Board of County Commissioners - Regular Meeting

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Bye. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

Thank you everybody for being here. This is the Tuesday, September 1st, 2020, 2026 meeting of the Camden County Board of Commissioners. We're going to begin opening ceremonies with an invocation by Commissioner Goodman, followed by the Pledge of Allegiance.

Gentlemen, remove your covers, please.

Let us stand as you're able.

Let us pray. Our Father and our God in heaven, we come to thee. humbling ourselves in prayer, asking for your guidance tonight. Father, there's sickness in this community, and we want to hold up one of your servants, Sidney, who is in Jacksonville, Sidney Howell, and his family. We don't question your will. We ask that you comfort them, be with them. We ask also that you be with your servant, our fellow Commissioner Martin Turner, as he performs ministerial duties. We ask for things to be done according to your will. Father, we ask always for your protection for those who serve us in uniform, both here and abroad. We pray for their safety, that they will go home at the end of their shift to their families. All of these things, Father, we ask in thy name. Amen.

I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America.

A roll call.

Commissioner Turner is absent.

Yeah, Commissioner Turner is not here. He's ministering to the Howell family, so he won't attend tonight. Moving on to the amendments to the agenda, I think we have one item to add under executive session to litigation. We have personnel and real estate already listed. We want to add litigation to that, so... I'll make a motion we adopt the agenda as amended to add litigation to the executive session.

Well, we have a motion. I have one more item I'd like to... I'm sorry?

I have one more amendment I'd like to make, but you have a motion. I'm sorry?

I have one more amendment I'd like to make, but you have a motion.

You want to amend the motion?

I want to amend the agenda.

We have a motion on the floor to adopt the agenda as amended.

Correct. There was one more amendment I'd like to make. You were a little quick on the draw. Nobody else could get a word out. I can't hear you. I'd like to remove item eight from the agenda. Commissioner Turner had some things he wanted to discuss with us, and since he can't be here, I wanted to possibly remove that. It's a consideration of bid award for janitorial services.

Okay, so you want to amend the motion to remove...

I wanted to amend the agenda, but you made a motion. You want to move the first reading of the Parks and Rec from the agenda? No, number eight, consideration of bid award for janitorial services contract.

Okay, I'll rescind my motion. I'll let you make the motion.

Well, I would just like to add the amendment to remove that off the agenda.

But you handled it in two separate actions.

Yeah.

Right? Two separate actions. So you made a motion to remove, correct, the parks? Yes. No.

No, no.

The motion on the floor is to add litigation to executive session. Executive session, yes. That's it. Second, Mr. Chairman.

So the second is? It's seconded now. Okay.

We have a motion and a second to add executive session to the litigation to the executive session. That is the motion, right? We have a motion and a second. All in favor? Aye. Finally got that one.

Now, let's move on to the next one.

Yes. I would move to amend the agenda to remove item number eight until Commissioner Turner could be with us to discuss that. He had some things he wanted to address.

Okay. So we have a motion to remove item number eight from the agenda. Second. We have a motion and a second. All in favor? Anybody opposed? Okay, now we've got that straight, let's move on. Move on to the approval of the minutes for the August 18th, 2026 regular meeting and executive session. Entertain a motion to approve.

Make a motion to approve the agenda items, the minute items as specified.

Second.

We have a motion and a second. All in favor? Motion carries. Okay, we have a couple of presentations before us tonight. First one is recognition of the month of September, Suicide Prevention Month.

Good evening, gentlemen. Tonight we're going to present a proclamation for the CUNY County Board of Commissioners to recognize the month of September 2026 as Suicide Prevention Awareness Month. And this is just an excerpt from the proclamation. Whereas September is recognized across the United States as National Suicide Prevention Awareness Month, a time dedicated to increasing awareness of the resources and support available to individuals in crisis and to highlighting the importance of mental health and emotional well-being. And whereas September 10th is nationally and internationally recognized as World Suicide Prevention Day, providing an important opportunity to educate our community about the warning signs of emotional distress and actions we can take to support those most at risk. And whereas the Camden Suicide Prevention Coalition serves as a leader in local efforts to promote awareness and prevention practices, representing a collaborative partnership of organizations, agencies, businesses, and residents united in a shared mission to foster hope, promote safety, and strengthen our community's ability to recognize and respond to signs of depression and suicide risk. And, whereas hope, help, and healing are possible, and crisis intervention resources are available in Camden County, including the Suicide and Crisis Lifeline at 988, offering free and confidential support 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. And now, therefore, it be proclaimed that the Camden County Board of Commissioners hereby declares the month of September 2026 as Suicide Prevention Awareness Month and Thursday, September 10, 2026, as Suicide Prevention Day throughout Camden County. And this is proclaimed the first day of September 2026. And we do have a couple of representatives from the Camden Suicide Prevention Coalition to receive the proclamation and to join you for a picture. The front row stays exactly where they are, and the back row takes one step this way. I appreciate you hearing me. And just as a special reminder with that, the Camden Suicide Prevention Coalition has been very active lately. Later this month on the 17th, there's going to be Voices of Hope. It's a forum on mental health and wellness. It's going to be at 6 p.m. at the Camden County High School Lecture Hall. And we're going to have panelists, including our own commissioners Turner and Smith. They're going to speak to participants. And we're also going to have representatives from local government, education, faith-based, military and veterans, and our mental health practitioners represented for that forum on the 17th. The coalition's also participating in more events in September. They're going to be at the Blues and Barbecue Festival and also the hospital's health fair. Recent events, they just recently had a screening, mental health screening, at the College of Coastal Georgia Camden Center. And in November, we're going to have the Walt to Remember. It's for international survivors of suicide loss day. So the coalition is very active with those items on your behalf. Well, in addition to the work meeting. Our second proclamation tonight is going to be recognizing the month of September 2026 as library card sign up month. And this is another excerpt from the proclamation. Whereas libraries inspire creativity, fuel imagination, and support lifelong learning for all Georgians, offering a space where individuals of all ages can explore new ideas and be drawn to new possibilities. And whereas libraries serve as vibrant community hubs connecting people with knowledge, technology, and resources while fostering civic engagement, critical thinking, and lifelong learning. And whereas libraries provide free book access, excuse me, free access to books, digital tools, and innovative programming ensuring that all individuals have the support they need to learn, connect and thrive. And whereas dedicated librarians and library workers foster welcoming spaces that encourage discovery, collaboration and creativity for all. And now, therefore, be it proclaimed that the Camden County Board of Commissioners declare September 2026 as library card sign up month. During this month, all residents are encouraged to visit their library, sign up or renew their card. explore its resources, and celebrate all the ways that the library brings us together as a community. Proclaim this first day of September of 2026. And we have some representatives from the library here, too. And as a reminder, we do have three libraries in Camden County, one in St. Mary's, one in Kingsland, the Camden County Library, and the one in Woodbine, who recently was very gracious to host one of our summer town hall meetings. So thank you.

Thanks, Claire. Mr. Coughlin.

You hear me okay now? Okay, sorry about that. Do I need the clicker or do I just need to ask you all to click? All right, can you all hear me now? Yes. Okay, great. Thanks for having me. I'm James Coughlin with the Camden County Joint Development Authority. I'm here as I do every quarter for our quarterly update just to let you know what the JDA has going on, give you the opportunity to ask questions. All right, so as a reminder, our purpose, our mission statement is to promote and stimulate economic development throughout Camden County. The JDA operates under the Georgia Development Authority's law. That governs everything we can be involved with for industrial and economic development authorities around the country, excuse me, around the state. So, you know, obviously we adhere to that pretty strictly. These are our FY27 strategic priorities. We follow the same fiscal year that the county does, started in July. The first priority is to redevelop the former Gilman property that we refer to as the North River property, to deliver the first phase of the Coastal Georgia Commerce Park. Move the mic closer. Got it. Thank you, Shannon. To deliver the first phase of the Coastal Georgia Commerce Park. to advance the Georgia-Florida Sports Park project and to continue with countywide support and collaboration. This is those same priorities that are shown in a different way. This is our strategic roadmap for the year. So again, the North River project, the redevelopment strategy there involves a broker-led process. I'll go into that in more detail in just a minute, and then selecting a master developer. With the Coastal Georgia Commerce Park, completing the Georgia DOT permits, going out to bid for the infrastructure, and hopefully moving toward a January groundbreaking. The Georgia-Florida Sports Park, we're finalizing that agreement and we'll move to the approval phase soon. And then continuing the county-wide collaborative support that we have with the cities and the county. All right, looking specifically at the former Gilman property, the North River property, just as a reminder in January 13th of this year, we took possession of the property after foreclosing on the former developer that was involved. Just last month, after a very lengthy RFP process, very thorough RFP process, we engaged CBRE to be our global developer. In late September or early October this year, they will release an RFP of their own to the global market. That draft is already underway. We've seen a couple renditions of what that document will look like. And the target is in December to bring in master developer candidates and hopefully begin that selection process. Lower down on that slide, the numbered sections there, I just want to make sure everybody is okay or understands that we're putting a portion of this property into a conservation easement. We've had a lot of concerned citizens reach out to us and reach out to the City of St. Mary's wanting to make sure that that wood stork rookery and the rookery that protects the roseate spoonbills is protected. Just as an aside there, for years we've referred to it as the wood stork rookery. It's actually the largest rookery or nesting area for roseate spoonbills in the state of Georgia. So I'm not sure why we all call it the Woodstork Rookery. But anyway, that will continue to be protected. We've had a conservation easement drawn up for that. and we're partnering with the Navy on that. As needed, if necessary, we will break off some of the parcels on the periphery of the property. We've had developers express interest in that. Our intent is to go to market with this as one contiguous parcel, but if necessary, we will sell off some of the periphery of the property. And then CBRE, of course, is going to market with that RFP, mainly focusing on the waterfront opportunity. and they're going to the global market on that. Notes down there at the bottom, I want to make sure everybody remembers the landfills that are associated with that former mill site remain the property of Jacobi Development. Those are not the property nor the responsibility of the JDA, the City of St. Mary's, or Camden County. CBRE, their success fee, which I think most of us would think of as a commission involved with this, is based on the value of the proposed development, and that is to be paid by the master developer. That's pretty standard with large developments like this and that development community is accustomed to that model. The Coastal Georgia Commerce Park. This is, in my mind, the biggest and probably most important thing that the JDA has done in my time here. The day I loaded up my truck to move down from Northwest Georgia down to Camden County and stopped in Atlanta to meet with the Department of Community Affairs and the Department of Economic Development, the first thing they told me is Camden doesn't have product. Camden doesn't have product, meaning that for large projects who are looking around the state of Georgia, Camden wasn't even on their radar. We just never had the product that was needed to qualify for some of those projects. That has continued to be the case, and this will be finally our opportunity to change that. So the path to groundbreaking on this, this month and next, we're finalizing the DOT approvals. This is for the improvements to be made on Highway 17 there at the intersection with Harriot's Bluff Road. There'll be deceleration lanes added, turn lanes added, and intersection added. rail crossing for the rail line that runs just west of there. And once those permits are completed, we'll go out to bid, hopefully in mid to late October, for the infrastructure construction for the road, the water, and the sewer package. The target would be to actually select a general contractor by December, and then to actually have a groundbreaking in January of 2027. uh... this property has been and is now what's called grad certified or georgia ready for accelerated development uh... and right now we're in the process of moving toward to the highest level of readiness designation by the state which is grad select that process is almost complete and i think some of the people in this room chief smith sheriff cheney uh... and and others who have been a part of that process they've all had to go on the record on their letterhead and sign and provide documents to the state indicating that they are the covering agency for this property. So there's no question later, when a big project wants to come, they don't have to ask, hey, do we have this? Do we have that? These have all been worked out. And that also includes local utilities, city of Kingsland, things like that. So all that's been documented ahead of time. So thank you for your help with that. All right, looking at the Georgia Florida Sports Park, moving this from agreement to execution. The development agreement has gone back and forth now between the developer, their attorney, the staff level, the City of Kingsland, and the JDA now for about a year. Actually, it was about 11 months now. That is now finally in what we consider to be, I'm using air quotes, final draft because we all know the attorneys are going to make some suggestions and some comments back and forth. THE NEXT STEP WOULD BE FOR US TO GET THOSE TO THE CITY ATTORNEY, JDA ATTORNEY, AND THE COUNTY ATTORNEY FOR CONSIDERATION, AND THEN HOPEFULLY BRING THOSE TO CITY COUNCIL, JDA BOARD, AND THE COUNTY. PHASE ONE OF THAT, THE PRIVATE INVESTMENT, IS THE FIRST HOTEL, THE ACCOMPANYING RESTAURANT. The RV park associated with that. And down in the southwest corner of the development, there's a single-family residential development. You might say, what does a single-family residential development have to do with a sports park? Truth is, it's just a convenient place for a single-family residential community, and it's in the TAD. It's in the tax allocation district. that helps to fund this for the City of Kingsland. So we consider it part of the overall development. On the public side, the water, sewer, and road improvements along May Creek Road, so just for everybody's reference, that's the road that runs beside Cracker Barrel and back there to where the Technical College is. So those water, sewer, road improvements, the first cluster of fields that are right there up against May Creek Road, and then the supporting infrastructure, the sidewalks, the lighting, the fencing, all of that. So that first phase of public investment will be SPLOST, SPLOST 9. Three million of that will be associated with the infrastructure, and seven million of that will be associated with the actual construction of the sports fields themselves. It'll be very important that this is a coordinated public-private launch, that these are ready to come out of the ground at the same time, so neither party gets ahead of the other.

You said 3 million was infrastructure for water and 7 million was for the fields?

Road water and sewer improvements along May Creek Road. Yes, sir. All right, our next strategic initiative, and this remains the same as last year and probably will remain the same next year, is supporting our local collaboration. We love what we've been doing with the quarterly collaborative meetings with representatives from all three cities. the county staff, the school system, Kings Bay Naval Base, and of course our staff to get together on a quarterly basis, review projects, review where infrastructure projects are close to each other, where we need to be aware of traffic concerns that might be caused by one project in St. Mary's or Kingsland or in the county. Make sure that everybody's working together and on the same page, to have the base CO there, to have the school represented, to make sure that they understand what we're doing, we understand what they're doing. So we'll continue to do that. Working with the county, St. Mary's, and Kingsland on several infrastructure projects, several public-private projects, we'll continue to do that as well. All right, one of the things I was asked to do is look back on the JDA and demonstrate or at least share a little bit about the return on investment in the time that I've been here. So I arrived in FY15, and the funding since then has totaled about $9.5 million, $9.47 million in that amount of time. Just looking back over the last five years, The increase in fair market value for the real property for projects we've been involved with has increased from $6.3 million to over $34 million in that five-year period. The assessed growth, so the actual tax value growth of that same real property that we've been involved with during that time has increased from $2.5 million to $14 million, or $13.9 million to be exact. And then if you include the machinery and equipment, which is the real and personal assessed growth in that same time period, the value of that property has increased from $8 million to $145 million. So significant growth. The bar graphs there demonstrate that as well, same calculations. I'll point out the two notes on the bottom. That total funding calculation there at the top where it says $9.47 million, That includes a deduction of $750 million. None of the current commissioners were on commission at that time, but the JDA was asked in FY15 to give back $750,000 of funding to help pay for the spaceport environmental assessment that was done at that time, and we did that. So that includes deducting that from back in FY15. Also, that return on investment does not include the secondary impact of companies and workers spending their dollars here in Camden County. So that's, you know, companies who hire local contractors to work on their site, workers who spend their money in local shops and restaurants, stay in our hotels, rent apartments, buy property, etc. So it doesn't include any of that. This is strictly the real estate impact. Also, I want to take just a minute, because I think sometimes I sound maybe not as appreciative as I should be about the Camden County Industrial Park. 30 years ago, the JDA took a bold step to create the Camden County Industrial Park. So in 1996, they did that. They purchased 164 acres for $625,000, or an average of $3,800 an acre. Now that did include some wetlands and things like that, but that was the value of it back in 1996. They divided that up into a lot of little pieces and marketed that. We've had a lot of success in just the last five or six years in selling that property to several different companies. Currently, The real property value just in that industrial park of the land and buildings alone is almost $7.5 million. And the total tax value, including the machinery and equipment, is over $107 million. A large part of that is plug power. Of course, they came to town on a tax abatement schedule. That's a normal incentive when you're competing with other communities. But this year, they'll be paying 60% of the tax assessment that that is due to them, which is still millions of dollars. SO ANYWAY, I WANT TO TAKE TIME TO RECOGNIZE THAT BECAUSE THAT WAS A BOLD MOVE, AND NOW WE'RE TAKING THE NEXT STEP WITH THE COASTAL GEORGIA COMMERCE PARK. DOWN THERE AT THE BOTTOM, THOSE ARE THE COMPANIES THAT ARE LOCATED IN THE CAMDEN COUNTY INDUSTRIAL PARK CURRENTLY. WE'VE GOT ONE MORE TO COME THAT I'M UNDER AN NDA WITH I CAN'T SHARE JUST YET. WE'VE GOT ANOTHER SMALL COMPANY THAT WILL BE MOVING IN THERE. I SAY SMALL. THEY'VE GOT ABOUT 40 EMPLOYEES, WHICH IS JUST GREAT. Anyway, so hopefully once that gets done, that'll represent the final piece of property in the Camden County Industrial Park.

Did you say Plug pays a million dollars in property tax?

So they're a development worth about $130 million total. So 40% of that times our millage rate. You can do that math. That's pretty significant.

Okay.

Commissioner Smith, I wanted to comment on your outfit tonight. I did not coordinate that with you or watch you leave the house, I promise.

Suicide prevention awareness. Oh, nice.

Okay.

Made you aware.

Any questions on any of that?

I had a couple. So the RFP going to market for the North River Gilman property. Right. Was there any kind of criteria? I know sometimes you see when bids go out, we have benchmarks we'd like people to incorporate in their proposals or...

Yeah, there was. So our criteria when we're looking for a master developer on that site is to fit the current zoning model that's there, work with the city. It's what we call a live-work-play model. It's a mixed-use model. It does allow for light industrial, so there is some place on the property. If you're familiar with the property coming in off the Finley Gate, there's the opportunity to incorporate some light industrial there. But we're asking developers to submit a proposal for that mixed use type model. We're also asking them to incorporate the marina as currently permitted or to redesign the marina, which would require a modified permit with DNR. But if you remember, we did achieve a marina permit there.

So in a perfect world, we're looking for like a Whole Foods with some condominiums on the top and a parking area? Yeah.

Did you say a Whole Foods? Yeah, some retail, some residential in the town center area. So the intersection of Meeting Street and Osborne there, that's what we refer to as the town center. Retail, residential in that area, hotel, condos, townhomes, that kind of thing. So that would be on the south end of the property and a little further north is an opportunity for some light industrial.

On the... Does anybody else have any other questions before I just keep going on? I don't want to be rude. On the Georgia-Florida Sports Park, for the $3 million versus $7 million, $3 million for utility improvements, $7 million going towards the construction of the fields, who will ultimately end up owning the fields?

Good question. So what's currently contemplated in the agreement, I know you haven't seen it yet, but it's the KDA. So the Kingsland Development Authority would be the owner of the fields. They need to be publicly owned. And rather than having the JDA own them and having to constantly coordinate with the city of Kingsland for maintenance, et cetera, they'll be owned by the KDA, but then contracted out for private management. Oh, so a private group would take care of organizing and scheduling tournaments, staffing, maintenance, insurance, all of that.

But the $10 million allocated was a countywide project, correct?

Right, that is correct.

Not a Kingsland project?

Well, I mean, yeah, that's right. The money will flow through the city of Kingsland.

Okay, ownership of fields. When is your next collaborative meeting? I know you said you do them quarterly.

We do them quarterly, September 17th, I think. I think, yeah, 17th, the day after my birthday. And I'm just going to throw this out there as a general rule. I don't mean to be rude. We don't invite elected officials. That's how I, I'm sorry. When I got the base CO, for example, to come or the superintendent, just to encourage open dialogue you know, for us to really, you know, share frustrations and that kind of thing, we don't ask invited, or we don't invite elected officials to come. We did have a couple meetings early on where some school board members came and then it clicked that, oh yeah, they're elected officials as well. So we had to tell them to stand down as well.

I'm highly offended.

I apologize. We'll set up a separate meeting for you.

Oh, thank you very much. Any other questions?

No, I just want to applaud the work you're doing as far as turning around the image of the JDA. Ben, I know since you've become chairman, we've seen some positive things, so thank you both.

Thank you. I appreciate it. Thanks, James.

Okay, moving forward, we're going to move into the first public comments section. This section is for any item on the agenda. Limit your comments to three minutes. State your name. Anybody sign up?

The first is Mr. Steve Gross.

Mr. Gross.

Good evening, everyone. I'm sad that Mr. Coughlin has left. I was hoping he would stay for this. I had a meeting with Mr. Coughlin and Mr. Turner and Mr. John Wojcik about three months ago, two and a half months ago. And that's the purpose of the presentation he gave tonight. That was spurred on by that meeting that we had. And I don't know if any of you noticed, but there are some glaring omissions to that financial statement that he made. The biggest one is that there's no mention of the financial costs of the Gilman property whatsoever in any of his. So that return on investment is just not true. It's not even close. I think you should... question him on that as soon as possible and see where is this coming from, because that's $10 million or more of taxpayer money. I wanted to ask him tonight, what is the monthly note for that property? There was also no mention of spaceport, and I can't help but notice that JDA always disavows spaceport, but JDA began spaceport. JDA got spaceport rolling and then passed that on to us, and there's a huge tax burden there. And I asked him to include that in the costs. And of course he did not plug industries, plug power. He spoke highly of them. My understanding is that their grants have run out and they may not be here in another year or so that they are on very shaky ground with the change of administration that we have. So I don't think they're in good shape. I don't think we're going to see the return on our tax break that we gave them. And I think the people of Camden County deserve better than just what they got tonight. I think the people of Camden County deserve a referendum, and I think they deserve a full accounting of what's going on in the last 15 years with our JDA. And I think if you look at it very carefully, you will find that they are not nearly as prosperous for us or creating the prosperity for us that they are claiming to be. I think it's time that we have a referendum on the direction that they go. I'm not sure that our county wants a bigger industrial park. I'm pretty sure they don't want the asphalt plant that the JDA is bringing in that's going to bring hundreds and hundreds of trucks to our roads during a I-95 construction project over the next few years. I'm not sure that the collaboration between The commissioners and the JDA is what we want to see happening the way it is, especially when I hear things like, well, you're not invited to this meeting. No one is invited to their meetings. In fact, I've gone to several of their meetings, and if I sit there for the 10 minutes at the beginning of the meeting, they have no question and answer period, and then they go into executive session. Can't get any information out of them. I've spoken with Mr. Turner at length, to find out what is the avenue for eliminating our JDA, which many other counties have done. And he said, I have to go through Mr. Sainz. I have repeatedly called and texted Mr. Sainz. I stopped in his office in St. Mary's and lo and behold, when I stopped in his office in St. Mary's, Mr. Yadev greets me purporting to represent Mr. Sainz. Mr. Yadev is a board member on the JDA. And purports in that office to represent Mr. Sainz. In fact, he promised me that he would get me a face-to-face with Mr. Sainz. I haven't heard back from him. So I think you have a little thing going on here that needs some serious attention to determine exactly what our JDA is doing for us and whether our people, not us, businesses not the businesses in our town but the constituents everyone in our town is looking for a larger industrial park more industry in this town or do we want to pursue a different Avenue in order to try and maintain our taxes at a lower rate because right now I think we're looking at a tax increase that's gonna hurt everyone substantially thank you for your time thank you anybody else mr. Steve Winkle

Thank you. Steve Winkle, Harriet Swoff. Looking over the agenda tonight, I would like to talk about 10 items. I can't get it done in the time that y'all are gonna tolerate me. I'd like to address, as my highest point, items four, five, six, seven. Four, five, six, and seven. I ran the numbers. And I'm just wondering, because in reading the boilerplate, the full package, which is not presented to the public, but is available online if you look for it, and it looks to me like the purchase of all that equipment is dependent on doing work on Kings Bay Naval Submarine Base and being paid by the Navy or some party, which isn't elaborated here, for the work which is only producing a profit to the county of 7.8%. And at that basis, the work that's outlined in your request tonight only requires 10 more projects to produce the income to provide the money that would be needed to buy the excavator, which appears to be the deal here, is that the profit from each of these transactions appears to be used to purchase the excavator. It's not clear in what's presented to the board or to the public. And so I think tonight we need to have a very, very detailed elaboration on how the purchase of the excavator and commitment to the excavator is going to be paid until those future projects come from the Navy. Because the projects that have been approved would have to total about $200 million at the current rate. I take that back, I'm sorry, $2 million at the current rates that they're earning in order to provide enough to buy that excavator. And we have never heard a public explanation of how the excavator was burned up a couple of months ago. Can't seem to get a square answer on that. We've heard a justification for what happened, but we haven't heard how we're going to prevent burning up the next machine there. We haven't heard what happened, who is responsible, what was responsible. If it was a lightning strike, we should know that. If it was caused by lack of maintenance, we need to know what maintenance is being done now to protect all of the equipment that the county owns. And so the fact of the matter is, there's a lot of open questions. JDA's got open questions. Public Works has open questions on several different projects. You'll hear about more tonight. from others and the fact is is that I think that y'all are not getting enough information to make good decisions anyway. All you're getting is biased information which furthers the direction that the departments want to proceed or are desperate to proceed to create their own value. What really irritates me is to see the item on the agenda tonight, number three. That has to do with the new official document for the Parks and Recreation managed by the county. It's been four years since I was promised in a public meeting by commissioners who were present at the meeting that we would have a swing set at Harrods Bluff Park. No swing set. They hung a couple of children, baby swings too high off the ground for kids to use by themselves on three foot long chains on a piece of existing equipment that was never designed for that. And that the kids can't manage themselves too high off the ground for them to reach. We don't even have swings and haven't had swings for the last five years. And here we are spending time documenting how y'all are going to control us in the parks. Instead of the taxpayer getting their money's worth after 20 years of failure by the county to manage its own parks. Got one more minute, okay? Thank you very much. Okay. The problem that we have is it's gotten worse at Harrods Bluff Park. We also don't have a tennis court or pickleball court because the net was damaged and the posts supporting the net were removed. They were cut off an inch and a half above ground level and now they pose a hazard because there's a four inch diameter hole with steel pipe sticking up an inch and a half above them exposed and kids are playing on that and there's plenty of evidence of that from footprints and bike tracks and everything that are on the tennis courts at Harrisburg Park which can't be used for tennis. And so there's all kinds of issues. The barbecue grill I mentioned here a year and a half ago, no barbecue grill. We have a county park without a barbecue grill or a swing set. It sounds to me like maybe people who want to do business here look and see how well we're treating the people who already live here first before they decide to move here or move their companies here. And I think that could very well be a problem that we're always hearing from department people. Thank you. Anybody else?

Ben Goff.

Ben Goff from here at the Fluff. And I want to state right up front that I miss Mr. Robert, Bob Bowers, and attended his celebration of life on Sunday afternoon. We're going to miss that. Man, from his stance on parks and ditches and so on and so forth. So this is not a permanent thing, but for when I'm speaking, I'm speaking in Mr. Bob Bower's house. Amazingly enough, the addition requested for the items to the county codes seems to have been constructed in a more timely manner than the moratorium on the data centers and other items, and at first read seems to be inclusive of pretty much everything needed. And I'm referring to the items for the parks to be added to the county codes. Prior to Mr. Joey Cason's arrival at the PSA, I believe there were deposits required, but no rental fee charged for pavilions. I believe it was instituted under his watch, and I disagreed with it then, and I still do. I dare say that anyone desiring to utilize one of the pavilions is a taxpayer to some degree, and some of those taxes go to support parks and pavilions. without an additional fee added. We're proposing $15 per hour or $150 per day for a pavilion and a deposit of $100 per day. I believe that both are excessive in light of it being public property, and I hope that five of you will consider this to be an unnecessary expense for a taxpayer. Thank you very much. Thank you, sir.

Anybody else?

Ms. Sessoms.

Ma'am, this is about Sweetwater. This is about Sweetwater.

I was going to call on the next public comment. But this is about the agenda.

It's okay. I didn't expect to be up here at this time anyway. I just saw what was going on. Shirley Sessom, St. Mary's, Georgia. The gentleman that spoke on the Georgia-Florida Sport Park and he spoke on the Gilman North River renovation. I think the last time I was here, I had asked you all, I don't know if he was here about, it was something about this was on the agenda then. And I asked had anyone did a, what impact of North River would this have on the current residents? There's about a 30 or maybe 50 people that currently live out there at North River, and Finley Street runs right straight down in the middle of the North River to the gates the way the park that he's talking. And nobody never did get back with me and ask me, what impact was this going to have on those residents? You know, I know the projects sound good and all of this and stuff like that, but you still, there's no one out there at Finley North River know anything about all this? So that needs to be considered, the impact you're having on the residents, okay, when you're making up these projects, that needs to be considered. And another thing about the Georgia-Florida Park I only have a couple of things on that. I wanted to know what impact does this have on the regular parks here in the county, in the county for this big park you're talking about making and about, you know, the It sounds good. It sounds good, but I just want to know the current park, the use of the current parks in the county. What impact this great big new developments going to have on the usage of these smaller parks that you're going to have around in the county? What's going to happen with them if you got this big developments coming? And that is about it. And I will say with the Georgia Park status, I don't see where Kingsland need any more hotels and restaurants. Okay. Thank you.

Thank you, ma'am. Anybody else? Before we move into the public hearing section, I'll make a motion that we take a five-minute break.

Second.

I have a motion and a second. All in favor? We'll be back in five.

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

I know it's a lot warmer in there, isn't it? Okay, moving on. Entertain a motion to adjourn the regular meeting and enter a public hearing.

So moved. Second.

We have a motion and a second. All in favor? Okay, now we're going to enter the public hearing phase. The first item is the first reading of the edition of Chapter 12, Parks and Recreation Facilities to the Official Code of Camden County. Does anybody in the audience wish to speak on this item? Seeing none.

GOOD EVENING, COMMISSIONERS. SO I'M IN FRONT OF YOU TONIGHT TO PRESENT THE FIRST READING FOR THE ADDITION OF CHAPTER 12, PARKS AND RECREATION FACILITIES TO THE OFFICIAL CODE OF CAMDEN COUNTY, GEORGIA. WE ARE CONSIDERING, YOU KNOW, WE WOULD OFFER TO CONSIDER TO WAVE THE FIRST READING OF THE ENTIRE DOCUMENT. THERE ARE NO, JUST A HISTORY, THERE ARE NO CURRENTLY There are not currently any ordinances in the county's official code pertaining to county-owned parks and recreational facilities. Through years and years through the PSA, we've relied on the PSA to hold those rules and regulations in the parks. When we took over the parks on January 1st, we found a hole, right? We needed to fill that void with having rules and regulations for our county parks. So this ordinance establishes rules for the use, operation, and management of parks historic sites, and recreational areas managed by the Camden County Board of Commissioners. The establishment of a park use ordinance for county-owned parks and recreational facilities will ensure the protection of public health and safety while also ensuring the stewardship of county assets and operations. This ordinance also establishes rules and regulations for park pavilion rentals, special event permits, and concessionaire authorization permits. So your options are to TO WAVE THE FIRST READING OF AN ADDITION OF CHAPTER 12. YOU CAN OBVIOUSLY HAVE ME READ THE ENTIRE THING. YOU CAN DENY THE ITEM OR TABLE THE ITEM. AND OUR RECOMMENDATION IS TO GO AHEAD AND WAVE THE FIRST READING. THANK YOU.

I BET THAT WOULD BE YOUR RECOMMENDATION. I MOVE TO HAVE HIM READ THE WHOLE THING. OKAY. LINE BY LINE.

WELL, WE'RE IN A PUBLIC HEARING RIGHT NOW. THAT'LL BE IN A FEW MINUTES.

Anybody else? Moving on? Cassie. Thank you.

Good evening, Commissioners. Can you hear me all right? So, at first, we have a request to rezone approximately I'm sorry, we have a rezone request to... Let me start over. The applicant is requesting to rezone approximately two acres from agricultural forestry to agricultural residential. The applicant is requesting the rezoning in order to subdivide two acres from a 9.7 acre tract. The minimum acreage for AF is three acres and AR is two acres. This is the parcel highlighted in blue here. Here it is without the zoning. And here is what the track will look like once it's subdivided. You can see in red there is the two acre track that we are rezoning and subdividing. And the remaining acreage will be 7.78 acres. Planning Commission does recommend approval on this item.

Okay, does anybody in the audience want to speak for this item? Does anybody want to speak against the item? Seeing none, we'll move on to the next guessing.

Up next, we have a special use request to amend the conditions placed on this parcel during rezoning by the Board of Commissioners on September 3rd, 2024. The Board of Commissioners approved to rezone the parcel with the condition that a 20-foot wide undisturbed natural buffer followed by a 10-foot high solid wood fence be installed between parcels 073A, 034, and 073A, 043A. The project's request is to reduce the 20 foot wide buffer by three foot, making the buffer 17 foot in order to avoid disturbing a large tree and to amend the type of material for the fencing from solid wood to a 29 gauge aggregated metal panel with a faux wood finish. Here's the parcel currently zoned commercial general. Here it is without the zoning. This is the approximate location of the tree they are trying to save. This is just a spec of the type of metal that they are requesting, the 29 gauge AG metal panel. And this is what it will look like once it's completed. So the Planning Commission has recommended approval with the condition that the three foot setback reduction only be for the location of the tree they are trying to save and that the fence material must remain as solid wood.

Thank you. Anybody who wish to speak for this item?

Yes, sure.

Junior, come up to the podium there. Just give your name and your address. Your name and your address?

Name's Lowell Boyd. They call me Junior Boyd. The address is 235 Greenwich Place, Waverly, Georgia, 31565. We proposed to use the metal fence. I didn't know they were looking for a sound decimal. I didn't come with much ammunition for it because a sound decimal on metal's point... zero three sound decimal for half inch board for a privacy fence is 0.33. So you get a little more sound decimal. You're talking fractions of thousands out of the solid wood versus the metal, but the wood will be warped and deteriorated in three years and laying on the ground. The metal will be there the next 20 years. You got steel posts versus wooden posts set in concrete. And the metal withstand winds up to 120 mile an hour. Wood will not. That's why we asked for the variance to put metal up instead of wood. And we tried to pick out a good metal. It's not cheap. It's gonna run probably between 10 and $12,000 more to put up a metal fence versus the wood. But the wood is a maintenance nightmare. And we didn't want that. And it don't look that good in two years. So that's the only argument I got for it. I don't have no ammunition for sound. What we produce over here, what we manufacture or produce or whatever you want to call it, it's not noisy. I mean, there's no noise. Our radio's probably louder than our material.

Thanks, Junior.

Chairman, I do have a comment to read for someone in the audience as well.

Yes, this is a pro.

Yes.

Yes, ma'am.

So this is Ms. Mimsy Walensky. She is here in the audience tonight, and I'm going to be reading her comment. My husband and I own 252 Horse Stamp Church Road. We wish to show our support of what the planning and zoning... COMMISSION DECIDED FOR AMENDING THE SPECIAL USE, ALLOWING THE EXTRA SPACE TO SAVE THE LARGE TREE AND KEEPING THE FENCE WOOD TO HELP ABSORB THE SOUND FROM THE WORK IN THEIR SHOPS, PROTECTING THE PEACE OF OUR TENANTS AS WELL AS OUR PROPERTY. MY HUSBAND IS UNABLE TO ATTEND BECAUSE OF WORK AND DUE TO A BRAIN INJURY, I HAVE A HARD TIME SPEAKING. PLEASE CONSIDER OUR COMMENTS FOR YOUR DECISION.

THANK YOU. ANYBODY WHO WISHES TO SPEAK AGAINST THE ITEM? So Cassie, what's the issue with the Planning Commission more of these go with wood rather than the metal?

There was a question as to whether or not wood or whether or not metal would absorb as much sound as wood. So they ultimately decided that it should remain as solid wood since they didn't have a test one way or another.

Okay. Any other questions?

Can we ask questions? Yes, sir. You said when discussing this particular item that the board had previously approved it with those conditions originally, the 20-foot buffer and the solid wood fence.

Yes.

What was the reasoning behind those being the conditions then? I mean, not necessarily the setback, but the wood fence. It's a noise issue, right?

So they're going to be doing manufacturing. So it was to block. There's a residential property. So right there, the property lined in blue, the one right next to it, there's a home there. So that's to protect that house is why they placed the conditions on there.

That's 252, right?

Yes, 252 Horse Stamp Church Road.

Okay, and that's the homeowner, that's the people that live where you just read the comment from, correct? Yes. And they would prefer to keep it solid wood versus metal?

Okay.

Those are the only questions I had, thank you.

Anybody else?

If I could just ask for, what's being fabricated there?

metal buildings. They're going to be just putting them together.

Okay.

There's no, you'd be putting the buildings together, there's no sawing, I mean, other than the general day-to-day stuff. Yeah. Right.

Okay. Yeah. Okay. All right. Anything else? Okay.

Okay, seeing nothing else, make a motion to adjourn the public hearing and reconvene the regular meeting.

Second, Mr. Chairman.

I have a motion and a second. All in favor? Now moving to the regular meeting, Cassie.

We have a request to rezone approximately two acres from a 9.7 acre track located at 6522 Bailey Mill Road. The rezone is going to be from agricultural forestry to agricultural residential, and Planning Commission recommends approval.

Okay. Having heard, entertain a motion.

Mr. Chairman, I'll move to approve. The zoning map amendment for RZN 260007. I'll second.

We have a motion and a second for approval. All in favor? Motion carries. Next item.

Next up, we have a special use request to amend the conditions placed on this parcel during rezoning by the Board of Commissioners. The request is to reduce the 20-foot wide buffer by three feet, making the buffer 17 feet, and to amend the type of material for fencing from solid wood to a 29-gauge aggregated metal panel with a faux wood finish. Planning Commission recommends approval with the condition that the three-foot setback reduction only be for the location of the tree they are trying to save and the fence material must remain solid wood.

Okay, I'll make a motion that we approve the three-foot setback reduction to save the tree, but I'd also like to have in the motion that we allow the use of the metal fencing rather than the wood.

I'll second that.

We have a motion and a second. All in favor? All opposed?

Thank you.

Thank you, ma'am. Moving on to item three.

All right, gentlemen, I'm back again. Again, for the first reading of the edition of Chapter 12, Parks and Rec Facilities, the official code of Camden County, Georgia. Again, there are currently no ordinances in the county official code pertaining to county-owned parks and rec facilities. And this will establish the use, operation, and management of the parks and recreational areas managed by the county. And this will also help ensure the protection of public health and safety while also ensuring the stewardship of county assets and operations.

Mr. Chairman, I move to waive the first reading of this ordinance, but I would like Jared to answer some questions regarding the ordinance.

Okay, we have a motion to waive the first reading and I'll second. Open for discussion.

I guess I'll just ask my questions now. So has our legal counsel had a chance to review the ordinance?

Yes.

Is that better, Jim? Thank you. Okay, so I had some questions about some of the verbiage here. So on the first page under authorized representative, it says Cannon County Sheriff Department. Legally, the sheriff's office is a constitutional office, so I want to make sure we correct that from department to office. Okay. Okay. Um, it says that those authorized representatives will be assigned in writing. Um, and I was just wondering where we're going to be keeping a list of authorized representatives. So like if I'm at a park enjoying myself and someone approaches me and says that they are, I'm with the County and you got to leave. How can I verify that they're an authorized representative? Where are those going to be kept in writing at?

I would assume that at this time, I don't have that. I would assume that the administration is going to keep a running role of what departments have that ability to enforce these ordinances.

I would take that as something similar to the way we swear in an animal control officer. I would think that that would be a similar program or code enforcement that these people have authority to address that. If that's addressing your concerns, who has authority within the county?

So the sheriff's office will need separate written authorization to be an authorized representative?

No, no, no, no, no, no. Authorized means the sheriff's office, a member of public works, or if we designate another, let's say we allowed code enforcement to To do something within there that they would be listed as an authorized person.

Okay But the code enforcement already would be because they already are sworn in right so so that that's where that is So the main the main group is obviously the custodial of the day-to-day is on the park is Public Works We're gonna use the County Sheriff as assistance to enforce any rules anybody that's you know, not abiding by our ordinances And then any other administration as needed, you know, that's designated as that role.

Okay. So under section... On the very top of the third page, that section B there, it shall be unlawful for any person. That's that item there. It says any person violating this subsection shall be punished by a fine up to 500 or imprisoned up to 30 days or both. My question, is this a jailable offense? Yes. So, like, an authorized representative says you have to leave and you don't, and they're subject to these things. If it's arrestable, I guess it would have to have a bond or else someone's sitting in jail. That's the challenge we have right now with law enforcement trying to enforce our ordinances is someone would be sitting in jail until it's heard in court.

That's a separate issue, Commissioner. As far as a bond, depending on the nature of the offense, is either heard by the magistrate court who does first appearance hearings or given a certain level of offense is heard by the superior court to set bonds. These kinds of offenses either many times may have a schedule that allows somebody to bond out. quite quickly, like the way probate court does with some of the county offenses, or if they're going before the magistrate, has a bond set. Now, as far as somebody getting out at that point, that's, you know, there's issues with, you know, bonding agencies, but getting in front of a judge for this level of offense is different than something that a superior court judge may be handling. Okay, so people are... And then also is determinative of the district attorney's office, and that's a different issue.

So people aren't going to be held in jail... for violating a park rule.

No, and the punishment particularly with this is at a sentencing stage. That's what that's really referencing.

Okay.

Also, if you look at that as any prohibited area, that's like if somebody got out there in the middle of a baseball field with a four-wheel drive truck and they tore the field up.

Right. Well, I'm also thinking about Howard People's Park. People, you know, we have all that. It's kind of blocked off, but people set up in the back behind the ball fields over by the Frisbee golf.

I just don't want people to be trying to enjoy the park harmlessly, and then all of a sudden they're... Well, and there's a different... And I think that that might be getting a little bit into the weeds here, because I think that it's ultimately determinative of a court if there was to be an offense issued. And that's also up to law enforcement as to what is being enforced and how it's being enforced.

Okay. One, two, three, four. So on the fifth page, hours of public access to parks, historic sites, and recreational area. It says county parks, historic sites, recreational areas will be open for use of the public between sunrise and sunset or at times designated by county supervised activity. My question is what constitutes a county supervised activity? I know we have at Howard People's Park, for example. I'm glad you asked one. People playing pickleball into the night.

So one of them would be, that would be one. Another one would be we have a portion of the county that is looking to do a special event like themed event at Sugar Mill and it's at dusk. They're gonna have a candle lit. They're gonna have people in person, actors that are portraying people of that era that you will be able to basically go through that park and have an experience of the Sugar Mill ruins. So that would be an example of a county hosted event that is going to occur after sunset. So it'd be things like that. It'd be at the county's discretion if we're authorizing things to continue after sunset in the parks. Obviously, if it's a basketball court that's lighted, a pickleball court that's lighted, those are designated to be used. What we don't want is, say, a park like Harriet's Bluff Park that isn't lit up. We don't need to have people that are just... doing activities in that park that isn't lit become more of a liability issue of them being injured on something. They can't see what they're doing because it's a dim park. Those of that nature.

I'm not trying to target Pickleball in particular, but I just think that's the most prevalent example I can think of. Will those be extended hours that are set, or is it just... when people are done playing pickleball? Because the lights kind of stay on all day.

The lights stay on to a point. So that's something that we're going to move towards as a community and a county. We're going to have more and more lighted. The goal is to have more and more lighted facilities. And then at that point, we'll then determine, okay, DO THE TIMERS GO OFF AUTOMATICALLY AT 10? AND THAT'S THE TIME THAT THE HOOK IS PULLED, RIGHT? AND EVERYONE NEEDS TO LEAVE THE PARK. WE'LL GO THROUGH THAT AS WE UPDATE AND ADD TO THESE PARKS THESE AMENITIES.

OKAY. PUBLIC WORKS DEPARTMENT SHALL FORMULATE RULES AND REGULATIONS COVERING these particular activities mentioned here on the next page. It says rules and regulations shall not become effective until approved by the board. My question is, are those going to be published and maintained somewhere? I want to make sure people that are enjoying a county park are aware of the rules that they're going to be subject to or could be questioned on by a county representative. So I guess are all the rules we're going to hold people accountable to, will those be posted at the park?

They would likely be accessible, so I don't think we're going to post a whole copy of this ordinance. But notice to be able to obtain or say, if you want to rent this facility, go to blah, might be a way to address that.

And we'll have general signage that might say, you know, no pets, unleashed pets beyond this point, no vehicles beyond this point. Those will all be referencing these code and ordinances.

Okay.

Right now we could put that sign out, but we have no ordinance to enforce it. That's what we're trying to establish here. And just for text, IN JUST CONTEXT. I WENT AND TOOK THE ORDINANCES THAT ARE IN MANY SURROUNDING COMMUNITIES, BOTH IN GEORGIA AND FLORIDA, IN OUR NEIGHBORING COMMUNITIES, AND PULLED FROM THEIR ESTABLISHED ORDINANCES. DON'T NEED TO REINVENT THE WHEEL ON COMMUNITIES THAT HAVE ALREADY GONE DOWN THIS PATH, RIGHT? AND THEN TAILORED IT TO US. SO THIS IS KIND OF A CONGLAMERATE OF WHAT'S ALREADY BEING SEEN AROUND OUR NEIGHBORING COMMUNITIES IN THEIR OWN PARKS.

I think my, two more questions. So, cleanup event organizer qualifications and timelines. It has the provision here about getting a certificate of insurance up to a million dollars. My question is, I know in the future we're planning on developing some sort of adopt-a-park program where we could have organized cleanups. Would those groups also be required to obtain a certificate of insurance, or is this for hosting?

No, this would be hosting a festival. This would be like an open-air invitation. to, let's say, Cornelia Jackson Park to have a big festival like we had this year that just happened at that park alongside the Crawfish Festival. Well, there was no policing that event. That event was unsanctioned by the county, we'll say. It was just hosted by people that put up on a Facebook account that, hey, anybody that wants to come here can do this, that, and the other. At the end of the day, the park, it took us two days to recover that park. There was nobody then to go back to and say, your event caused this damage, the county needs funding to recover that. So that portion of this ordinance is establishing those rules that we can try to regulate and try to protect ourselves and the parks in the liability of having these big open air events.

So large organized events, not necessarily an impromptu family reunion.

An impromptu family reunion, as long as they're not over, like we have each item or each pavilion has a set occupancy that is deemed a normal event. Might be 50, might be 75 people. Now, if you're talking over 100 people, now we go into more of a special event. Or if it's a church that might have, say, an open invitation that's just out there, they need to go through the special event. Because we just need to refine more their obligations to the rental of that pavilion. That if they're inviting anybody off the street to come to the event, they are responsible of what that person might make. Yes. Whatever that person may do at that event. Right. Um, so we just got to make sure that we do have that, that organization that is going to be responsible at the end of the day.

And the last question are probably more of a cleanup on the second to last page under public safety personnel fees. It just says if the department determines, I imagine that's your department, but I think we might want to specify.

It's going to be a joint between my department and the sheriff's. Because anytime we're going to have a large event, then I'm going to run it by the sheriff's office on whether or not they feel that the event needs to be staffed by a public safety officer.

Okay, so again, I think we should be specific. If the public works department or sheriff's office determines, being intentional about being specific about who's responsible.

Okay.

Thank you.

Okay, we have a motion on the floor to waive the first reading. I have a motion and a second. Any board discussion? All in favor?

Well, I got one thing. Hours of public access to parks and a historic site and recreation area, that doesn't include boat ramps, does it? No. Because boat ramps are 24-7.

Again, yes. And again, most of our boat ramps are, well, yeah, most of them are lit up.

Yeah. That's all.

Anything else? All in favor? Motion carries. Thank you. Item number four, Jared.

Give me a second. I've got too many papers here. All right. In front of you tonight is item agenda four, or agenda item four, five, and six. We'll all have to do with projects that we're currently co-opping on the base, the naval base with. So the first one is a new generator for their communication towers on the base. It's for the approval of purchase and installation. The revenue on that, so the final check we'll get from the Department of Defense will be $47,811.50. The true expense of the project is $43,465. So that brings in a profit to the county of $4,346.50. And yes, we will hold them to the 50 cents. So we're just looking for a considerate approval to purchase installation of the new generator for the comms tower on the naval base. As you guys know, we've gone into an IGSA with the Navy this year to help support infrastructure maintenance projects and to help bring funding to the unincorporated side for capital improvements for public works. Quotes received were two local electrical contractors that are cleared and certified to perform the installation on the naval base. Quotes include removal of existing unit, purchase and delivery of the new generator, installation and startup. The estimated delivery is 18 weeks from approval. So I will generate a purchase order for this. They will order the unit. We will be invoicing the base for that unit, and we will receive the money from the base for the unit itself before the unit is delivered. So we won't be out there with the money paying on this unit for months on end before we get payment from the DOD. The lowest received quote is for a Generac SD030 from Satilla Air and Electric Contractors out of Kingsland. And the IGSA includes a fee schedule to cover any other additional expenses. And the motion to approve this purchase and installation is recommended by staff. And just for clarification, I am the only one that's doing any work on the base for this project. And it's more in a contractor or a general foreman for the project. We're vetting the project through, got quotes solicited from different vendors, quotes. I met them on site. You know, ballpark on the end of this project, if I have 25 hours on base invested in this, we're not putting any other additional manpower into it, and the county's going to bring in, you know, $4,300.

Mr. Chairman, I move to approve the purchase and installation of a generator for the communications tower on Naval Summer in Base Kings Bay. Second. Second.

We have a motion and a second. Any discussion? All in favor? Motion carries.

All right. So items number five and six coincide. One is the awarding HVAC installation contract for an installation of a cooling unit, and number six is the purchase of the cooling unit outright. So number five is the award of HVAC installation contract for the Child Development Center on the Naval Submarine Base Kings Bay. Quotes received from two local commercial heating and cooling contractors to install a new Evapco cooling tower unit at the CDC. Quotes include the removal and disposal of the existing unit, installation of the new unit, and start-up. The lowest quote received is from Comfort Systems USA Incorporated, and they are utilizing an Omnia Partners cooperative purchasing contract. So we're already getting competitive pricing on their labor and their installation. Motion is the department recommends to approve the installation contract for Comfort Systems USA for the cooling tower. Real quick again. $35,750 is our revenue. $32,500 is our expenses. So we're looking at bringing in $3,250 for this process.

Okay. Do we have a motion?

Mr. Chairman, I move to approve the award of an HVAC installation contract for the Child Development Center on Naval Summer Inn Base Kings Bay.

I'll second. Have a motion and a second. Any discussion?

I wanted to ask, so you said about $4,000 worth of profit on the previous, and then this one's about $3,000 worth of profit. It was stated earlier during public comment that you would need to perform about $2 million worth of projects to be able to afford the excavator that we have down here on item seven.

That is correct.

So my question is about how many millions of dollars or dollars worth of projects do you have currently on the books with the...

So these projects seem minute. They're really big, important projects on the base. These are projects that are being funded mostly at the end of their fiscal year. The end of their fiscal year ends September 30th. So these are projects that they have gotten funding last minute that's been said, all right, here's this funding. You know, if you have something, you can utilize it. So these are items that have been on their waiting list for for just this thing. So a lot of these, they actually came to me with like the generator already with two quotes, did most of the legwork. And they just, they know by utilizing us and our purchasing policy and the program that we have, we can get it done and get them under contract before the end of the fiscal year. Otherwise the money would have just been lost and given back. LOST THAT OPPORTUNITY TO IMPROVE SOMETHING ON THE BASE BEFORE SEPTEMBER 30TH IF THEY WENT THROUGH THEIR NORMAL PROTOCOL THROUGH THEIR OWN SYSTEMS. SO THIS IS JUST A, THIS IS ACTUALLY A BIG PERK FOR THEM BECAUSE THEY'RE ABLE TO GET PROJECTS DONE ON BASE THAT WOULD PROBABLY HAVE JUST GONE TO THE WAYSIDE. AND IN THE END, WE'RE BASICALLY ON AVERAGE ON ALL THESE PROJECTS, WE GET 10% RIGHT OFF THE TOP. SO WHATEVER THE PROJECT, YOU KNOW, COMES IN AT, WE'RE GETTING 10% ON TOP OF THAT. THAT 10% IS COMING BACK TO THE COUNTY.

So we're on track to make the $200,000 you need for the excavator coming up.

So over the last three years, this will be our third year with doing IGSA. We've always done $2 million work in just road alone and road improvements. That's already being scheduled and already in the books. On top of that $2 million, they already have well over $9 million associated in projects that we are going to be working on and doing third-party work on. be it roofing, heating and cooling, railroad track crossing repairs, specialty equipment down on the waterfront base, repairs on the underground steam line. Again, these are all projects that we are going to be the middleman, the project manager on, and that we aren't going to be doing any major work on the property ourselves. It's all going to be third-party subcontractors.

And you're not doing that just because you like extra work. You're doing that because we signed an intergovernmental service agreement to provide that to the base.

And I stepped up in May when we talked about the budget, and I said that we weren't going to utilize any capital funds out of the unincorporated fund for public works this year, that we were going to go earn it on the base. And this is us doing that.

Absolutely. So thank you.

No problem.

We have a motion and a second. Any further discussion? All in favor? Motion carries.

Item number six goes along with five, so it's the approval to purchase that Evapco cooling tower unit for the child development center on the base. We're buying this unit directly from the manufacturer. We looked at two different units that could fit on the existing footprint and configuration in the building. There was two models. One was an Evapco unit. One was a RECOLD UNIT. THE EVAPCO UNIT CAME IN UNDER, WAY UNDER PRICE COMPARED TO THE OTHER UNIT, AND THAT'S THE UNIT THAT THE BASE WANTED TO GO WITH. SO THAT'S WHAT WE'RE LOOKING AT. WE GOT QUOTES FROM THE TWO MANUFACTURERS. THEY INCLUDE PURCHASE AND DELIVERY OF THE UNIT DIRECTLY FROM THE MANUFACTURER, AND THEN INSTALLATION WILL BE PERFORMED BY THE PREVIOUS AGENDA ITEM THAT WAS JUST APPROVED. LOWELL'S QUOTE WAS ON THAT EVAPCO UNIT, AND WE'RE LOOKING TO APPROVE THE PURCHASE OF THIS UNIT DIRECTLY FROM heat transfer systems of Georgia, which, again, not only are we buying the unit direct, but on both sides, both the county and the federal government are saving on the 7% tax that we would have normally paid by going through the contractor and buying that unit outright.

I entertain a motion.

Mr. Chairman, I move to purchase the VAPCO cooling tower unit for the Child Development Center on Naval Submarine Base Kings Bay. Second.

We have a motion and a second. Any discussion? All in favor? Motion carries.

Item seven. All right, so lastly is, like we talked about, is what we're trying to bring into the county, right? We're trying to use these opportunities of making and bringing in some funds from the naval base to bring in real equipment for public works. So we're looking for approval of the rental and purchase agreement of the Link Belt 350 X4 excavator package. The actual end up price would be $196,250. It's going to come out of all revenues from the naval base. Our current John Deere 200 excavator was purchased in 2007 and is scheduled to be replaced in fiscal year 2029. at an estimated cost of $375,000. Public Works has had at least two function, we require at least two functional excavators to dig and repair roads, load materials into dump trucks, and perform other tasks for the county, especially in emergency situations. We currently own two excavators. We own a 2007 John Deere 200 series and a 2018 John Deere 300 series. The John Deere 200 excavator has had multiple breakdowns totaling over $45,000 over the past year and it's just no longer effective as a frontline excavator for our tasks. So what we're looking to do is we're looking to buy this excavator early, utilize the 200 and get the last few years out of it but try to prolong the use of that on our own property, stop moving it across the county, stop that wear and tear and get some more longevity out of the equipment before we need to retire it. Funding for the public works equipment is approved in our budget through the revenues on the naval base. This specific unit is a 2025 link belt excavator. It's a former long-term rental unit with 2,700 hours of use and is actually in great working order. Excavator package includes a hydraulic thumb, a 60-inch bucket, and the remaining of a five-year, 5,000-hour warranty unit. THAT EXPIRES OF JANUARY 30TH OF 2030. SO WE'RE TAKING OVER THE WARRANTY THAT IS EXISTING ON THE UNIT. A NEW UNIT WITH THE SAME SPECS CURRENTLY RETAILS AT $356,000. AND ADDITIONAL QUOTES WERE RECEIVED FOR SIMILAR UNITS IN THE MARKET. AND WHAT WE'RE GOING TO DO IS WE'RE GOING TO RENT THIS UNIT AT A RATE OF $8,750 PER MONTH THROUGH 2026. AND WE'LL PURCHASE THE UNIT OUTRIGHT IN JANUARY 2027. Most of the rental fee will be applied to the final cost of the unit. So this tax schedule shows that in the next four months, essentially, we're going to pay $4,000 in interest, which is essentially paying their note that they have on the unit themselves. This gives us the opportunity to bring in all of the work and the funding from the projects that we're currently working on the base to cover the purchase of this unit. So it gives us that opportunity for the next three to four months to bring that money back into the county coffers from the base.

Entertain a motion. Mr. Chairman, I move we approve this item.

Second. I have a motion and a second. Discussion? All in favor? Motion carries.

Thank you, gentlemen.

We took item number eight off the agenda. Now we're going to item number nine, which is the drought study.

Good evening, Commissioners. This agenda item is for your consideration to approve the contract with Linker for the drought study for Camden County. Camden County Board of Commissioners approved a grant award on June 16, 2026 for this. Purchasing issued an RFP and received two responses. Of the two, Linker was the most responsive and responsible proposer that met all requirements. Staff recommends approval to award the contract to Linker.

Entertain a motion? I'll make a motion to approve.

I'll second.

Did we have a second? We have a motion and a second. Discussion?

You said we've already approved the acceptance of the grant. How much was the grant for?

I know it was about $80,000.

So it's more than the $79,000?

Correct.

Cool. Thank you.

You're welcome. This is within budget, so we won't have any funds.

Thank you, ma'am.

You're welcome.

Motion and a second. All in favor?

Thank you.

Moving on to item number 10. It's the lease agreement for the Department of Juvenile Justice. This is just a standard thing we do. Not much explanation necessary. I make a motion we approve the lease agreement with the Department of Juvenile Justice.

Second.

I have a motion and a second.

Any discussion?

All in favor? Motion carries. Moving on to the calendar.

There's no changes at this time.

County Administrator's not here. Shannon, do you have any comment?

I do. Good afternoon. This is just a reminder that County Administrator Iacobacci is away at his CPM certification courses, so he's not here, but we do want to remind you about our last town hall, which is next week on Thursday, September the 10th. It'll be held in Kingsland at 135 Grove Boulevard. I mean, I'm sorry, Gross Road. I don't know where Grove came from. Sorry, Gross Road at 6 p.m. It's at the Resiliency Center, and we would love to have as many of you come as you can. So that's all I have.

Thank you, ma'am.

Okay, move on to the additional public comments section. This is the comments from anything.

Yes, I do have two people registered. I'm sorry? I have two registered. Okay. The first is Ms. Shirley Sessoms.

Shirley Sessom, St. Mary's, Georgia. This is Mike Wilson. We are the board, Mike Wilson and I, all the board members for Swarbrick are not here tonight. We've been going through quite a bit of death and hitting our families here in the last few days. But we are here in reference to requirement that we had to meet in order to fall under the county for its recreation that's concerned. We met with Attorney Fontanier on March the 29th of this year, and she was recommending there were certain things that we had to meet in order for you all to really to even consider. And one of the main things that we had to do was get a lease agreement. There was no lease that she had anything to use to even consider us coming up underneath the county for recreation. And we did... I brought the... the deeds for her to go over and so you all can consider having the Sweetwater Branch Recreational Park fall under the county. As you know, we had already did presentations to you all before and we didn't feel like that, you know, you didn't want to go through all of that again. And here's the deeds that we had to get straightened out for the ownership of the park. And we are asking you all to consider and vote on this for the next meeting maybe. We know it's not going to happen today. But this is such an important part. for the Sweetwater Branch Park. Currently we are paying for the lights there and the water and we have had so many requirements for that park and I can't believe that I didn't even know on the PSA that that park was utilized as much as it is trying to be utilized now. In the last month I've had about twelve people call trying to book that park and within this last month and if every week every weekend every weekend someone want to book that park so please consider this this is um... be beneficial for everybody in the county as you all know Sweetwater Ranch is like a historical park it was given back to us back to the blacks back in nineteen fifty nine the board members back and then we was all ladies, but as time has passed by that park has been a very very important part to many of You all in the county many of some of you all paid played ball out there football and baseball so Please consider Taking this park and we will create a lease with you all after then, and the booking and how everything is going to be handled. So please consider bringing Sweetwater Branch underneath the county recreational parks, okay? Do you have anything you want to say, Mike? That's it. Thank you.

Thank you.

Mr. Allen Geis, I apologize if I mispronounce your name.

You're the first one ever. So it's unusual because I'm not here to yell at anybody or to challenge you or anything, but I'm here for citizens and for the staff and of course you commissioners. My name's Alan Giese, but the purpose that I'm here for is for the Earth Keepers Alliance. You might have heard of them. They're a small non-profit group and that we want to protect this little slice of paradise and one of the ways to do that is reducing what actually goes into our landfill. So a few years ago we created this little booklet and And it's how to do recycling and proper disposal in Camden County, just Camden County. But it highlighted the fact that we have a lot of items that there's no place to properly dispose of them here in the county. So our small group is also sponsored tours. Some of your staff have went to the recycling center down in Jacksonville, Republic Services. Anything that's recycled in the county from a curbside actually goes to the recycling center in Jacksonville. We also sponsor a collection of electronics so that we have a semi-annual collection of electronics. We call that e-scrap where we collect those things so they don't go in the landfill. So I want to ask you today, I'm speaking about hazardous waste collection. What do you do? What do each of you do with your household batteries? Your little A and AA and what do you do with them? What do you do with your lithium batteries, the little watch ones, or the batteries from your power tools? What do you do with wet paint? Propane tanks, the little ones that you get. What do you do with your aerosol cans? You spray the bugs? You throw that in your trash? probably if you're like every other citizen in the county, old style TVs. There's no place to dispose of any of that in the county. I've worked with Mr. Pittman. He knows about this issue. I'm here speaking about that. But pushing this off to a future generation isn't a great idea. But there's another cost, cost that maybe you're not aware of. State and federal law says that we can't put that in our landfill. So we may be subject to fines or worse, sanctions on our landfill. So if we don't do anything about this, we just let it go, that's a problem. There's a secondary cost. All this stuff going into the landfill that shouldn't means the volume going into that landfill is more than necessary. So this is extending or shortening the life of your landfill. I don't need to tell you how much a landfill is going to cost us 30 years down the road. But the difference between 30 years and 35 years is significant in a rural county like Camden. It's going to be a big difference. So what I'm asking you to do and what I'm saying I and our group and some of our members are here is to consider putting in a collection point for these. There are several contractors that collect different types of things. Mr. Pittman is working on a grant to get that started. But I say to you, I know that we just went through that budget period, so this is for you to be thinking about and discussing before the next budget hearing to say, what are we doing in the future to create this and sustain it? subject to your questions, I don't have anything else.

Thanks for the info.

Okay.

Anybody else? Nobody else. Down to Commissioner comments. Anybody have any comments?

All I want to say is I'm freezing to death. Well, then I'll make this real quick.

I'll second that motion.

I'll make this real quick. I just wanted to recognize Ms. Claire, who works with us here. She gave the presentation today for the proclamation recognizing September as Suicide Prevention Month. She represents the county on the Camden Family Connection. Family Connection Camden Organization, which kind of brings all those nonprofit and social services organizations together, one of those being the Suicide Prevention Organization. I just don't think you get enough credit for what you do in that space. So thank you, Claire.

Nothing else?

Okay, entertain a motion to adjourn the regular meeting and convene the executive session to discuss real estate personnel and potential litigation.

So moved. Second. All in favor?

I make a motion to adjourn the executive session and reconvene the regular meeting.

I make a motion to adjourn the executive session and reconvene the regular meeting, Mr. Chairman. Second.

Got a motion and a second. All in favor? Motion carries. Okay, we have two action items relative to the executive session. Item number one is?

Mr. Chairman, I move to approve the resolution and contract for representation and fee agreement regarding fire apparatus antitrust litigation.

I'll second. We have a motion and a second. All in favor? Motion carries. Action item number two is I make a motion for the approval of professional services agreement for the retaining of legal services for the county attorney.

Second.

We have a motion and a second. All in favor?

Motion carries.

I'm going to abstain.

We have three and Cody abstained. Okay.

All righty.

Seeing nothing else, motion to adjourn.

So moved. Second.

All in favor? Thank you all.