County Will Pay JCWSA Past Due Fire Hydrant Obligation

The Jasper County Commission voted Monday night to give the 2006 monies due to the Jasper County Water and Sewer Authority in the amount of $27,861.

The action came after a closed session lasting more than an hour. The closed session was to discuss personnel and potential or pending litigation.

When the commissioners and county attorney came out of the closed session. Commissioner Ronnie Payne made the motion to give the money to the water authority and Commissioner Charles Hill seconded the motion. Commission Chairman Carl Pennamon voted in favor of the motion along with them.

Commissioners Alan Cox and Mary Patrick abstained, citing deep personal feelings about the issue.

The JCWSA was formed in 1999, and when it ran water lines for the County Line Road project, the county agreed to pay for the fire hydrants along those lines.

The JCWSA is having financial problems, and needs that promised revenue. It has approached the county on numerous occasions to ask the county to live up to its obligation.
At Monday’s meeting, members of the Alcovy Shores Water Authority and others in that community voiced their opinions during the agenda comments portion of the meeting.
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Cathy Benson said that when the secretary of state came to the county commission meeting in 2004, she said that anything that appears to be a conflict should not be done. She read about the creation of JCWSA, which she said was supposed to stand on its own. She then challenged the commission chairman and accused him of not listening to her, and asked “when will you and Mr. Hill do what the taxpayers want?”

Mary Ann Hyde said, “we can’t afford any more tax increases,” and she is opposed to bailing out JCWSA. She said the county should not be responsible for the authority’s bills. She said for the commissioners to be sure their decision is the best decision for all the county. She outlined the number of water systems in the county, and said none of the others had come to the county for a bail out.

Juanita Gazaway said that she needed nine years not three minutes, because that’s what she’s been coping with for nine years. She said if it’s against the law for the county to help the Alcovy Shores Authority, how can it help the JCWSA, referring to the Alcovy authority coming to the county many years ago wanting financial help. They were told it was illegal for the county to give them money.

She said, “our customers have paid high and dearly for their water system.” They didn’t ask if their projects were good. “Vote with your conscience,” she said.

“I’m begging ya’ll, don’t raise our taxes any more; don’t put this burden on us.”

Gene Welch who said he lives on Jackson Lake Road said let the JCWSA go belly up…don’t penalize taxpayers for mistakes made in the past.

Charles Forsythe, who lives in Monticello, asked if Ronnie Payne was going to recuse himself from the JCWSA vote since the chairman of that authority was Mr. Payne’s campaign manager.

During a work session before the regular meeting, commissioners were to hear from Kelly Fox about health insurance options, but Mr. Fox was not at the meeting, so they used the time to discuss other county business.

Commissioner Patrick said they commission needs to have a work session on zoning. The commission passed the new zoning ordinance last month, and agreed to begin work immediately on amendments to change those things they did not like. She said the Planning and Zoning commission would like to consider the amendments at its September 25 meeting, so the commission needs to move forward to meet advertising obligations and such.

After some discussion, they agreed to put it on the agenda for the September 8 work session. Commissioner Payne said he didn’t see any reason to rush into it, as the parts they don’t like were in the old ordinance, too. He said they should do their research then make a recommendation.

County Attorney Jim Alexander said he would try to do some research and give the commissioners some ideas.

Commissioner Patrick said that Ira Warnock said that the FEMA trailers he was going to get are not working out, and he wants to go a different route. She said he said he had found a 14×80 trailer that could be fixed up to the county’s specifications with two offices and a meeting room, and delivered for $18,000.

She said she told him that they had to wait to see what the irrigation system cost to see if there is enough money left.
Commissioner Cox said there could be other costs involved, such as a septic tank, and $18,000 could easily become $30,000.

Commissioner Pennamon said why not Washington Park School, and there was a good bit of discussion about that possibility.

The discussion then went to road maintenance. Mr. Pennamon said we only have two motor graders to scrape 300+ miles of dirt road. He suggested the county look at a lease/purchase option for a motor grader and tandem dump truck. It’s been nine years since the county bought a tandem truck.

Commissioner Cox said why not subcontract the heavy equipment work out. He said he thought the county could get excellent prices now on subbing this work out. There’s a lot of people with heavy equipment sitting, he said.
He also said that he had talked with a heavy equipment mechanic that was certified that charges $75 call fee and $60 per hour, and wondered how that compares to what the county is doing now.

He said he’d like to get prices on the work, kind of like the unit price from Kaiser, referring to the unit price bids the county has gotten through its engineering consultant.

Commissioner Ronnie Payne agreed that, “we need to do something.”

Presumably they will look into prices to purchase heavy equipment as well as to have the work done by an outside agency.

Commissioner Cox said he had sent his proposal for changes to the curb side ordinance, which will allow people to opt out of the current mandatory usage, to the other commissioners. He said he heard back from two, but not from the other two. An agreement must be reached with Advanced Disposal Service by early next month.

Commissioner Pennamon said he had some issues with it, and Commissioner Cox said if you’ve got a better plan, I’ll listen. Mr. Pennamon said he liked the current plan. Mr. Cox said we should be making $97,000 a year, and we’re losing money.

Under Commissioner Cox’s plan, consumers will receive a sticker when they pay their curb side bill. Then the ADS personnel will know they are supposed to empty that container. If a container does not have a sticker, they will leave a message, and if it does not get one, the container will be picked up.

Mr. Cox said a number of people have two or more containers but are only paying for one. The county is paying for more containers than it is collecting for, so it is suffering a loss.

Commissioner Patrick suggested the group needs to have a work session to revise the county manager job description, saying no one could do all that is required in the current position.

Commissioners have begun interviewing candidates for the job.

(Anytime three or more commissioners meet, it must be posted in their regular meeting place and the legal organ must be notified. The newspaper has not been notified of any such meeting. The county attorney apologized for the oversight. The posting on the courthouse door said it was an executive session. Legally, the board must meet then vote to go into closed session. Commissioners can be subject to a $500 fine for participating in an illegal meeting.)

During the regular meeting Monday, commissioners did little besides meet in closed session. The regular meeting was less than an hour, and the closed portion was more than an hour.

Commissioners agreed to switch to Unifirst Corporation to supply uniforms for the county employees, saving nearly $100 a week.

They also agreed seek bids for a landfill engineer.
Since there is currently no county manager, commissioners agreed that any two commissioners could sign a request for transfer of funds.

They also approved the minutes for the meetings of July 20, however the minutes from the August 3 meeting were not ready.

Commissioners approved a new investment opportunity for employees through GEBCorp Investments.

At the end of the meeting the commissioners heard from Scott Cummings who asked how the county could afford to pay more than necessary for the work on Pitts Chapel Road. Mr. Cummings was the low bidder for the project, but the commissioners chose DeKalb Pipeline to do the work instead.
They also heard from this reporter who asked how they could interview candidates for a position before they knew the job description.

After the meting was adjourned, the people who had voiced their concerns about the county paying JCWSA expressed their displeasure at the vote taken by the cuonty commissioners.