1,524 to provide the community with trauma related equipment. There is no match required.

Jasper County Fire Services has been pre-selected to receive an equipment grant of $39,000 to provide Self Contained Breathing Apparatus cascade system. The grant is funded by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), and requires a five percent match which is in the fire services budget.

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A First Responder Grant has been funded by the Georgia EMS, and Jasper County will receive up to $3,125, an amount based on 25 students taking a class. It will provide an instructor, textbooks and supplies. At the end of the course, each person who successfully completes the course will receive a “jump bag.” No local matching funds are required.

Commissioners also reviewed the Jasper County Water & Sewerage Authority (JCWSA) receivables, and agreed that monies that the authority says the county commission owes it are actually owed to the authority by the tax commissioner. The County Commission and the JCWSA have had a running dispute on how the county’s obligation began with fire hydrants many years ago.

A special fire district was in place in 2007, 2008, 2010, 2011 and 2012. Fees that were owed, but not paid, are still owed, but they are owed to the JCWSA by the tax commissioner, who will disperse them when they are paid. The county governing authority, the commissioners, do not owe the money. Commissioners agreed to ask the authority to put the numbers on their books as tax receivables, not due from the Jasper County Board of Commissioners (BOC).

Commissioners had asked for an update on the county’s motor graders at the last meeting. Commissioners remembered that early in the tenure of Will Brown as Public Works Director, he had said there were five motor graders so one could be put in each district to do work there.

However, after a second 2006 model caught fire and burned on October 30, commissioners learned that only two other motor graders were available for work.

Interim County Manager Lorri Smith researched the motor grader situation. She found one 2006 model that was purchased in 2010 to be in good working order. It had a fire, but had been repaired.

A 1997 model is also in working order. The other 2006 model will be a total loss, and the county expects to receive about $156,000 from the insurance company. One 1990 model was sold at auction in 2011. The final 1990 model was traded for a track loader in July, 2010, Mrs. Smith told commissioners.

Commissioners agreed they had no knowledge of the trade, and said steps needed to be put in place to prevent that from happening again without BOC approval.

Commissioners also discussed the maintenance of the motor graders, with Commissioner Mary Patrick saying she thought that was why we leased was for the maintenance agreement and the opportunity to keep updated equipment at all times.

Commissioner Carl Pennamon said he thought they always bought motor graders in pairs, and why was the list only showing one purchased in 1997? He also questioned what the warranty covered and if the equipment was still under warranty.

Commissioners agreed to contact with Clifton, Lipford, Hardison and Parker, LLC for audits of accounts at the sheriff’s department and the tax commissioner’s office when new elected officials take office in January so there is a clean slate from one term to the next. The estimate for the sheriff’s office is $1,800, and for the tax commissioner is $2,500.

After some discussion, commissioners agreed to ask those elected officials if they could find the money in their budgets to fund the audit. There was some discussion about this, with Commissioner Patrick suggesting that it would be easiest to just charge the fee to the audit expense line in general government, where Mrs. Smith said there was revenue available. The budgets have already been reduced as the new people taking office will have lower salaries than those leaving office.

Commissioners also voted to ask the accounting firm to reduce its fee next June for the annual audit because of the work being done at the end of the calendar year.

In an update on the time clocks, Mrs. Smith reported that she had checked with one vendor about coordinating the time clocks with the Human Resources Department, and the cost was going to be an additional $10,000. The recently purchased time clocks would have to be returned, and new time clocks and software purchased. She said she was checking with another vendor, too.

Commission Chairman Alan Cox suggested she check out myoffice.com, a service he has heard advertised on the radio. Commissioner Patrick who had urged the installation and use of the time clocks expressed disgust that the time clocks had not yet been put in use.

Mrs. Smith presented commissioners with an award for financial excellence that the county received for 2011 because of the superior financial reporting done by the county. Mrs. Smith is the reason for the award. The commissioners agreed to put a letter in Mrs. Smith’s file commending her and thanking her for her hard work and dedication.

Commissioner Patrick commented that, “we’ve never had this before.” All commissioners were in agreement that Mrs. Smith should be honored.

Another item under old business was that of non-partisan elections. Commissioner Jack Bernard put it on the agenda for the last meeting, but was not there to discuss it. Therefore, he put it back on the agenda.

He said that on January 17, 2012, this commission sent a letter to state Rep. Susan Holmes to ask for on-partisan elections for the county commission. He said “we haven’t had the courtesy of a response from Rep. Holmes.” Meanwhile, Rep. Holmes introduced legislation to allow the Probate Judge to run on a non-partisan ballot.

Commissioner Bernard made the motion that the county send a letter to Rep. Holmes asking for a response to their letter of January 17. The motion passed unanimously. (Commissioner Carl Pennamon had to leave the meeting early and was not present for this or several other votes.)

Commissioner Patrick said that she researched the local campus of Southern Crescent Technical College, and confirmed that Jasper County owns the land. She presented the information so that the county could work on the drainage problem onto Blue Ruin Street.