County Leverages Army Surplus to Hold Down Costs‏

The County Commission has recently acquired two hand me downs from the army surplus inventory to help supply needed vehicles for the County, with no recurring payment. Where they may not be the prettiest on the block, they are sound, most have 15,000 to 30,000 miles and are in excellent shape. The County acquired two Ford Explorer diesels and one 4 door club cab diesel pickup truck (see photos below) that can be used for road department, code enforcement and any other department needs. With solid engines and running gears, these vehicles will provide the County with good service for years to come.

These vehicles, along with the "hand me downs" that will come from the recent USDA grant/purchase of multiple police vehicles, should enable the County departments to strip out capital outlay from next year's budget for new vehicles. This will be a topic at the next County Commission budget hearing, which will take place as soon as the Tax Assessor's office provides an official digest. Where all of those vehicles will not be commissioned at the same time, they will provide transportation for some departments. The USDA provided a $50,000 grant toward that purchase, which was like getting two police cars free.

These items are further evidence that this Commission is working hard to keep the cost down to the tax payers, while maintaining basic services and making improvements with SPLOST dollars for items like road paving/resurfacing and recreation park construction.

Ronald E Ham
Chairman - Brantley County

County Commission Called Meeting

The Brantley County Commission met Thursday afternoon at 5:30 pm in a called meeting to act on a couple of items that could not wait until next month's regular meeting. First, the County discussed a bill from Satilla Electrical Membership Corporation (EMC) for moving of power poles and lines on the Satilla Road Construction project which is being paid for with SPLOST dollars for roads. The EMC is charging the County approximately $20,000 for the relocation of their equipment. The County has quizzed other electrical providers and they agreed that this should be an accurate number for all costs associated. This is a new area for the County, as typically utilities do not charge for this service. In months past, during the airport project, the County was made aware that Okefenokee EMC would charge the County to relocate the power line at the north end of the runway. This would be paid for out of the Air Georgia Grant funds and will have to be done according to the Federal Aviation Association's approved plans for the airport project. On a vote of 3-1, the Commission approved the charge, in order to move forward with the project and not experience costly delays with the contractor, which would cost the County even more money. Commissioner Summerlin was the declining vote.

This topic did bring up the conversation about franchise fees. The County spends enormous amounts of time and money acquiring right of way in the terms of surveying, legal fees, payment to some land owners who will not donate the property and so on. Then the County allows the utilities to locate within that ROW. This recent influx of charges has led Commissioners to ask "Can Brantley County legally, and should they be charging some sort of franchise fee to the utilities for the use of the ROW?." In all fairness, Okefenokee has been more than willing to help with a number of recent road and recreation projects at no cost to the County. So, the County should be careful not to cut off its nose to spite its face. The County attorney was asked to research the charging of franchise fees to all utilities and bring some recommendations to next meeting of the Commission.

The County also approved a grant application for Juvenile Offenders Services for the amount of $7500. This is an annual grant that is typically awarded and provides funding for the Juvenile Offenders Probationary Services. These teams of young people have been used, at no charge to the County, over the past two years to paint handicapped parking places at County buildings, paint and trim the hedges at the Schlatterville Recreation Park, trim the hedges and flower beds at the courthouse and many other tasks too numerous to mention. This is another way that the County is leveraging resources to displace services that were previously paid items.

Finally the County Commission discussed the latest draft of a resolution for the financing of the five (5) new fire stations that are being built using a portion of the 1.25 mills of fire tax that is already being collected. These new buildings will cause no increase to the property tax payers. In fact, they will eventually drive the ISO ratings down for the majority of the homes in Brantley Count,y so that citizens save on their homeowner's insurance. Many residences have reported savings of $400 - $600 annually on insurance bills. Given what they are paying in property taxes, this represents a 15% to 20% reduction and a win/win for the citizen. The Commission had previously approved financing, but when the resolution had to be reworked, it required reapproval by the Board. The picture above is the new substation in Raybon that was put in by the Nahunta VFD. Waynesville has cleared their land and is hauling dirt to the site, with Hoboken very close behind. The substations were financed via lease by resolution at the Heritage Bank in Nahunta, who provided the lowest interest rate, 3.25% for 36 months, with annual payments of $77,000, which will be split between the Hoboken, Waynesville, Nahunta and Hortense VFDs. The Commissioners passed the resolution on a 3-1 vote. Commissioner Summerlin was the declining vote.

In minor items that required Board approval, the repair of two pieces of road equipment which exceeded the Chairman's and County Manager's signing authority were presented to the Board for approval and were approved. The other item of similar issue was the purchase of an electrical panel to provide electrical services at the well at the new recreation park. The Board awarded Amp Electric with the business and asked that they work with engineering to move forward as soon as possible, as the irrigation is being installed at the recreation park now. The electrical components and labor will be funded with Recreation SPLOST dollars, so this does not come from the "general fund", which is built from ad valorem taxes.

Brantley County Voters Elect New Commissioners‏

In the 2010 Primary elections the Brantley County Voters elected two new commissioners, Brian Hendrix and Chris "Skipper" Harris. Neither of these candidates have Republican opposition so they will take office in January 2011. In the School Board Races, the voters elected Teresa Larisey in the Republican Primary. School Board member Dot Hickox faced no primary challengers. In the City of Nahunta Election, Rev. Robert Thomas was elected to the City Council seat vacated by Mrs. Sib Johns.

For complete election results see the attachment on the left hand side of your screen labeled July 2010 Election results.

July 2010 County Commission Meeting

The Commission heard from the property owner at Lee Cemetery Road asking that she be allowed to close the road. Four wheelers, trespassers, trash dumping and beer parties at the end of the road are causing a mess and a nuisance. The owner agreed to keep the road in existence as long as she could gate the property and stop the traffic. The Commission voted to start the process to close the road.

Courtney Reich presented the County Commission with the final draft of the Future Land use Plan and modified Subdivision Ordinance. The Commission will review these prior to the August meeting and take them up at that time. The goal is to have these documents approved and in place prior to September 2010, per the grant guidelines.

The Commission considered proposals that were submitted by the Architectural Service groups in conjunction with the Satilla Community Services Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) process. The Commission selected Suttles and Associates from Broxton, Georgia. They are familiar with the County and have done work for the County on other CDBG projects. They were also 4% less than the alternative.

The Atkinson VFD came before the Commission requesting to use fire tax money to purchase a new truck. Their vehicles are 40+ years old and finding parts is becoming an issue. The Commission’s goal in increasing the fire tax was to lower homeowner’s insurance ratings by lowering the ISO ratings for homeowners around the County. As Atkinson has recently completed their 110 south substation, they requested to use the substation funds toward a used truck. The Commission approved this action and asked that they bring the details back to the Board once they had located the equipment that they needed.

The County approved Heritage Bank's proposal to finance the 5 new substations for 36 months at a fixed rate of 3.25%. The County manager and attorney were asked to prepare the appropriate documents for signature.

The lighting, concessions and restrooms for the new recreation park were reviewed. Proposals are being requested for the equipment and installation and potential financing for lighting at the new recreation park. The Commission and staff feel that there will be sufficient funds left in the recreation SPLOST to build the building that will hold the concession, restrooms and scoring facilities.

The Commission made the following appointments to the following boards: The position formerly held by Mr. J.O. Johns was filled with Mr. Eddie Alligood. Mrs. Blanche Riggins was reappointed to the Department of Family and Children Services. Daniel Herrin, William Harris, Morris Scoggins and David Jacobs were reappointed to the Animal Control Board. Robert Moore was reappointed to the Forestry Commission Advisory Board.

The Board reviewed the modified “Request to Close a Road” ordinance and application. This will provide much more input to the staff and Commission prior to the item coming before the Commission. This will also lead to more communication between neighbors on a road to make sure there is consensus on closing the road.

The Commission discussed Roberson Road. The concern raised by one constituent came from the fact that the road makes a loop and there was a concern about EMS or Police taking the “long way around” to get to a home. The Commission didn’t see how changing the name on the road would help the situation and asked the County manager to make sure all homeowners on that road had their E911 addresses appropriately marked to hold down confusion.

The Commission discussed work hours. All Commissioners had received an anonymous letter from someone asking about work hours. The Commission agreed that it is the responsibility of the department heads and constitutional officers to define the work hours for their areas. As long as the work is getting done and the community is being serviced, there is no issue. If that is not the case, it is up to that department head, County manager or Constitutional Officer to make the necessary changes to improve performance.

The Commission discussed the Bethlehem Church Bridge in Hickox. In the last road meeting, the Commission asked the County Engineer to review the bridge and prepare a report for what was wrong with the bridge and what repairs would be needed to bring the bridge up to current DOT standards. That report and associated costs will be presented at the August meeting. DOT is replacing the Caney Bay Bridge. This bridge can be put on DOT’s 2011-2012 priority list, or the County can use the remaining Road SPLOST dollars to replace the bridge instead of paving roads.

The Commission discussed Dogwood Trail off of Heron Lake Road. The new trash cans are being delivered and residents on that road had been told by someone that they were going to have to take their cans out to the County road. Since the school bus and the mail is delivered on this road and there are more than 3 E911 addresses on that road, this County will more than likely require the collection service to travel this road. It was suspected that this may be a County road through prescriptive easement. The County manager was to research the ownership status of the road and property and review alternatives. The rumor of monthly $10.60 bills going to each homeowner was also discussed. Every property owner will be billed for garbage collection on their annual property tax bill as they have been for the last decade. The bill is currently set at $85 per year and the County has made no decision to change that at this time.

The Commission approved the contract between the City of Nahunta and the County where the Tax Commissioner will collect taxes for the City. This had been developed by the Tax Commissioner and reviewed by the County attorney.

The County ratified the Mobile Home Ordinance as a stand-alone ordinance and removed it from the Building Code Ordinance. No change was made to the language in the ordinance. The move was merely to allow the ordinance to stand on its own and not be linked to a construction ordinance.

This week the County also executed the contracts to construct the Waynesville Road and Dude Circle Projects and the extension of the State DOT resurfacing of the Oak Grove Road. Right of Way certifications for Mt. Calvary (the DOT portion) and Buster Walker also went to DOT this week. The State DOT personnel met with the County last week and reassured us that the $300,000 for Buster Walker and about $25,000 for the DOT portion of Mt. Calvary. The State funding for restriping marking of 4 major roads is being bid by the County engineer. Work has started on Boots Harrison and Satilla Church roads. As soon as the Right or Way plans and deeds are available for the County’s portion of Mt. Calvary. Commissioners and staff will be visiting folks along that road to gain their support for paving that road.