February 2011 Regular Meeting Summary

The Commission handled a variety of issues at the regular meeting in a little over an hour.

Mary Gibson asked to be added to the top of the agenda for the Commission meeting. During her time she expressed concerns over the reduction in the airport budget both in the previous and current budget years. Commissioners explained that she wasn’t alone; almost every department’s budget was reduced. After some exchanges with board members, the chair asked her to get to the root of her appearance. The Executive Director asked that the County Commission reinstate $53,000 to the airport budget for items at the airport that are not included in the grant. The Commission asked for a detailed list of needs prior to the next meeting for consideration.

Chief Henry Edwards of the Waynesville VFD delivered a status report. Britt Brinson with Standards and training came by on February 8 and now Waynesville Station 3, the Atkinson Station, is now compliant as a WVFD station. WVFD is using two bays and EMS is using 2 bays. The Buster Walker substation will be moved to the Browntown Road location. Station 5 will be a 36’ x 60’ station at the Atkinson Upper Elementary School. He also made recommendations for action on certain vehicles. Three trucks formerly used by AVFD will be retained by WVFD. The old aerial truck will be liquidated. One older truck will be returned to Forestry andnd one truck and 4,000 gallon tank will be transferred to the Nahunta VFD. Three trucks purchased by AVFD with fundraising money were retained by them and will be removed from the County insurance. One tanker truck was transferred to the road department to use working on roads. Finally, some former members of the AVFD have expressed concerns to the Chief over the location of their personnel records which contain sensitive information. The recommendation was for those to be returned to the County or the WVFD. The Commission supported these recommendations.

The Commission also declared one of the old cruisers as surplus equipment and transferred title to the Board of Education.

Items 3 and 4 were postponed to the March meeting to give the Commissioners more time to review and communicate with the appropriate parties.

Hoboken Volunteer Fire Department came forth with a request to use some of their accumulated fire tax dollars to make their substation payment for this year. Each fire tax district has a separate account where special fire tax funds that are collected for that district are kept. At the end of the year, those funds do not revert back to the general fund as most other accounts do. Since Hoboken has been frugal in years gone by, they had accumulated enough money to make their payment this year and still have operating funds and some equipment funds for this year. The Commission approved the request as it caused no increase in tax dollars and helped the fire department meet their obligations.

The County manager gave an update on the recreation projects. Work is underway on the concession/restroom building that the County is subbing out themselves at Satilla Fields, the main recreation park. The Commission agreed to a fee of $5,000 to be paid to contractor Joe Dixon, who is assisting the County with the value engineering and management of the project so that the $260,000 building can be built for the $160,000 left in the Recreation SPLOST account. Joe’s locating the used oven, hood and fire system saved the County over $15,000 on that one purchase, which is more than the fee. The team is working hard to have everything ready for play on the baseball fields in March. Grassing and other activities are also underway. The boat ramp project is underway. Some bush hog mowing has been completed, the field survey has been complete and the draftsman should have the documents to the engineers by early next week. GIEC will complete the design and submit the application for permits to DNR. The permit process can take 4 to 6 months. No work can begin until the permits are in place on the boat ramp. The last check for the timber from the property for the Waynesville Recreation property came in. A total of just over $13,000 has been received from timber sales. This will help pay for blocks and fencing once the nature trail grant verdict is in. That verdict will come in later this fall.

The Tax Assessor group came forward requesting a new vehicle, as one of theirs has over 300,000 miles on it. The County manager had acquired vehicle costs on the State contract. The Commission approved the requests for purchase of a Ford Explorer 4x4 at a cost of $24,958. The TA group has budgeted funds for this expenditure and have actually made the request for the last 2 years and the Commission postponed the purchase until the County’s operating debt was paid off. The Commission approved the purchase.

The Emergency Management Agency (EMA) has $15,000 in grant funds set aside for the purchase of a new vehicle and have applied for another $5000 for this year. The Commission approved the purchase of a similar vehicle for EMA, but asked the County manager to check possibly purchasing a truck and camper combination to see if that might be as functional and save some money.

The Commission reviewed a resolution prepared by the County attorney on the use of user fees. In the last two budget cycles over the last two years the Commission has discussed the use of user fees to help offset ad valorem taxes. In an example, were the Commission to levy a $50 road user fee on populated parcels in Brantley County, that would generate around $500,000 or about 2 mills of taxes. The legislation requires that the Commission reduce the ad valorem tax rate by an amount equal to that anticipated. This is the same way that the LOST and Insurance Premium Roll Backs are done today. This levy would be treated as any other tax or fee. The Tax Commissioner would be charged with its collection through normal tax collection procedures. A ceiling of 50% of the local effort is proposed, so that no more than ½ of the local effort could be raised through the use of new fees defined in the legislation.

The Commission also saw a presentation of the asphalt zipper. This equipment is used in a variety of way to improve old paved roads that need repaving or dirt roads that need soil cement, rocks, clay, sand, crush and run or other materials mixed, leveled and compacted. Many counties are starting to use this approach to bring dirt roads up to a point where paving can take place on top of the mixtures. A trial of the equipment will be scheduled and more consideration given after the County has seen it in action.

Finally, the Commission voted to hire Dean Strickland as the new County attorney on a 3-1 vote. Dean Strickland, Vince Settles, Tom Lee and Kelly Brooks submitted proposals for the service and Mr. Strickland was the lowest bid.

Boots Harrison Road Paved with SPLOST Dollars‏

The Brantley County Commission continues its paving projects with the paving of Boots Harrison Road off of 32 near Popwellville, using internal labor and Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax (SPLOST) dollars. Contractors completed the paving of the road this week. Shoulder work, grassing, markings, etc. are yet to be completed. This project has been completed with the County's own road department performing the preparation in the way of clearing, grubbing, pipe installation and base material installation. The road was then bid for paving and finishing with Seaboard Construction winning the bid, which will be paid from SPLOST funds. The external cost of this road was significantly lower than other projects, as the County completed a significant portion of the work. Since this road had no Georgia Department of Transportation (GaDOT) funding support, the County was able to build it with a 60 foot right of way, which was less intrusive on the community, while providing adequate access to the homes. Had this been a major connector or a road with significant heavy through traffic, that would have been less of an opportunity.

The County is dedicated to stretching the SPLOST dollars and renewing the SPLOST this fall so that the road paving progress can continue.