County Reduces Millage

In a called meeting to finalize the General Fund Budget and set the millage rate, the Commission lowered the millage from 21.73 last year to 20.45 or 1.28 mills this year. Last year the Commission lowered the millage rate by 0.25 mills.

The Commission set an expense budget of $12,100,202.10, with anticipated revenue from sources other than property tax at $6,224,730.00, setting the local effort at $5,498,472.10. This includes debt repayment of $200,000, in case the County has to borrow money to get through the year. At this point, the County has borrowed no money to operate and things are looking good for the rest of the year, but things have to fall just right. Even with the value of mobile homes, vehicles and timber assets lower by $11 million for this year, the Commission was able to lower the millage rate by 1.28 mills, while paying back the remainder of the $3.2 million in debt that existed in 2009 when three of these Commissioners took office.

The fire department budgets were set as submitted, with a couple of modifications. The fire tax for each of the 5 fire tax districts was set the same as last year at 1.25 mills.

Finally, the Commission discussed the garbage fee. The County pays $10.60 per month per house for garbage collection services. This Commission voted 3 to 1 to set the garbage fee to $127.20, up from the $85 where is has been for years. The savings created by reducing the
millage by 1.28 mills will more than offset the $42 increase on the annual garbage fee which will, as always, be added to the tax bill.

When the majority of this Commission took office, we vowed with the two existing Commissioners to pay off the debt over time, keep the millage rate steady, and lower it as we could and to make improvements with Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax (SPLOST) dollars. Lord willing, we will finish this year without borrowing any money to operate. For the second consecutive year, we have lowered the millage rate. Eight roads are being, or have been paved, and the new recreation park will be ready for play in the spring. It has and continues to take a concerted effort on the part of the Commission, constitutional officers, all departments and staff to get to where the County is today. There is still a long way to go, but progress is being made.

Ronald E.Ham
Chairman - Brantley County Commission

BTC Video by Robby Thomas

Brantley County Commission October Regular Meeting

In the Regular Commission meeting on October 12, the Commission handled a variety of items after approving the minutes from the September 2010 meeting.

The first item was a request from current Nahunta Volunteer Fire Department Chief, Billy Lartz. One of the fire engines and some equipment in use in the Nahunta VFD are leased from former members Kenneth and Button Lee. Since their departure they have requested that the NVFD purchase their fire truck and equipment for $20,000. If this doesn’t happen, they may remove that equipment from service. Chief Lartz has teamed up with Calvary, Hoboken, Hortense and Waynesville Fire Departments to organize the equipment needed to replace that on lease from the Lees. Currently Hortense has a fire truck that Nahunta has borrowed, as Nahunta has one out of service. The County manager suggested that the Commission expedite repairing the vehicle that is out of service, bringing the fleet back up to appropriate levels without the Lee’s leased vehicle. The NVFD has no funds to purchase a fire truck, as the finances were left with an $8,000 deficit as reported by the County Manager. After the first of the year, when tax revenues are collected, the NVFD may have funds to procure a truck. Chief Lartz said that he had the commitment of all the Volunteer Fire Chiefs to help in any way they can to bridge the void created, should the equipment be pulled from service.

Commissioners Summerlin and Herrin volunteered to work with the Veterans Association(s) and the Historical Society to select a bridge in Brantley County to be named in honor of our Veterans. They will work with the agencies and report back to the Commission at the November Work Session. The goal is for them to select a bridge and the specific language for the name.

The fire protection agreements between the County and Hoboken VFD and Hortense VFD were renewed without changes. The Commission also voted to purchase a container for the Forestry Department to use to store equipment for $1480. Currently they have some equipment exposed to the elements, which isn’t good.

Commission spending limits were also modified so that the County Manager is now authorized to spend up to $1500 without other approvals. Approvals above that level require the approval of all Commissioners. This is effective immediately. Currently, expense requests are emailed out to the Commissioners and they can either respond digitally or stop by and sign the expense request form.

The Commission discussed courthouse security next. A proposed parking lot for the South side of the courthouse that was designed by the County engineering firm was reviewed. This would add approximately 60 new spaces, including handicapped spaces and appropriate green space to the Southern Face of the Courthouse. The Commission approved letting this project for bids as the project can be funded with Road SPLOST dollars and completed this year. Adequate parking on the South entrance will make it convenient for civilian traffic to travel through that South entrance. The Board has also acquired some budgetary quotes for security equipment. One alternative is to secure the East, West and North entrances, so that only employees can scan in and out of those entrances. In this alternative, the metal detector at the door of the courtroom would be relocated to the ground level at the South entrance (where the Coke machine is now). All civilian traffic in and out of the courthouse would travel through that door and through security. Persons needing to use the elevator would be scanned using a hand wand, then allowed to go up the elevator. The Sheriff would staff this entrance with security. As part of the security equipment for the doors, cameras could be installed at each door monitoring the hallways, the courtroom and overlooking the parking areas. These camera feeds could be recorded and remotely monitored at the 911 facility so that those operators could dispatch assistance if they saw a problem arise. Initial estimates for the security equipment and installation range about $15,000 to $19,000 depending on functionality. These numbers will be fine tuned and brought back to the November Work Session at the Commission’s request. If the Commission is unable to find the money this year, these funds will be budgeted in the courthouse maintenance budget for 2011. Logistically, it makes sense to install this equipment after the South Parking lot is in place, otherwise this could be a significant inconvenience to the citizens parking all over the courthouse. Plus, there are staffing issues to consider. In recent court sessions, when physical altercations have broken out in and around the courthouse, it has become clear for the safety of the employees, security has to be tightened now that the Sheriff’s office is over a mile away.

The County approved the Master Equipment Lease with Musco Financing for 4.4% for 10 years for the lighting of all 4 softball/baseball fields, the football field and the soccer field at the recreation park, financing a total of $467,198. All other spending on the recreation park was paid for by SPLOST dollars and capital outlay funding.

The Commission agreed to enter into a maintenance agreement with Southern Geographic, who is currently completing the geocoding of all County parcels that get updated to the online database, qPublic. This maintenance agreement will allow these property change files to be updated monthly. There may be some accuracy issues, since a mass update of thousands of parcels is about to be completed. If you find issues with the online data, please call the Tax Assessor’s office and make them aware of the situation with the parcel number and issue. Their information is available on this web site.

Other actions taken included the following: Derrick Lane was reappointed to the Recreation Advisory Committee. The agenda item for the Development Authority on Opportunity Zone Applications was postponed to the November Work Session. Another agenda item involving the Work Program for High School Students was postponed to the next Budget Hearing. The Commission approved the Grant for the Multi-Jurisdictional Hazard Mitigation Plan. The County had an executive session for real estate. After the executive session, no action was taken.

Chairman’s Corner

The County enters the final quarter of the year in solid financial standings, with many community improvement projects under way which are funded through Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax (SPLOST) dollars or grant/GADOT funding. Remember that SPLOST funds are collected for a “specific capital expense” and that 1% sales tax revenue can only be used for those purposes. About every four years the community has the opportunity to support a SPLOST referendum. Supporting the SPLOST makes projects like these possible.

A summary found on the left of this web page shows financial figures to date. They demonstrate that expenses are under budget and trending with revenues. When measuring the financial reports we have to watch both cash flow and the balance sheet. Since the reporting system does not show this year’s tax revenue, which was collected prior to January 1 2010, the balance of year to date expenses show us ahead of year to date revenues. But, Monday of last week there was over $400,000 in the general fund bank account with anticipated revenues for the remainder of the year in excess of $1 million.

I share all of this to demonstrate that all departments and constitutional officers are doing a good job of watching expenses and driving revenues. But, we aren’t out of the woods yet. We must remain diligent.

Currently, the County has paving projects under way using SPLOST and GaDOT dollars on Waynesville Road, Buster Walker Road, Boots Harrison Road, Satilla Church Road, Dude Circle and Mt. Calvary. Resurfacing projects have been completed on Oak Grove Road and parts of High Bluff. There is also a restriping project under way for over 30 miles of Brantley County roads, which was funded through GaDOT. The status of these projects was recently reported in the paper. They are on schedule.

The “Satilla Fields” Recreation Park construction project is near completion and has been funded with SPLOST and capital outlay dollars with the exception of the lights. The softball/baseball fields are completed with irrigation and grassing. The football and soccer fields are complete with dirt work and irrigation. The grassing is under way and the fields will be ready for their sports. The architectural plans for the field house are near complete and will go out for bids in coming weeks. The lighting for all 5 fields is being installed and will be complete in a few weeks. The goal is to have all facets of the park ready for the spring.

Construction has restarted on the airport project which was funded through a $2 million Air Georgia Grant. Littlefield Construction is almost complete with the dirt work. Once that takes place there will be a few weeks of idle time while DOT completes testing and provides some of engineering numbers to move forward. Once they make those readings available, the base and paving can be complete. The lighting contractor can complete their modifications during this time as well.

The Tax Assessor’s Office is working on the digest numbers. Once the Commission has those digest sheets, we can complete the budget process, set the millage rate and the Tax Commissioner can get the bills out. Once we have more details on the digest, budget process and time line, we’ll pass that information along. The Commission has the budget very close and will complete that portion of the process quickly once the data is available.

Five fire substations have been, or soon will be, erected with fire tax dollars that will help lower ISO ratings and homeowner’s insurance payments all across the County. Meetings with Skip Starling, ISO specialist, have developed definitive action plans that will assign and reassign assets and resources to make this plan most effective for the entire County.

The County has a $1.2 million line of credit, which we have not had to use to date. The County has anticipated revenues that will fund October’s payroll and Accounts Payable if all departments continue to be conservative. The Governor has ordered the repayment of $18 million in unassigned sales tax revenue that will be spread over ALL cities and counties in Georgia. Some small portion of that will come to Brantley County. Back taxes continue to be collected by the Tax Commissioner and the Sheriff continues housing other county’s prisoners and bringing in $30,000 or more monthly. All of this continues to help pay down the debt.

It has and continues to take a team effort to bring the County’s finances back into line. The Commission vowed two years ago to pay down the $3.2 million in debt over time, keep the millage rate steady or lower it and to make progress with SPLOST & Grant dollars. With the good Lord’s continued blessings, this plan will continue to work.

Ronald E. Ham
Chairman – Brantley County Commission