Board of Commissioners - Regular Meeting

Good evening. I'm calling to order the Columbia County Board of Commission September 2nd, 2025 meeting to order. Vice Chair Couch invocation, please. Please bow your heads. Dear heavenly father, as we approach the year anniversary of Hurricane Helen, I come to you in many thanks. We are so grateful for our community members, our county staff, and everyone involved in the management of the crisis and the cleanup efforts. Please continue to sustain the hard work and efforts as cleanup continues. Dear Lord, as we work through these agenda items tonight, please help us to do all things in your will. In your most holy and precious name, I pray. Amen. Amen.

Stand for the pledge. I pledge algiance to the flag of the United States of America to the republic for which it stand one nation under God, indivisible, liberty and justice for all. Let the record show we have a full quorum of four commissioners. Commissioners, you have the minutes from August 9th in your packet. you had a chance to accept a motion to do so. Mr. Chairman, I make a motion to accept the August 19th minutes as presented.

Second questions. All in favor? Johnson. I believe the agenda ready for your approval. Mr. Chairman,

approved. Special recognition. I do want to recognize our number one chief judge, our first chief judge of the Columbia District, Blanchard. Thanks for being with us, sir. Proclamation. Blanchard. It's my privilege today to recognize and welcome to this board of commissioners meeting the honorable Judge Jim Blanchard. I've known Judge Blanchard for many years, both personally and professionally. And everyone who knows Judge Blanchard knows that he has a heart for those who suffer from addiction and for helping them to achieve and sustain long-term recovery. Accordingly, it is my greatest pleasure to commend Judge Blanchard for his efforts and by way of this National Recovery Month proclamation to encourage others to support such worthy efforts. I'll read a proclamation. Whereas behavioral health is an essential part of one's overall health and well-being. And whereas recovery from addiction occurs every day through a variety of recovery support services and treatment programs. Whereas prevention of substance use disorders works, treatment is effective, and people recover across Georgia and around the nation. And whereas education throughout our communities about recovery and addiction is essential to combating the stigma and discrimination faced by many people in recovery. And now therefore, the Columbia County Board of Commissioners do hereby proclaim the month of September 2025 as National Recovery Month and call upon the citizens of Columbia County to support this year's recovery month theme, Georgia recovers, and communities with appropriate programs, activities in September, and ceremonies signed and

sealed this second day of September, 2025.

Mr. Chairman, Vice Chairman, and members of board and staff. It's my pleasure to receive this. We started this court when we were Augusta Circuit in 2008 and it has progressed and many of the people that complete the program do well. We had one lady that completed it twice. She completed it and then flipped aside and came back and she is now one a role model that we are all impressed with. and she started something called for for sobriety houses and a lot of people complete the programs and then they start a sobriety house on their own. They get fundings from other sources, but they manage it in addition to their day job. And so what has happened is on September the 11th, of course, we all remember 911, they've selected that day for the sober bash. It's called Sober Bash Augusta, but it's held in Colombia County at the lake and it's held at the um West Points a recovery building. I think it's in there. Let's see. It's called the West Points

Points West Points Points West Conference Center. And what we were going to do is we're going to meet there. They're going to have a a banquet and speakers, but it's to meet sober. No alcohol, no drugs, and they manage themselves well. And so, it's my pleasure to go there and acknowledge that Columbia County has recognized that. And we thank you so much for supporting that. My pleasure. Also be a citizen of Columbia County for a lifetime. [Applause]

Judge Blanchard, I just want to thank you for everything you've done for our community. I understand this is something that's very near and dear to your heart. Continue to drive to ensure that this program is successful. So, thank you. Commissioners, you have the consent agenda in front of you. item on the agenda has been through the necessary committee and received necessary votes to be placed on this consent agenda. So if they still need I accept motion to do so.

Mr. Chairman, I make a motion to accept all of these consent agenda items as presented. Second. Questions? Motion a second on the floor. All in favor, raise your right hand. Motion carries. On to business and the debate. Vice Chairman Couch, I believe you. Yes, sir. I make a motion to approve the alcoholic beverage license for Vault 221 LLC. Second.

This is a alcohol license for on premise consumption of beer, wine, and distilled spirits for a new restaurant 1835 Aen Harlem Road. That's intersection of Columbia Road and Appen Harlem. Questions? Motion and second on the floor. All in favor, raise your right hand. I make a motion to approve the request for a variance to section 90-144 for property located at tax map 061, parcel 1842 to reduce the side and rear setbacks for an existing shed subject to the conditions enumerated in the August 21st, 2025 planning commission report and approve the accompanying easement encroachment agreement.

Second. Here you have a a building permit was issued showing this this structure meeting required setbacks. However, during construction, they were inadvertently placed in the wrong location. So, they're asking for the variance to lower the side set back down to 3.75 ft and the rear set back down to 4.2 ft. We do have a county pipe that runs here. So, they do have to get the standard encroachment agreement which is part of this. Will questions motion second on four. All in favor raise your right hand.

I make a motion to approve the request for a variance to section 90-53 for property located at tax map 078 partial 398 to reduce the side setbacks to 5 ft. Second.

Again, uh looking to build a structure here. In this case, their property is of a triangle shape in the rear yard. Tough to put a a building back there without getting into the side setback. So, this is a reduction down to 5.5 ft. Questions. Motion second on the floor. All in favor, raise your right hand. Legal matters or requests for review by committee. We have public comments. Karen Parham. know the routine record.

Yes. Uh good evening. I am Karen Parham, 3421 Hilltop Trail. Thank you for giving me the opportunity to speak. It's been about a year since this body passed the guidelines at the library. Over the past year, all we have heard is that this isn't about book banning. But well, you need to tell that to the merry band of book banners emboldened by your policies who just submitted 32 challenges to high school materials demanding outright bans at our school district. So much for not banning books. You open that door, you set the precedent, and now the floodgates are wide open. Not one of those challengers is a parent or guardian of a minor child. Not one. which echoes a large trend of what we saw in the challenges at the public library. The relatively small number of parents that did challenge books tended to be conservative homeschool parents, not necessarily reflective of the mainstream families of Columbia County. In these recent school challenges, the book banners didn't even read the books. Instead, they leaned on a website with cherrypicked excerpts. Gee, I wonder where they learned that trick. No rating system this time, just a blanket declaration of it's all porn. In Columbia County, you don't even need to read a book to try to ban it. The school district made the same mistake the county did in the beginning, trying to quietly appease censorship activists. In May, a different packet of challenges was quietly accepted and the district convened a secret committee to review them. The public was not notified and parents were kept in the dark. Sure enough, once the activists got their little hidden wins, they came back demanding more. Meanwhile, these excuses for why non-parents are leading the charge, pretending to speak for the majority of families and why we supposedly need guidelines are weak. At the end of the day, the argument is either that parents are too lazy or too incompetent. Yes. At schools, it's parents don't have time to file challenges. I'm pretty sure parents of public school students can handle their

own paperwork. At the public library, the excuse is parents can't watch their kids. I mean, really, I had three kids under the age of four and they were wild. Trust me. And yet, I watch them at the library because that's the job of a parent. I have every confidence in the parents of our community that they can monitor their own children at the public library and raise their own concerns at their children's schools. And it's perfectly acceptable for a parent to say that a book isn't right for their child. But it's quite another thing to impose your personal viewpoint that no child in the community should have access. That's why librarians have a job to do to shelf books using professional contentneutral standards. And government officials, your job is not to shove your personal religious and political views into the shelving guidelines. That is censorship. So unfortunately, I'm fighting this fight now on two fronts at the county and in the schools. But I think you know by now I'm not backing down on this issue. Columbia County is growing and diversifying. And you may be happy to take everyone's money and enjoy the prosperity that comes with growth, but you cannot erase the voices of the people who make that growth possible. Public libraries and public schools are not fringe amenities. They are foundational institutions of our country. They've always been where ordinary people gain access to knowledge, ideas, and opportunity. Do we really want to live in a country where the government dictates what will be orthodox in politics, religion, or opinion? That's not freedom. That's not liberty. That's censorship. Plain and simple. These are not private libraries. It's not Mrs. Ben's library. And it's not the Baptist library. It's a public library. Just like our schools are public schools. Public institutions exist to serve the whole community. Not just the most politically connected or those with religious views that align with your own. The public library is an institution of voluntary inquiry and was

never meant to be politicized. The shelves don't belong to you. They belong to the people of Columbia County. And that means everyone. Thank you. [Applause] Howard, have a good Labor Day.

I did. Thank you. Good evening. Howard Johnson, 252 Silver Road. Um, I actually had something else I wanted to talk about, but with, uh, the proclamation of, uh, recovery month, um, I'd like to pivot, and that's okay because I'll be back on the 16th to talk about, um, sales tax revenue and how the library can affect that. Um, as I've mentioned before, um, I am in recovery myself. Um, I know that feeling of going through a program multiple times. I often say quitting tobacco is the easiest thing I've ever done. That's why I did it 12 times. It's not been an easy journey. Um, and it's not something I've done alone. As you said, Mr. Carowway, Georgia recovers in community. Um, that's something that's true across many different recovery meetings, many different addiction groups. Hammer that point. And I've been to a lot of meetings. I've been to a lot of different groups, right? Recovery is not a one-sizefits-all thing. Everyone's walking their own path and has to find the method that works for them. But one thing that does ring true over and over and over is that addiction is an isolating disease, right? It self-perpetuates as one falls deeper into their addiction and falls away from their community, their connections with other people. Humans are social creatures. We need that in isolation. We go nuts. Um there's a reason that there are restrictions on solitary confinement for prisoners, right? Like there's only so much the mind can take. This is an important point because as I said at the last meeting, my group at the library, the Sassy Stitchers, is a part of my community. Those women are a part of my recovery. They keep me walking the path that I chose to put myself on. And it's not just them. It's everyone that I meet. One thing that's important to know is that members of marginalized communities, particularly the queer community, have significantly higher rates of substance abuse because they're marginalized. because they are not welcome into a community. I myself am

not part of that marginalized community, but I know the struggle of addiction and I know that policies that make people feel unwelcome drive them into worse conditions. Yes, at the end of the day, an individual who chooses to take up the bottle or chooses to take drugs has made that decision themselves, but they did not do it in a vacuum, right? We exist as a whole, as a community. folks who feel unwelcome are more likely to turn to substance abuse. And so these policies at the library that make folks feel unwelcome for the way that they are are perpetuating the problem that we're here saying that we're trying to solve. Now, I love that there are concentrated efforts here in Columbia County to support addicts in recovery. That's something that's very important because again, folks in recovery can be marginalized themselves, right? And I can't say I blame people for that. You don't know when somebody might fall off the wagon. Get it right. That's something that's going to be on me for the rest of my life. Um, but I'm moving forward. Oh, forgive me. This is extempiraneous speech that I wasn't prepared for. So, while I appreciate the efforts made to combat addiction here in Columbia County, I feel that the policies being implemented at the library are antitheical to those efforts and will push more folks into more dangerous situations. I've mentioned several times, right? All means all. All need to be welcome. I found recovery thanks to the community that I found here in Columbia County. And everyone deserves that opportunity for a second chance or a third chance or a 12th chance or whatever it takes, right? It's not something that I did successfully the first time. And it's I'm not going to say it's not something that I'm going to continue to be successful at, right? I have no intention of jumping off the wagon set.

But should I find myself there, I will still have a community to hold me up. And that's what I'm pushing for. That's what we need to be pushing for is that everyone is welcome here at the library and at Columbia County at large. That's all I've got for this evening. Thank you. [Applause]

Uh Miss Arina Burn. Marlina Berseron, 2545 Willow Creek Court. I miss the prayer. That's my favorite part of these meetings. Thank you for this opportunity to speak. I brought props. Thank you for your town hall meetings. I appreciated attending the August 25th with Commissioners Couch and Commissioners Miller. That was awesome. I have more questions. We should do more town halls. This is going to be a difficult speech for me to give. It might be difficult for you to listen to. One thing I learned at the town hall when I asked about what we as community learned about preparing for hurricanes and severe weather. The answer was from Commissioner Mard that we needed homeowners insurance. Now, in the wake of a disaster with 9 in of rain and 80 to 120 mph winds, I I think we have a more compassionate response than that. But I loved the accountability of it. I love that it's about personal responsibility, and that's what all of us have been arguing about the library. As parents, we deserve to be accountable for our children. And if you think we need to be accountable for our homes, especially when the county can do more to protect flood planes, then we need to let parents deal with the library issues. That's not where you need to be micromanaging. Now, Commissioner Malar

and St. Links to several programs, including the hazard mitigation grant, have you had a chance to look at that?

Okay. It's important to me that you know that as a community, you have to apply for that. you could help mitigate for those people who live on windmill plantation their risks were increased by Mr. Chairman you were there when in June 2023 Dr. Frank Carl said and I was there that if you put that Parker's gas station on that corner you would put water in those people's homes and we knew it was a risk and we knew it would happen and it happened and Mr. Johnson, you talk about library books that shock the conscience. It shocked my conscience to see driveways collapse on people knowing that a medical emergency is now a life ordeath situation and knowing that there are things we could have done to help. I have a problem when my commissioners are worried about micromanaging the library when there are real issues. Commissioner Carowway, did you get a chance to look into that grant that I sent you about bringing plumbing to those people in that town that you wanted to work on?

I did. And do they have running water now? Running water? It was It was about sewer. It was about sewer. Is that resolved? Uh, we're actively working on it.

Okay. I would love to find out more about that. A year ago at this meeting, the Tuesday after Labor Day was the meeting that you passed the guidelines as well as a uh Columbia County being a non-sanctuary city. This was a Tuesday that many of us are recovering from vacations or exhausted from our own home improvement projects. Adding things to the agenda either by design or by accident when no one is here to speak for against them. People are on to it. And I was hopeful from the county town hall that people know the shell game now and they know that some things happened with slight of hand behind the scenes and no one is okay with that. And I'm not okay with our library having unconstitutional guidelines. I would also like to add a prayer for all of our undocumented workers who live here and whose only crime might be to have come here searching for a better life. And now that our police officer are deputized as ICE agents, I'm concerned and would love a show of hands if you think it's appropriate that anyone be arrested for anything of a non-violent nature if their only crime is that they came here for a better life. Okay. It's that it's uncchristian in my opinion. So, um, I brought this book. I brought this book because Commissioner Malar, when you responded to my questions about storm and order preparedness, I feel like you were more emotionally invested in the people who wanted to remove books. You held up a book that you thought was inappropriate for a 13-year-old while my 13-year-old was sitting right here. Why would you do that? Now, I don't begrudge you, but Yousef showed him that book out of an organic discovery moment for himself and we talked about it. And I don't begrudge you because we don't get upset about books. We get upset when kids die in flash floods while they're at summer camp. We get upset when kids are shot in schools or places of worship. This book

came out in 1999, was written for young adults. It has won young adult awards including the finalist for national book award, it golden kite award and the Kentucky bluegrass award. It's in the YA section across the Georgia except for our county and it has moved because of your guidelines. If you don't want stories about rape, thank you. If you don't want stories about rape, maybe the idea is to teach our children and our young men not to rape and not be moving library books around. Would you resend the guidelines so that we can have an organized library where books are supposed to be again? Can I get a show of hands if you would do that? Times up. Okay.

Warren. Warren. Susan Warren, 5129 North Tubman in Appling. My talk tonight is another in my series about my concerns with the proposed data center. You can read or watch my earlier comments in previous border commissioner meeting remarks. In my meeting with Commissioner Couch and Director Eldridge, they spoke about their visits to two data centers in the Atlanta area with another county employee. I understood that to be Scott Johnson, the county administrator. I was surprised, however, that no water, sewer, road, etc. department heads or engineers attended. Also, I addressed some concerns I had about the DRRi for this project. One was a statement that Traml Crow wanted the first two buildings to be ready in 2027. Commissioner Couch and Director Eldridge said that they believe that if a developer wants something, they will pay what it takes to make it happen. So, in their opinion, this could be doable. I'm still a little skeptical, but hey, I'm no engineer. However, even the water utility of Columbia County noted their concern with this issue in the DRRI report to the state. Secondly, I asked why there was no mention of power usage or Georgia power. They told me that the state doesn't require power usage in a DRI. Yet, in an August 29th issue of the AJC Business Journal report, the following was published. In July, a Georgia agency quietly allowed proposed data centers whose energy, water, and load demands

have caused a stir around metro Atlanta, to stop going through indepth regional reviews to evaluate their impacts. Now, the Department of Community Affairs, which sets DRRI guidelines, is weighing the rule changes to once again make certain data centers disclose information about their resource requirements to regional planning authorities. They are accepting public comment on this issue through September 12th, and I urge you to express the need for this requirement to be reinstated. The temporary pause to the DRRI process for new data centers raised concerns from environmentalists that it would leave the state flying blind when it comes to facilities vast needs. Did the temporary pause come after the Trump administration released its AI action plan on July 30th, which includes steps to cut environmental requirements and streamline permitting policies to make it easier to build data centers and power infrastructure. This focus on deregulation underscores a contrast between the Trump administration which is emphasizing deregulation and certain states that are strengthening AI regulation and enforcement. The divergence is particularly salient in light of an unsuccessful attempt to impose a 10-year moratorum on state level AI regulations in the one big beautiful bill act that Trump signed on July 4th. The move which was initially included in the House version was taken out of the Senate version by a near unanimous vote. So this begs the question, were the power requirements omitted from the DRRI submitted to the state in April because the county knew this pause was coming or

did they just know the state really didn't care? Our 8.0 million square foot proposed data center and T5's proposed 8 8.7 million square foot data center in Barto County is almost 17 million square feet of data centers referenced in Govk's May 6 article reporting that only one of these two would require more power than one of the units at plant Vogle could produce. The August 21st email I received from Georgia Power said my base rate, that's the kilowatt rate, was frozen until the end of 2028, but not storm or fuel costs. And how about the hundreds of millions of dollars for new transmission lines for all these data centers? Who's going to pay for those? The Colombia County DRRI projected infrastructure usage as follows. 1300 tons of solid waste annually, 4,000 million gallons of sewage daily, 7,000 million gallons of water daily, and don't forget the 1900 plus acres of virgin forest. Let's hope this is a full buildout. Are the commissioners adhering to the old Indian wisdom? Silence is always better than bull crap. Thank you. [Applause]

We have two executive session items we need to vote on. Mouch, I believe.

Yes, sir. I make a motion to approve the promotions and reclassification to the engineering services division as presented on the spreadsheet. Second. a lot that goes into this one. Uh we recently had some longtime employees move on from the county and have a couple vacancies. While we looked at those, uh we found a more efficient way we thought to run the engineering division. Uh in the road construction department, we have a heavy construction side and we have a subdivision construction side. Those are separate sides. We're looking to join those together. So, we'd be promoting some team leaders to kind of oversee those crews. We have a vacant geotech manager position. Uh, we'd like to reclass that for a geotech manager that would be reclassed into a uh senior most inspector to lead one of those teams. In our pre-construction department, we have a a utility inspection vacancy. Like to reclass that to a CAD design manager so we can start doing our own design inhouse. We're currently paying a lot of money to outside firms be able to bring this in house. We have a existing longtime staff member in a Rosen bridge department. We're going to promote them to a super vacant supervisor position and change their sale allowance to 40. Then we're going to create an environmental compliance section in our stormwater compliance department that's going to oversee our uh closed solid waste landfill, our active inert waste landfill, as well as all of our MS4 permits we have to do, MPDES permits we have to do, MS4 public outreach and other environmental compliance support activities. Doing all that, it's about a $100,000 savings to the general fund. Overall, it's about a $95,000 savings across all funds. So, the stormwater fund we're going to spend a little bit more in. Rest of the funds we're going to spend less in. Again, the general fund about $100,000 less than the general fund. We're also going to eliminate two positions. Don't feel a

need anymore. And we're also going to eliminate two vehicles from our fleet. Have to answer any questions you have. Thank you for your work on that. Questions? Motion and second on the floor. All in favor raise your I make a motion to approve $1,900 to Brenda Marshall parcel 067092 $19,700 to Lisa Harvey partial 0600033 $11,000 to the Sanctuary of Augusta Inc. second. These are all standard acquisitions for the Herbert Farm project. It gets us to 87% complete.

Any questions? Motion to second on the floor. All in favor, raise your right. Make a motion to adjurnn. Second.