Commission - Regular Meeting

R County Board of Commissioners October 14th meeting to order. Please, if you would stand, we'll have an invitation. Do pledge of allegiance. Dear Lord, thank you for this opportunity to come together and and do the business of this county and this little part of your creation. Let every decision made here be in accordance with your will. And it's in Jesus name. Amen. Amen. Amen.

You join me in pledge allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Thank everybody for coming tonight. Appreciate I don't think we have any elected officials here. Randy from our solicitor off. Thank you for coming, sir. I think that's all we have and Aeron's assistance. All right. Uh we need the approval of the agenda for tonight, please. Mr. Chair, I'll make a motion to approve the agenda. Second. All in favor say I.

I. That's approved. All right. Approval of our September 2025 meeting minutes. Mr. Chairman, I make a motion that we approve the September 2025 meeting minutes. A second. Second. Any discussion? All in favor say I. I. Thank you. All right. Now, we need the approval of our consent agenda, which we've had time to look over. Motion for that one. Mr. Mr. Chair, I'll make a motion to approve the consent agenda as presented. Okay. Second. Second. Second. All in favor say I. I.

All right. Thank you. And by the way, Commissioner Kids can Sorry, Commissioner. He's on a uh our voice our owl here. Uh he's out of town at a a meeting, so he couldn't attend tonight. So, he's doing it virtually. Thank you. Um also, we need we're going to close this meeting and open up our public hearing to hear some items. I need a motion to close this meeting and open up a public hearing. Mr. Chair, I'll make a motion to close this meeting and open a public hearing. Second. Second. All in favor say I.

Okay. We're now in a public hearing. First up, it's Victoria Babcock. Second reading of an ordinance to amend the zoning map for 2 and a half acres parcel 028-16. 016.

Thank you. Good evening, Mr. Chairman and members of the commission. The first reading to the first item tonight is the second reading of an ordinance to reszone a 2 and a half acre portion of a 7.86 acre tract of land from the uh A5 to the RR 2.5 rural residential zoning district. And at their meeting on September 16th, the planning and zoning commission did recommend approval of this request. This shows you an overview map here as well as the current zoning map showing a a mix of other rural residential uses as well as well as the comprehensive plan showing that it does fall in that emerging suburban character area. So reszoning it does meet the intent of the comprehensive plan. And you can see the existing home here and the acreage that will remain uh zoned A5 looking towards Bullet County as well as their proposed subdivision shown here. Uh, and with that I can answer any questions you may have.

Anybody have any questions? Any from the public? Anybody from the public here to we to speak for against this item? Hearing none. Okay, we'll go to our next item of Price Eel Holdings and I need to recuse myself. Y if you'll step out.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Item number two is the second reading of an ordinance to amend the map for 2.47 acres. This is two different parcels. Uh Coleman Company representing Price Label Holdings LLC is requesting to reszone from the RR1 rule residential zoning district to the B2 general commercial district. And this property is located on Black Creek Church Road and the applicant intends to build a light auto repair facility. Uh planning and zoning at their September 16th meeting did recommend denial of the requested reszoning. So, this shows you the the overview map that this is on the north end of the county as well as the current zoning map here that shows a mix of rural residential as well as some commercial uses as well. And this shows you the comprehensive plan map here, which I'll come back to in a second, where you can see the community crossroads at the intersection of Highway 204 and Black Creek Church Road there to the south of the property, as well as it falling into the emerging suburban character area. So, this shows you a couple of images of the property currently looking towards 204 back towards the north as well as uh the current home at 2580 Black Creek Church Road in relation to the current uh tow shop. And this gives you a different view of that tow shop with the subject property where those trees are at. So, going back to the character area, I have on this map here uh some images of the surrounding areas and what they're zoned. So, there's a mix of commercial uses that are either used or commercial zonings that are used for residential purposes or um a church in one of these cases or vacant properties as well as just the closed residential nature of the area. And this shows you some more pictures here as well of some properties in the area as well as the crossroads uh that is to the south. And this shows you their proposed concept plan. So with the comprehensive plan, the intent of the crossroads intersection is typically to keep these

commercial uses as close to the intersection as possible, but the comprehensive plan does not define a geographic area for what is or is not in the crossroads. So traditionally, we staff feels like it should be closer to the intersection, but we feel like it's left up to the interpretation of the board to decide what may or may not fall within that crossroads intersection. Um and as far as the concept plan, they are showing that um it could meet all UDO requirements if reszoned. It would generate potentially 310 trips. Uh the approved TDA that our engineering department looked at uh required no infrastructure improvements. So with that, I can answer any questions you may have. Anybody have any questions?

The adjacent property is already zone commercial now. Yes. So let me go back to the zoning map. Yes. So, the the parcel to the south is already zone B2. That is currently a tow shop. Okay. Anybody else have any comments? Anybody from the public wish to speak for or against this?

Yes, sir. If you'd come up, just state your name for the record. Good evening. Scott Allison Mcome Company representing Price Holdings. Um I wanted to touch on the comprehensive plan. So the emerging suburban uh comprehensive plan. So B2 is a is a district that fits within that emerging suburban according to the comprehensive plan. And the way we looked at this was not know necessarily from an aspect of how far up the community crossroads goes up, but more so that the emerging suburban allowed for this zoning district um and how close in proximity it was to the community crossroads. Um I do appreciate Brett's um explanation and at the planning commission meeting during that public hearing there was a lot of discussion about extending up the community crossroads which I understand there's some ambiguity to that but the way we looked at this again was it fits within the emerging suburban and being that it is in such close proximity to that defined community crossroads we felt that it was a a logical um reszoning as far as comprehensive plan goes as well as the adjacent property being B2 um it's not spot zoning or any of would like I can answer any questions you have.

Anybody have any questions? Thank you, sir. Thank you, Scott. Okay. Now, we'll go back into our meeting to vote on these items. So, we need a motion to close our public hearing and reopen our regular meeting. Mr. Chair, I make a motion to close the public hearing and reopen our regular meeting. Okay. Second. All right. All in favor say I. I.

Okay. We're back in our regular meeting. If somebody would get Wade and let him vote on this one item, please. Thank you, Audrey. He had to step out because item number two has a conflict. So, so everybody knows he's not going to be in the room when we vote or talk about item number two. All right. We need a motion to uh for the community item number one, Victoria Babcock. Second reading of the ordinance to amend the zoning map for 2 and a half acres partial 028-016.

Mr. Chairman, I'm I make a motion to approve the reszoning of partial number 028-016 from the A5 agricultural zoning district to the RR2.5 rural residential zoning district. Second. Second. Any discussion on that? All in favor say I. I. All oppose. Okay. That motion carries. All right, Mr. Price, you will have to step out again.

Discuss this. All right, we'll take a motion for the Price Label Holdings LLC, second reading of an ordinance to amend the zoning map 2.47 47 acres parcel 0311-055 and 0311-058.

Mr. Chairman, I move to approve the reszoning of parcels 0311-055 and 0311-058 from the RR1 rural residential zoning district to the B2 general commercial zoning district. I'll second. Any discussion on that hearing? None. All in favor say I. I. All opposed. Uh, Commissioner Kiskin, was that it? I

Okay. All right. Thank you. That motion carries. You get Wade to come on back in and we'll do our community to develop items. Is there non-public hearing? There will be no comment on this. This is just kind of a first reading for these things. Uh, all right. Uh, first up, Daniel Crawford. First reading of an ordinance to amend the zoning map for 20.7 acres parcel 063-073.

Yeah. This first non-public hearing item is a request to reszone 20 acres uh from the RR 2.5 rule residential district to the RR1 rural residential district. This property is located on 144 south of Michael Drive. Again, this is just a first reading. So, this will go to the planning and zoning commission for a recommendation on October 21st, and we'll be back before you for a final decision in November. And this shows you the general location map of the property here, uh, as well as the current zoning map, showing some other rule residential uses and zonings, as well as their proposed subdivision. And I can answer any questions you may have.

Anybody have any questions on that? Hearing none. All right. Thank you. All right. Item number two, 202526 Georgia Department of Natural Resource Recreational Trail Program Grant application.

Yes. So, this is also a non-public earring item, but it is an action item. So, we will require a vote tonight for a resolution. So, Brian County developed the Green Creek Trail in 2007, and we have planned additional improvements. This is an item that comes both from the 2022 bike and ped uh pedestrian plan that we adopted as well as the 2023 uh short-term work program from the comprehensive plan. We have planned some uh extension and improvements onto the trail, adding an additional trail head and some more parking and some more safety features with signage and different uh improvements of that nature. So, the county is applying for $180,000 to go towards the total project cost of 258,000. And the grant requires a minimum of a 20% match, but staff is recommending that we match at 78% or 30 78,000, excuse me, or 30% of the total project cost to remain competitive. Uh, keeping in mind that our match would be all in kind. So, this would be work that public works is performing and wouldn't actually cost the county any money. So, we are just asking that you approve a resolution authorizing uh the submittal of the grant application for the Green Creek Trail extension projects and committing all the necessary required funds.

All right, we'll take a motion to approve that resolution. Mr. Mr. Chairman, I move to approve a resolution authorizing the submittal of the recreational trail program grant application for the Green Creek Trail Extension Project and commit all necessary and required matching funds for the project. I'll second. Second. Any discussion on that? Hearing none. All in favor say I. All oppose. Okay, that motion carries. Thank you.

Thank you, sir. All right, Ben, you're up. Task order 119 South Bryant waterways of food pumps station force main and LA.

First item is the southern Brian waterways of fluent pump station force main and LA design contract upgrades to the existing wastewater infrastructure required to increase capacity in the southern part of the county including the expansion of land application system for disposal of effluent. The Brian County Commission recently entered into an agreement with Savannah Land Holdings, aka waterways in August of 2025, which established the funding obligations of this project through TAP fees to fund their appropriate cost share of the infrastructure. It is also appropriate to note that this is a water and sewer project, which is selfsupporting fund within the county's budget. This is not a property tax endeavor. However, it does expand the property tax base or digest. The proposed task order includes engineering services for the design, permitting, construction of, and administration of a new effluent pump station at the proposed South Bryan MBR wastewater treatment facility. Uh, and approximately 7,900 linear feet of Fluent Forest main and over 1 million gallons per day of L, that's land application system expansion on 309 acres provided by the waterways township. Um, our recommendation is a consideration of the attached uh scope of services and authorize the chairman execute to corresponding task order 1119 in the amount of $1,597,000 for uh the south or southern brine waterways of fluent pump station force main and LA engineering contract services.

Okay, we'll take a motion on that one. Mr. Mr. Chairman, I move to approve task order 119 in the amount of 1,597,000 for the South Brian waterways affluent pump station force main and LS engineering services contract as presented. Second. Second. Any discussion on that? Hearing none, I'll take uh all in favor say Oh, excuse me. All in favor raise your right hand. Hand raised. Thank you. All right, that motion carries. Thank you. All right. Number two is uh task order 110 South Brian waterways um WWTF wastewater treatment facility. Go ahead.

Item two, the Southern Brian Waterways uh wastewater treatment facility design contract. As I said earlier, upgrades to the existing wastewater infrastructure required increased capacity in this part of the county using the membrane reactor technology or bioreactor uh similar to we have that we just completed up in the northern part of the county. This proposed task order includes the development and the design of a half a million gallon wastewater treatment facility that is expandable up to 1 million gallons. Uh the Brian County Commission, as I said earlier, recently entered into an agreement with Savannah Land Holdings uh in August, which established funding obligations of this project through TAP fees and of course to fund their appropriate cost share of that infrastructure. Uh as I said earlier, this is going for the water and sewer fund uh which is a self-supporting fund within the county's budget. Uh the recommendation is to consider the approval uh of the attached scope of services and authorize the chairman execute the corresponding task order 110 in the amount of $2,489,350. Can we take a motion on that one? Mr. Chairman, I move to approve task order number 110 in the amount of $2,489,350 for the South Bryan Waterways wastewater treatment facility engineering con engineering services contract as presented.

Second. Second. Any discussion on that? Hearing none. All in favor raise your right hand. Opposed. All right. Thank you. All right. That motion carries. All right. Next up, the Brian County jail study proposal.

Good evening, commissioners. Um, see, item number three. Uh in August of this year, Brian County and the Brian County Sheriff's uh office engaged CPS, which is comprehensive program services um in the initial uh data collection process to study the potential expansion or new construction options for the Brian County Jail. The full proposal from CPS includes data collection and a final report to include cost estimates, timelines, and possible solutions for financing the capital construction project. A lump sum fee for the services is $120,500 which includes $55,500 for the existing facilities assessment and civil engineering and 65,000 for programming and concepts. The recommendation is to approve the CPS proposal for planning services for the Bryan County Jail for a total of $120,500.

Mr. Mr. Chairman, I make a motion to approve the CPS proposal for planning services for the Brian County Jail for a total of $120,500. I'll second that. Second. All right. Any discussion on that? Yeah. I just want to make sure that we're all clear that that is including existing facility, possible renovation to that instead of building new. Right. Yes, sir. Right. Okay. That's it. All in favor, raise your right hand. All right. Thank you. And Katherine, since you're up, I mean, I know we have a lot of people from the animal control people here. If you could give us an update where we're at on that. And Lori, if you could get me that list of speakers, please.

Sure. So, uh, if you have it, thank you.

Update um over the last 17 days, things that have happened in animal control. So, as you know, we've got our new shelter, which will be opening soon, and we've got a video tour. Um, you can see kind of the walkthrough of the new shelter. Uh, it includes a lobby area, an adoption room, so uh, families can come in and meet their new future pets, some exam rooms, it's a cat room, two cat rooms. Um, and then we'll go back into the kennel area. There are a total of 24 kennels that have um indooroutdoor runs. I'm sorry, 18 have indooroutdoor runs. Six are uh smaller kennels for smaller dogs that can be utilized. Again, it's a little fast. Sorry about that. Uh this you can go through to an exam room without having to bring it the dog through the office area. This is just kind of general uh office space for staff. And then uh last week we took delivery of the new cat kennels that will be in the two cat rooms and those were being uh constructed today.

Okay. So over the last 17 days we've had 14 animals transferred to rescues. Uh that was 12 cats and two dogs. uh six adoptions, two cats, four dogs, and uh five animals were returned to their owners. We did have one euthanasia um that was a sick cat. Okay.

We've hired three new employees for the department. The third will begin on the 27th and uh we've also increased the salary to ensure that we have qualified, dependable employees. The legal department is currently reviewing the feasibility of a volunteer program, specifically one where we can uh utilize volunteers to transport animals to and from adoption events. And then we have a new adoption campaign. Video will play here and show you all of our adoptable animals. Um these are, I believe, all the animals that are available for adoption in Pinbrook. Uh we will feature the animals from Richmond Hill next week and um going forward we will have at least two animals a day that will be highlighted on social media. So we are encouraging our partners to uh share these posts with us. As you can see, we've got a mix of dogs and cats and variety of types of dogs, types of cats. So if anyone's looking for an animal, we we've got some. All right, great.

And then this is an example of a happy adoption story. This dog was picked up on the 26th of September. Um, and it was rehomed on the 9th of I'm sorry. Yeah, 26th of September and it was rehomed on the 9th of October. So, it spent a total of 13 days in our shelter. Seven of those were the mandatory stray hold. But, as you can see, we got him out, got him cleaned up, and he is happy in his new home. Uh we are working on developing a foster program in house that would allow uh members of the community to take a dog home, maybe a trial run. We call those foster fails when you end up adopting the dog. We hope that happens. Um and then um that'll just kind of get the animals out in the community, not in a shelter and then stuck in a kennel. I think you've already seen these numbers, but you can see the animal services budget has increased from 2021 uh pretty significantly. 285,000 to uh 4667,000 this year and we're anticipating that it will be about 515 um in 2026.

Okay. All right. There you go.

Thank you. We made some improvements over there. Thank you. Thanks, uh, Katherine and Ben for doing that. We have a we item four is for executive session. Then we're going to come back for public comment. Since we do have a list of folks here to speak, we won't make you sit in the audience for 30 to 45 minutes, maybe an hour. We'll go ahead and I'm going to move public comments up. The way we're going to do public comments, I'm going to call your name. I don't know if everybody on here wishes to speak. We're going to give you three minutes to talk about whatever you want to talk about. We don't engage. We don't answer. We listen. And we take whatever you say under advisement. There will be no outbreaks, no screaming, no hollering. If you do, you will be escorted out of this building. So, I just want to give you a forewarning now. First up is Elena Knock. Do you want to speak? I want to give my father.

Give it to who? Megan. Okay. Well, Megan, you're up. So, you can come up. You'll say your Just state your name for the record when you get up here. Sure.

All right. Go ahead.

Okay. Good evening. My name is Megan Felton. I've been a Brian County resident since 1999 and I'm the vice president and TNR coordinator for Two Black Dogs Foundation. We are a local nonprofit and the only rescue licensed in Bryan County. Um, and we are dedicated to reducing the pet overpopulation through um, education, um, financial assistance for spayneuter, targeted TNR, and community outreach. Over the last two years since our creation, we've been able to build um, personal relationships with small business owners, our residences, and other local area rescues to continue helping the animals of this community. We have several public programs to help pet owners here in this community, such as our free monthly pet food pantry, our spay it forward f program, which offers financial assistance to owners to make spay and neuter surgeries more affordable, and we operate the only TNR program in this county. We have several um below it, you'll see a chart kind of um describing some of our Brian County only numbers. Obviously, we um TNR and pull rescue from all of our local surrounding counties, but that's just kind of a quick quick look at what we've done in Bryan County. Um I'm here today to open conversation on how we can work more closely and effectively with Bryan County Animal Services to improve outcomes for animals and reduce the strain on public resources. While the quality of the care provided by Brown County Animal Services has increased over the last few years with the amount of vetting, um, you know, they vaccinate, they're able to deworm now. Um, there is still much more that could be done. Um, we appreciate the work of our past and present animal control officers and what they do, often under difficult conditions, but that does not mean that there is not room for continued growth. Um some of the challenges that this county is currently

facing overcrowded shelters um anytime that you we see people hey I found this this animal I called animal control they're full they can't intake it that's a problem um the lack of affordable spay and neuter in this community and TNR resources the lack of volunteers allowed at the shelter which I appreciate that that's being looked into I think that's going to be a really great help um public com complaints about strays freely roaming our streets. Um that is a public that's a public safety issue. Um lack of communication between animal control and the rescues and the limited funding for both the shelter and um local nonprofits. Um some ways that we are proposing that we can improve and grow together. um for communication and coordination. We would love to establish a direct liaison for regular check-ins between animal control and the approved county rescues that um typically pull from our shelters. See, that way we can have a more direct line of hey, these animals are urgent or this animal came in sick. It really needs to be pulled before it spreads diseases to our other animals at this shelter. Um, we're proposing that we create and use a shared communication platform or alert system like a Facebook page where the shelter has an urgent need. Hey, this is urgent. Um, and all of the shelter partners and the people that are in charge of pulling from those rescue organizations would be a part of that group. That way they could see it and then seek fosters from there. Um, spayne, neuter, and medical support. We're suggesting partnering on lowcost spayneuter clinics offer vouchers that are um funded by both local rescues and the county. Um I have spoken at links with Chattam County who has a very successful TNR program um and they are more than happy to come speak to the county both the commissioners um animal control to explain how they spearheaded their program and what Brian County

could do to get that started. Um, we would love to collaborate on public education campaigns about responsible pet ownership, licensing, and the importance of spay and neuter. Um, I know the county currently does some school career days, and that's that's a really great educational resource. I I think we should try to do that at every school. I'm not sure which ones they're able to um which ones they've been able to hit recently, but I think it would be great to hit all of them. Um, we have a ton of schools in this area. Um, and then include rescue partners in community events hosted and supported by the county. Um, lowcost vaccine clinics, like I mentioned, lowcost spayneuter events, fundraising events, etc. Um, a volunteer program. A well-run volunteer program increases animal welfare, adoption rates, community engagement while reducing the stress and burnout of shelter staff. We areo we are suggesting to create a volunteer program that allows the public to come in assist in simple shelter task play um for example playtime in the yard with the dogs socializing with the kittens simple cleaning task you know washing dishes cleaning litter boxes um we would suggest requiring volunteers to go through a multi-ter training program where policies expectations safety protocol and shadowing of staff and senior volunteers would be covered in depth um and not being just allowed to be thrown into the shelter. Like that's that's not safe. That's not what we're suggesting, but we do think volunteers could be very well utilized. Um and then grants and funding work together to apply for state and federal um grants, private grants aimed at reducing shelter populations and increasing live outcomes. Um and then the lastly, we're not here to criticize but collaborate. We would love to be considered one of the county's rescue partners and have a seat at the table when discussing um animal control strategies, ways to collaborate with our local rescues um and solutions

together for the animals of this county. Um we're asking for a commitment to create a working group of animal control staff, rescue partners, and community members to identify priorities and solutions together. In closing, we realize that the state of animal welfare has improved drastically over the last four years, but there's still growth that we can do here. Um, thank you for your time tonight, and we look forward to working with everyone. Thank you. Thank you, Megan. All right. Next up, we got a Caroline Grinder. Is that is that how is that right? Grinder. Grryer. Okay. If you'll just state your name, we'll give you three minutes to speak on whatever you want to.

Hello, I'm Carolyn Grryer. Uh, I moved here in 2018 and when I came here, our heart and soul was to help provide for the animals that are in need. Uh, they need safety and nutrition. And my husband and I have been dedicated since we came here. We adopted our first dog within a couple months of moving here. Um, we got her from One Love. And after we had adopted Daisy, we had just tried to help any other rescues that were out there. And I've worked with Castaways, uh, Two Black Dogs. Renegade is a big part of my heart. And I've also done the best I can to assist with the shelters, um, here in Brian County. My, uh, husband and my son are both, uh, they work for the sheriff's department. And in the last few months, because of the current state with the animal shelters, we now have seven dogs at our house because the outlet and the resources were just not out there. Um, one example is they weren't allowed to do any kind of rescuing or or picking animals up at nighttime. That's a big concern of mine because then my husband and I, whether he was working or not, were going out and finding these animals in some areas that were not really meant for us to be doing that. But we did it because we wanted the animals to be safe. Um, like I said, I work with Renegade and Renegade is a a rescue group that you're supposed to foster and move the dogs on. Well, they're overwhelmed. the shelter's overwhelmed and then we end up keeping the dogs and Jen says I have to stop doing that because she understands I fall in love with these animals but I also can't let them just be left to the unknown. So I'm

really here I applied twice to the animal shelter to work as a tech. I wanted to be animal control uh an officer and I was turned down both times for either lack of um experience which I've done this for a long time. I did it in New York. We used to rescue pitles in New York before we came here. So I don't know if that was a valid reason why I was never considered to to be a employee for the animal shelters which I'm still interested in doing. Um animals need our help. This county is a great county and I think there is a resolution if we can come to terms with the where the money's going, how it's being spent. I don't understand how come some of the things that are being presented today about the financial uh status of what's going on with the shelter, some of those issues, some of those numbers kind of don't match what we've been told in the last few weeks. But, you know, that's all things that we can figure out in the future. and I really hope you consider making animal control a priority in Brian County.

Thank you. All right. Thank you. I I will say the numbers that were presented today are facts. I I don't know where you got your numbers from or who told you what. We only deal in facts. It's our budget. Everything is audited. I understand. So, I don't understand. I mean, wherever you got your numbers. Apparently, they weren't right. As you can see, we got a new animal shelter open up soon. I took note of all that was said today, and I'm going to go forward with that. Oh, thank you. and I just hope it's the best for the county. Thank you. Thank you. All right. Uh Jen Taylor. No. Okay. Okay. State your name again for the record. Um Jennifer Taylor, Renegade Paws Rescue.

Okay. Um, I just want to start off by saying that um, Renegade Paws Rescue has been a partner in Brian County for six years. We have pulled 890ish dogs from Brian County shelters. We have also helped with shelter diversion um, as well as lowcost spay and neuter for your residents here in Brian County. We have also been able we were um part of the group that helped 300 dogs out of guard which if they had come to your shelter would have been a massacre because there's nowhere to put 300 dogs. What we would like to see and I meant and Catherine we would like also two black dogs said to have a seat at the table. I think that with you have a wealth of animal welfare knowledge in front of you right now between myself, Jessica and the Brian Animal League, we have years of animal welfare experience that we feel like is not taken into account in Brian County. And even though we live in Chadam, we literally before two black dogs, we're the only rescue pulling out of county. And I've been here when Beth was here was here. So I remember all of that. The volunteer program is your rescues inside your account. The volunteers in county and making things that your staff doesn't have time to do and that's okay because they were very busy. Your volunteers are the key to getting your dogs out of the shelters. And the last thing we want to do is have Brian County fall from almost no kill to where they were eight years ago. So in order to do that, what we would like to see is that volunteer program beefed up. I that we're going to do transport from adoption events and the shelter, but it's not enough. And I'm happy to start with that. We're happy to help you. We have people here all over here that have a wealth of knowledge on volunteer programs. And if Chadam County

can have a volunteer program, Mon, all of the counties in Georgia have one. There's no reason not to have one. I get legal liability, but we have one, you know. So, there's no reason not to have a volunteer program. And Brian Animal has worked really hard for that. and Renegade P Rescue has is standing behind them. This volunteer program can help the animals and help you guys because they're end. So by having volunteer programs, you can help return to home a little bit easier. You can help shelter diversion by keeping animals in homes. Not only is Renegade pulling dogs, but we are helping people that have dogs that have medical problems and they're like, I can't afford that, so I'm going to the shelter. We send them to the vet and we pay for it. you know, we're going to pay for it anyway, so we might as well just pay for it and that the dog can remain in the home and out of your shelter. So, if you just give us a chance to be at the table, give two black dogs a chance to be at the table to help make decisions on animal welfare and help Brian County shape the future. We want to work together, not against you.

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. All right. Next up, we got Kaylee Espan. [Music] Kay actually worked at Brian County for a while. So, if you're going to say the same thing, we we heard you.

Same thing. I'm also going to ask you to consider this TMR program. I know that Brian County has had a lot of push back from TMR. I know you guys people don't want cats on their cars, whatever, but there's proof in the pudding. TMBR works. It helps decrease your utination numbers. And if you have a colony of cats and you span of them, you have less cats. So, you know, eventually your problems with cats will go away if you let us have this TMR program. Let there was funding from Best Friends for this TMR program that was never used because we're not allowed. And we're all here to help save animals. But there are no reason to cram cats in these shelters when they're community cats. They're not adoptable cats. So, know that's a very hard thing for a lot of people to grasp is TMR. I know people are get annoyed with cats in their garden and cats. But if we start now TMRing, those complaints will go down because we're staying in neutering and not making more cats. So, if you would please consider TMR program and if you have questions about it, we have literature, we have research and all kinds of data from years and years of work on CMR. in Brian County, I would like you to get some future with us. Like if every county in Georgia is really working hard to get these CMR grant programs, so we're here to help you and again don't want to compete. We just want to collaborate and make Brian County better.

All right, thank you. Just so I'm clear, TNVR is vaccinate. Okay, gotcha. Just making sure I understood. All right. It took me a minute. Coker. Is that it? Huh? Oh, okay. All right. Allison Sha Shaft. Just come up. State your name, please. Start.

Yes. Good evening. I'm Allison Short. Um, I am the one of the leaders of the volunteer program at Chadam County Animal Services. Um, I'm also a shelter outreach program manager at the Humane Society for Greater Savannah. I do oversee the grant that you guys have received at Brian County Animal Shelter. Um, so it sounds like volunteerism is going to be the topic tonight. Um, so you know, I know you've heard a little bit about it. Um, one thing I did want to share, um, so we have completely started up that program at Chattam County. We have over 40 volunteers now and the things that we've been able to accomplish with that program are, um, pretty huge. So obviously we know that staff budgets are always tight. Um the county has so many competing priorities and you have a large community here that's already expressed uh a very genuine interest in helping with the volunteerism that is uh free free help, right? So it can really extend your reach and provide more successful outcomes for your animals. So as Katherine mentioned that it's great to hear you guys are reviewing the um transport piece of the volunteer program. Some other ways that we typically help um a huge piece is with um adoptions. So volunteers will go in and interact with those animals, get to know them, walk them, get them out of their kennels, right? So you have less jumpy dogs, um less frustrated cats. That results in more adoptions. Um those volunteers can also take those um animals to adoption events and they can take them on doggy day outs. Um, they can also create materials and this is just a little cute flyer, but you'd be surprised things like this, um, the photography in this, um, the creation of this, the knowing the animals, this all took time from a volunteer. So, your staff doesn't need to do things like this, but you can improve adoption significantly by having basic things um, you know, like this created through a volunteer program. Uh the volunteer program at Chattam County Animal Services has also um taken extensive amounts of video and we used to help with um running their social media marketing. So we increased their

following. They're in almost 20,000 followers now and we've seen their adoptions go up from that. So having volunteers do that, we were able to proof out how successful that program was of social media and they actually hired a social media coordinator there at the shelter now. So up until recently we had the volunteers running that all free of charge to the county. Um, you've got lots of savvy young people here that want to participate and see all the good work that you guys are doing. It's a great way to leverage uh those people. Um, some other great things that they can do are admin tasks. So, some of that boring stuff that nobody really likes to do, you'll always find that there's some lovely human being that wants to just sit at a desk and help do those things. They can really free up time for your animal control officers and your leadership staff. Um, some other great things are, you know, um, volunteers adopt animals, right? Most every volunteer in our program has adopted an animal and they go out and share with the community about this loving animal, about the great work that's being done at the shelter. Um, so you get more advocates in your community sharing that you have this amazing new facility that you're investing money in and you have a way to bring people into the community and advocate for you. Um, yeah, so that was the majority of it. Um, and if you do have any questions on TNBR, we also help Chattam County Animal Services stand up the TNBR program and you do still have grant funding available for your TNBR program.

All right. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you very much. All right, Tanya Collier. Just come in and state your name. We give three minutes. Hello gentlemen. My name is Tanya Collier. This is me. May I? If you'd like to pass this around. Thank you.

To my surprise, I saw my name and my property come up on the um public comments during last month and I give Mr. Aaron Kappler the award this month for communication. Thank you, Mr. Kappler. Mr. Kisan gets second place for answering my telephone call. Um,

thank you. Um, it is amazing to me that this is the second time I've noticed that you guys were ready for things at the meeting before people came up and commented. Um, but you weren't returning phone calls and emails and doing those kind of things. Um I want to with this is very interesting because um very happy that all of these people have come here to speak for the animals. Um this is from part one article one section tw section 10 of the code of Brian County Georgia. Brian County, Georgia. BR the board of commissioners shall have original and exclusive jurisdiction over the following subject matters to WIT. And it goes on and on, but in the end it says in making rules and regulations according to the law for the support of the poor of the county for the promotion of health and agriculture as are granted by the law. We shouldn't have to come to the meeting because we've been asking for three years for the ditches, for animals to not be mistreated. I truly hope that this will be a beginning of a better transa transparent remainder of the year. Thank you.

Thank you. Thank you. All right. Next up, we have April Melton. Huh? Okay. All right. And then Cynthia Webster. Is that

right? What else?

You guys are very tired hearing about volunteerism. Um, one other piece that I didn't get to share. So, um, in working with some of the other shelters around the counties in Georgia, we've also helped to stand up volunteer programs at other municipal shelters. So, as you kind of heard echoed, I know that there can be a lot of, um, uh, you know, uh, misunderstanding of what volunteers can do. There can also be fear around liability. Um, we definitely have worked with those shelters and their attorneys and things to establish those programs. So, not just at Chattam County Animal Services, but a variety of other municipal shelters. Um, one of the other great things that we've brought to those shelters, um, that actually does reduce liability is we've brought in playgroups. So, you heard, um, Megan speak about those animals getting enrichment, um, and that's such a huge piece. You guys have done such a great job with keeping your live release rate high, but in order to continue that, those animals need to get out of their kennel. When they sit in a kennel all day long, they tend to go a bit stir crazy. So, we've been able to implement with a national organization, um, Dogs Playing for Life. We've been able to implement playgroups at Chattam County Animal Services and several other shelters. So, we have a wealth of experience with this. As some of the other folks echoed, we genuinely are here to stand with you and try to find any avenues to help you all um because we do know that budgets are tight, people are hard to find. Um it's hard work, very hard work. Um so, the volunteers can really come alongside of that and help um help support you. So, if you do have any questions, I just would love to offer our services at Humane Society of Greater Savannah and obviously the other rescues, but we do still have you guys as one of our grants that has funding available for these programs. So, we'd love to work with you.

All right. Yeah. Thank you very much.

Uh, and then we have Amy Mitchell. She's here. Just come up and state your name. Hi, good evening. My name is Amy Mitchell. Um, we've or I have spoken at the last few meetings about historic preservation and hoping that the county will consider creating a historic preservation ordinance and historic preservation commission. Um, it's my understanding that you guys may be talking about this at your upcoming retreat, which is really great news. I'm excited to hear that. Um, I wanted to share that the uh organization Ethos Preservation, which is the group that helped the city of Richmond Hill with their creation of their ordinance and preservation commission, they've been very kind to offer to meet with you, um, speak with you, answer any questions that you may have, and get a better understanding of what that process would look like. They really want to be a resource. Um I'm not sure where your retreat is being held if that's local and that's something that they could come and be available for or if you have time to speak with them prior to that meeting, but they I many people want to make sure that you have all of the relevant information to be able to make an informed decision um on that process. So again, that's ethos preservation. I'll be happy to email you their contact information. Um they're this is what they do. They're very experienced in this. They're the people. there who you need to talk to. They can answer any question that you may have. Um, and I just hope that we can uh move forward with the process and uh choose to create the the ordinance and the commission.

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. We have no other speakers listed. Uh do we have any commissioner comments before we go into executive session? Okay, we'll take a motion to go into executive session. Mr. Chairman, I make a motion to go into executive session for the purposes of personnel. Personnel and litigation. Yeah. All right. Need a second on that. Second. Second. All in favor say I. I.

All right. We are now in executive session. We'll be back in a little bit. Uh and Patrick, if you want to hang up, we'll call you back. carrying.

discussion. All in favor say I. I. All right, we're good. We need a motion to close our meeting. I'll second. Second. All in favor say I. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.