Commissioners Meet
The Jasper County Commission held a contentious work session and called meeting Tuesday evening, with barbs being exchanged primarily between several members of the audience.
An item on the agenda for both meetings was the Comprehensive Plan partial update.
At the regular commission meeting on August 6, Planning & Zoning Director Chris Anderson had presented the commissioners with some technical changes that were needed.
At that time, Ken McMichael, a Jasper County resident who serves on the Water Authority, said that he had been on the original committee for the Comprehensive Plan, and that some things that were talked about then were not put in the plan. He suggested the commission add them now.
At that meeting, commissioners agreed more time was needed to consider changes, if Mr. McMichael’s and other items were to be included. So they were to talk about it at Tuesday’s work session before transmitting the plan to the Regional Development Commission, a vote scheduled for the called meeting.
Mr. McMichael’s suggestion was to place a commercial district or “neighborhood activity center” concept in the plan at Henderson Mill Road and County Line Road, Broughton Road and Hwy. 1421, and at Jackson Lake Road and Hwy. 212. The county added a fourth one, in Hillsboro.
County Attorney Kevin Brown said putting it in the plan does not make it so. To make a change to the map, public hearings are required. In addition, to change zoning, public hearings must be held. So, to include that in the plan only gives direction to the county.
Mr. McMichael’s other suggestion was to delineate a particular area south of Monticello as a potential water source as a geologic anomaly had occurred there and it was a fruitful area for water. He said that all waters belong to the state, and it was the county’s responsibility to protect this area.
Mr. Anderson had incorporated these suggestions into teh plan for the commission’s consideration.
Lynn Short, a property owner in the area where the “anomaly” exists asked for evidence that it was indeed an unusual formation. Mr. Short took issue with Mr. McMichael’s statements and said he had talked to two members of the Water Authority—Linda Jordan, executive director, and Tate Turner, and they both said Mr. McMichaael was not speaking to the County Commission on behalf of the Water Authority.
Mary Tumlin said she was familiar with the map in question and did not understand why their property was being pursued. She said that the map showed “optimal,” “best,” and “better,” well sites, and that the property in question was in the “better” group.
Mr. Anderson said the water authority had issued a statement saying it wants to continue to look at various water resources.
After the work session, when the commissioners voted on the plan update during the called meeting, they agreed to leave out the geologic feature until such time as they have direction from the water authority.
The other item that took up much of the work session was the “transportation program.” John Nix and Larry Kaiser, on behalf of Collaborative Infrastructures Services (CIS) came to the county to talk bout their plans. The county contracted with CIS to oversee the SPLOST road project.
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Mr. Nix said that they had already met with Department of Transportation (DOT) officials, and Jasper is in good position to receive Off-System Safety Enhancement funds. Jasper could get as much as $400,000 for safety features on county roads. Funding could be available for striping, road signs, and other safety issues.
After Mr. Nix presented that, Mr. Kaiser talked to the commissioners about different costs associated with different road fixes. He also presented seven scenarios for a “quick-start” paving program for the Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax (SPLOST).
The county settled on a scenario different from any presented by Mr. Kaiser. Each of the original scenarios were packages in the $1 million range, because that will be how much SPLOST revenue is in hand by the end of 2007. The commissioners voted to be aggressive and resurface five roads rather than four (the maximum in any scenario). The initial bid package will be for work on West Mourning Dove Ct., Pitts Chapel Road, Apt-To-Miss Road, Parrot Drive and Fellowship Road.
CIS will bring that bid package to the County Commission meeting on September 10 to proceed to bid. The idea said Messrs. Nix and Kaiser is to show DOT that Jasper is serious about its road projects, and when DOT sees that, more money could be made available to Jasper.
Mr. Nix explained that CIS would bring new “tasks” to the attention of the board periodically, while keeping teh board updated on the progress of each task.
During the regular meeting, in addition to approving the Comprehensive Plan update, the commissioners approved the sale of bonds for an expansion at Permatherm. Development Authority attorney Robby Kelly explained there is no liability to the county, but that the chief elected official has to sign off on the issuance of bonds. That is a way the county could have leverage if a potentially undesirable project was being funded by bonds.
Before the regular meeting adjourned, Messrs. McMichael and Short, as well as Mary Patrick weighed in again on the water well issue.
