Board of Commissioners - Regular Meeting

Good afternoon. Good afternoon. Call the meeting of the Liberty County Board of Commissioners to order. Mr. Mosley, has the meeting been properly advertised? Yes, sir.

I know I left Mr. Donna at another event. Maybe he's on his way. Uh, let us stand for will Miss Moses lead us in our prayer and our pledge. Let us pray. Kind and gracious father, we thank you for this beautiful day and thank you for your bountiful blessings and all that you do for us. We continue to lift up our dear commissioner, Commissioner Walden. We pray that you be with them and strengthen them. We pray, Father God, uh for Commissioner Thrift. She celebrated her birthday. Lord, we pray that you be with her on this beautiful day. We pray, Father God, for uh wisdom, insight, foresight as they take care of the business community. These and all of the blessings we ask in Jesus name we pray. Amen.

Amen. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Thank you, sir. Commissioners, I've been told that we need to approve a state court probate agreement um that will presented in a little while, but Mr. John Hawkins, can we make that um item B and then shift all the rest of them down? State court agreement that needs to be done. It's time sensitive. So,

let's make that item B then shift the rest of them down one letter. Okay. He'll follow the DA. Um we can either agree by consensus or we can vote. How do y'all feel? I make a motion. I think I'm second. Second. Okay. All in favor? Show your hands. All right. Think y'all got that right. All right. Moving right along then. Uh, Department of Portic attorney, Mr. Da Nelson. Good to see you. Well, thank you for having me. Thank you for coming.

I will try to be brief. I know y'all have a lot to accomplish, but uh I did get a request a while back to come before y'all and kind of give y'all a status update on the DA's office and kind of how things are going with us. And luckily, it's all good news right now to report. So, um I've got a PowerPoint. I don't know if y'all have a copy, but it's on the screen. Um so, we will get into that.

So, I've met everybody here. I think uh Mr. Blunt. I think maybe one time before, but you're the newest member, so I hadn't been in front of you as much. But I'm Billy Joe Nelson. I'm the district attorney for the Atlantic Judicial Circuit. We cover Brian Evans, Liberty Long, Macintosh, and Tactyl counties. Uh, we predominantly handle all the felony criminal prosecution in those counties. We also handle child support. So, uh, we get a lot of happy customers in our office on a daily basis. Um, but I wanted to come here and uh and thank y'all for having me. Just give you a little update on where we are at the DA's office. Um, we've talked for a while since I took office in 2023 about the possibility of of reorganizing the office and there were some obstacles to doing that. Basically, positions not knowing if we would have those in order to cover uh a reorganization. I am happy to say we have completed that process. It took about three years to get it completely finished, but we're there. Um, I've listed the team structure that we have at the office now and where those teams are located. So, we have a prosecution team dedicated solely to Liberty County. Now, I thought that was important. Liberty County is the biggest county in our circuit. We needed a team that was solely dedicated to Liberty County cases. Before, if you'll remember, it was a twocount structure on each team. team. Liberty and Long County were teams. Macintosh and Brian County were teams. Tatel and Evans County were teams. Um, so I've broken that apart a little bit to try to help focus on particular counties where there's a little more need. So, Liberty County is by itself now. They are located up in the justice center. Uh, we have a little bit of room to grow there. I think we can add some more desk if we need to. Um, but we're doing well with that so far. Uh, they appreciate not having to travel as much between the Elma G. miles office in the courthouse with files and

whatnot. So, I think we're doing well. Brian County with the growth that's coming there, we broke that off to be a separate team. I believe that is working well. Also, that is the one county that I can tell you we are seeing a growth in cases. Um, I don't think the crime rate necessarily is growing per capita, but because of increased population, we're seeing a little uptick in cases and I think that's probably going to continue. So, we've broken them out. We have Macintosh and Long County as a team. Tatel and Ev Ev Ev Ev Ev Ev Ev Ev Ev Ev Ev Ev Ev Ev Ev Ev Ev Ev Ev Ev Evans County have remained a team. We also have our juvenile court team uh as well as an accountability court prosecutor who does drug court, veterans court, parental accountability court and then we also have our child support folks. So that's how we are broken down now. I believe it has been positive thus far and I think it's going to help in the future. question. Um, your explanation of the of the Brian County growth is does the same apply to Liberty County? Ours is more so based on population or is it based on more crime?

Um, Liberty County actually and in my estimation we are actually seeing a little bit of a reduction. Um, there are various reasons for that. Um it's it's a community effort and by community effort I mean actually citizens, law enforcement, the court system, our office, we all kind of play a part in that. Um I'm seeing a lot of positive uh data from Liberty County. I think we're actually reducing case size and that's actually plays right into my next slide. Um, we are seeing a case load reduction across the circuit. Um, predominantly in Liberty County, that's where I've seen it. Um, between 2022 and this year, uh, across the circuit, we're seeing an average of about 20 to 30% in reduction of pending case load. Now, what does that mean? That means that all of the cases that we have under our roof, we have seen about a 20 to 30% reduction in that number. And there are a number of reasons that I've kind of listed as to why I think that is um the case. We've got a reduced case load per ADA through the reorganization. It's making the ADA more efficient because they're able to work on particular sets of cases rather than having such a breadth of cases uh with more counties. We are taking cases to grand jury more often. That is helping us to move cases through the system faster. Uh we did get a fifth spear court judge a couple of years ago. That is a an automatic 25 or 20% increase in the number of court dates going from four to five. So we are able to get cases in front of judges in court more often. Um, with the additional staff, thanks to you all and the other counties of taking the ARPA folks that we had and making them permanent, we we have been able to for the future set up the ability to have

more people that can help move the cases. Uh, and then again, just collaboration with our law enforcement agencies. Uh, we work very well with Department of Community Supervision or as you would know at probation officers, uh, as well as public defenders office. We are meeting regularly with agencies with the public defender and with uh department of community supervision and it's helping us to work more effectively as a team. So that is uh what I'm seeing so far is is a reduction in overall case numbers on an annual basis. We are also seeing a reduction in most counties. Again, Brian County, I've seen a little uptick, but I think it's just because of population outpacing other counties. um the staff that offer funding and we talked about that extensively.

Yes, sir. Um so other the other counties have taken up their share. That's correct. All right. Uh and what you're saying is that helps with the efficiency of the office. Absolutely. If we did not have those ARPA uh team members, I I don't know that we would be able to keep pace. We would get the job done, but but it would not be as efficient as it has been. One one of the y'all remember this one of the statements I make sometime and I'll just use you since you're here. Sure. To the general public is when they elect you in your position they send you to do the job you're doing. Yes sir. Then you bring to us what you think the needs of office are. It's not my job to question you whether you sincere me or not. The public has put you in that position.

Right. And you're telling us today that those those positions uh were needed. Absolutely. and and the we have participation with other counties and they're doing a good job. Yes, sir. Absolutely. I I can't thank y'all enough. And again, the other counties that are doing their share, we we couldn't do it without those folks. Absolutely. Y'all hearing commission, don't you? Yes, sir.

So, planning for future growth. Uh we have taken steps to do that. I've mentioned the restructuring of our office with the team and county changes. Um touching on the point you've made, uh we did very extensively go through that process uh before the last budget cycle to make sure that the other five counties of the circuit uh were aware that Liberty County had been doing a lot of heavy lifting over the years and we've tried to reallocate the proportion of who's paying their percentages and so far uh Miss Richardson can probably tell you I think that we're doing fine with that. the other counties are are doing their part and we thank them for that. I think going forward that gives uh obviously Liberty County a better financial situation when we have everybody paying their fair share. Um we do have our additional office locations now which has allowed us uh to plan for future growth. we have extra uh room in really all of our offices that as we go forward um where we are now we may in 10 years need some additional personnel um hopefully it will not be um anytime in the near future but we do have the room to grow and that's important to make sure that we can keep up with population growth and if cases increase we are able to put those people in in office locations. So, you think it's also in 10 years you'll need more space?

Um, it's possible. Possible.

We we have, like I say, we have room now that we can put some additional bodies um and people in each office in all three locations and the Elma Miles location, the Justice Center, as well as in Reedsville. We do have room to grow about, I would say, venture to say two to three people max in each location. Um so I think we'll be okay for the next decade or so. We'll just see how things progress as far as case loads go. So um the addition of the ARPA employees have been absolutely crucial to future growth and trying to make sure we can manage case loads effectively. um staff retention incentives that is very important and what I mean by that is uh you all are very generous to us with uh with supplement money for our assistant DAS uh with the enterprise vehicle uh uh program and whether that continues as enterprise or not um whatever method y'all use the ability to give people um a vehicle to use to go across the six counties absolutely crucial. It is something that attracts people from other jurisdictions outside of the Atlantic Circuit. They want to come work here and that's part of the reason is we do offer them a lot of benefits. And I have had assistant DAs tell me if we didn't have some of the benefits that y'all offer, we would go work in ex circuit, not here. we have gotten some really good people that have come to work here and a lot of it's because of what y'all provide for those folks and they're appreciative and we're very appreciative of that as well. Uh and then also we are making an effort to try to be very proactive on the state level. I've I've been involved with the prosecuting attorneys council legislative committee this year to try and work hand inand with our representatives and our senators to make sure that if there is an ability to fund

in the future u through the state level we're going to try to utilize that every dollar that the state will give us is a dollar that taxpayers in Liberty County aren't shouldering themselves and then the other five counties as well. So, we're trying to make sure we're taking measures to utilize state funding if that's there. Um, our representatives locally have been very very helpful in in that process this year. Um, and I think they will be going forward as well. Um, and then also just legislative initiatives, statutes, things like that that we can help craft with legislators to make sure that we're in a good position going forward just from a criminal justice system standpoint. So,

you all have your own lobbying group also. We don't have a quote unquote lobbying group. We do have uh numerous individuals from the prosecuting attorneys council which is a state agency. They are under the state umbrella. Um but we have numerous individuals from the prosecuting attorneys council who one of their sole jobs during the legislative session is to be at the capital every day working on those things on behalf of prosecutors. So we do have that. And with that last slide. Thank y'all for all you do and I if there are any more questions I'll be glad to take them.

When when when you run across discover want to help push something that's going to better your operations you need a letter from us. We'll be happy to write one and sign it to I appreciate that to um get that to our state legislator so they'll know that we support your request. Absolutely. I'm in frequent contact. I've been on the phone today with Representative Williams and I'm frequently in touch with Mr. Buddy Delo and we have a good relationship. Any any assistance that we can get though, we would appreciate. You need us, you call us. Yes, sir. Questions, commissioners, for No. Thank you, sir. Very informative. All right. I appreciate it. And if there's ever anything we can do, please let us know. We'll be glad to help you any way we can. Thank you, sir.

Thank you. All right, Mr. Mr. Hawkins, if you come down, state court probation agreement. That's timesensitive. I don't have a slideshow. Next, uh just the the agreement it's carryover from the the current one we have. There's no cost of the county. Um the defendants pay to be supervised. Um I don't know the I don't have stats, but I can tell you um the company previous to us um did not do the job we are currently doing.

Um financially, I'm sure you've seen the difference in what's been collected that comes back to the county. we get way more people back into the courtrooms that are that are falling behind so they get things done. They understand there's accountability um with that less recidivism. I don't have a stat for that but we know when people are held accountable they're less likely to get out there and continue to do becoming more stats oriented. Sir say again we're becoming more statistically oriented. So if you don't have those stats with you are they available can you

we turn them into yearly. So you'll um I think our calendar year is July, so you'll get them soon. But yeah, you you you personally will get a copy from us. Um if you ever want them, I can give them to you whenever we turn them in to the judge quarterly. Okay. Well, when you get if you're doing that quarterly, just send us one. I can do that. Yeah. Yeah. Put us on your dissemination list. Yep. Okay. All right. All right. Commissioners, uh agreement. No changes, right? Nothing. The only difference is right now we charge a supervision fee of 45 and we're asking for 47. It's a $2 difference, less than 4% and that would be paid by the probitioners. Correct. Yeah. There's no cost to the court or the county for our support.

Well, how does that uh compare to neighboring uh Brian County is going to do that in they're going to make their change in December. Uh Macintosh, they're they're doing theirs next month. Um we we kind of have most of the counties in the area and we're at 45 for you know for the other ones and we're asking to do the same when we get to when we get to them and we we've had no push back. I think we'll be fine. Um Port Wentworth is not ours. Um I know for their pre-trial which they run a lot of here they're going to 50 so they'll be ahead of us. But where's your office located at now? Uh it's Judge Grenstead and uh uh Meritt's old law law form right here on Main Street. Yeah.

Yeah. It's 131. We've got the big old black awning out there now. Okay. Okay. Well, I I can say on commission I hadn't, you know, ever since. How long have we had the contract with you now? We'll be finishing the five years. So that long? Yeah. I didn't realize it's that long. Yes. Contracts they they go every five. But um y'all may remember there were some concerns, right? I haven't heard anything. So you must be No,

we we tried to do a good job. So and and when I started this with our company, it's not my company, I work for them. Um 13 years ago, we had three courts. We had recorders court Richmond Hill and Ty Island. Um I've been able to gather me and my team from we're from Effingham all the way to Macintosh and we'll start two courts in Brunswick starting in July. So, you know, we we do a good job and it spreads and and when there's concerns like Judge Ostein has, they they'll call around to other judges and hey, who do we call? I typically get that phone call and then we come and see what we can do. Like I said, I don't hear anything. So, no news is usually good news.

Commissioner, any questions? If not, we'll chair entertain a motion. A motion to uh to approve this. Yes, sir. So, move, Mr. Chairman second we approve the contract with the only change being the $47 increase of $2 for the probationary fee. Any further discussion? All in favor? Show hands, please. Thank you so much. Motion passes. When we when we hand out the yearly, it's it's we usually hand deliver. It's DCS requires us to send it to the county for the quarterly. Would you be good if I just email them straight to Perfect. I'll get you on the list. All right. Thank you, sir. All right. Thank you'all. Good to go. Are they? No. No. I was waiting. Okay. Oh, real quick. Would did you get only the state court or did you get superior court as well? They're both the same.

State court. You just got state court. Okay. They should there should have been both. The superior court I think we have an extra 30 days. Um they should have both came together though. This one just stay. Okay. I'll follow up find out where the other one is and get it to y'all. Welcome back. It's it's the same one. Thank you. Okay. Code enforcement. Mr. Mullis. talk about a little bit. Okay. All right. Finance, Mr. Richardson.

Uh, good evening, Mr. Chairman, commissioners. I'm here to present tonight the financial report for January 2026. Um, and starting with the general fund through the end of January, we have collected approximately 52% of our anticipated revenues for the year and are right on track with that uh with our expenditures at 53%. We currently have 4.7 months of operating expenditures and our unreserved fund balance. Um, this is an increase from last January uh for which we reported only 1.4 months. Um, so essentially this this means the county is in a much stronger financial position than it was a year ago.

You can keep singing that song. Yes, sir. Gladly. Um, turning over to the departmental um departmental look for our general fund uh elections uh is currently showing ahead of schedule. Um, this is coming down from month to month. Um but currently uh we did bill and receive uh two municipalities and have collected those. Um so it offsets where they're currently standing. Um but we hope it to uh keep trending downward as we go throughout the rest of the fiscal year.

An auxiliary question, Mr. Mosley. Uh I just thought this is an election year so or the municipalities the primary as well. Yep. Yeah. So but because it's for lack of a better word bundle then Rhonda has just budgeted for elections i.e. not city A city B city C kind of thing. So this we had the elections in the fall and then we have the the primaries county elections and then the rest the state elections. Yeah.

May I think she kind of level it off because next year really all will be looking at the gator election and then after she'll be back to city elections. So I think she did try to budget to accommodate all the elections coming. So she does adjust it annually some. U it doesn't necessarily cover all of the runoffs and things like that that happened yesterday. Yeah. Yeah. Some things that pop up like they did last time. Okay.

Um risk manage management. This is um just for timing. We paid our an annual pension contribution uh that's due to ACCG by the end of January. um judicial administration. This continues to run a little over budget. Um it's for our costs for court reporters and we will uh continue to monitor it. They should add it on more or they're their um cost. Not necessarily. Just think it's active and they're the volume that the DA talked about

very possible as the population grows. Trying to bring it back. Certainly does. the need for court reporters.

Um, animal control uh is currently showing over budget for supplies. Um, and that is general supplies as well as uh food for the animals. Um, recreation is showing a little bit over budget currently for January. Um, this tends to be uh for part-time wages. um again and let's see if we turn the page to solid waste um for the end of January we actually have revenue over expenditures of about 577,000 um we've collected right at 55% of the total anticipated revenues for the year and spent 44% um in expenses And there are currently um flipping the page again, there are currently no departments in solid waste that are showing uh individually over budget. Um and the same is true for our special revenue funds. Everything seems to be rocking and rolling through January um with respect to these uh funds. those were running over a little bit. Do you think they're going to maybe level off even in animal control and risk management?

Or we just don't know. They may say even some other department uh with this one on animal control. How many months is that with the city of Hinesville? Three, four, November. This is January. We build three three months. I think we're billing uh monthly now. Yes. Yeah. I think it's the third month. We've already Excuse me. Third month. This is for reducing. I can I can uh look into the the budget side and the projection.

Um and uh certainly get back to you on that. Okay. Um, if we turn to the sales tax reports for SPLA 7, we collected in January uh 1.39 million. This is our highest month of collections um since this tax began. Really? Yes. Happy to say. Um we've spent to date 24.49 49 million um in total expenditures and collected a total of 38.1 million.

One more time, uh we spent 24.49 million on our SPLS projects and expenditures and collected 38.1 million um in collections for Tesla. Um it the revenue continues just to trickle in. That that tax ended um back in October or that's when we received our last uh large distribution from the state. Um we received for January $5700. Uh and is that the chairman discretionary fund?

That's however you you guys want to spend it. I see they were listening. um to uh to date that T- slot uh has brought in 59.8 million and we've spent 35.3 million and um as you guys are aware the next round of TE's blast um the tax will start April 1st. Do you recall what our projected was for that? I can keep those numbers in my head for 76 78 7 Did we bump it up a little higher? Remember we wanted to make high 70s or low 80s? Yes. Way up. Okay. Starts in April.

Yes, sir. April one. Um, and that concludes my January report. Unless you have additional questions. It starts in April. And for how many years, Sam? Six. Six years. Well, let's see. Since y'all remember so well, what did we project for seven? 54 50 something. Oh, wait. Oh, splash. When does seven end? Do you know? March of 29. 29. Mhm. So, we will need to consider putting that on the ballot. We talked about 2027 sometime. November 27. Won't be long

for splash date. Yes, sir. Um, SPLAS 7's referendum was uh 69 million for SPLA 7 on the referendum.

And and you got all of my um obligations that I sent you. Yes, sir. Okay. Yes, sir. If you see anything that's not on there, please let me know. But yes, sir. I think we got them all. Okay. But this is all the latest uh balances for per commissioner. Yes, sir. I'm just The only one I'm waiting on is Wala, but I've met with other cities, so I'm good. Excellent. Okay.

Okay. Two splash. Twice. You've done the same for the splash balances, too. Yes, sir. I try to keep those as uh up to date as possible. Um, are going to get emails in or uh Yes, sir. Mr. Chair, yes. At our meeting the other day when we had the discussion about uh the trails, we're going to

But I didn't get to wait to get approval to move it around. We do. Um, in fact, we'll make a note to put that on the um, uh, agenda for April meeting. Mr. Chair, I got a note to do a resolution for that. I got a resolution. I got a note to do a resolution for that mention. Can you send me that when Okay. Just so I can put it on obligations. Yes. What we talked about the other day? Yes. Okay. Okay. All right. Thank you, ma'am. Any questions? Thank you. I like my numbers.

Thank you.

Let me commend the staff. I didn't get to do that even when the auditor was here. I didn't get to commend the finance staff for the job they do. Thank you guys for what you do. Um, no matter what, the the the the proof is in the pudding. the countyy's on financial footing and that's because of the job that you do and commissioner certainly the job that you all do. Our challenge though is try to do it do it again, you know. So, Moses, Miss Hunter, let's let's talk to our staffs about watching overtime any kind of expenditures that aren't necessary. So, uh, even with the, um, tax bills that could come up again next year, we want to make sure that we we're in a good place so that doesn't hurt our bottom line should those things happen. But, of course, that uh, commissions, as we went over the CIP list, you know, there's some things we do need to purchase for our departments. Some of those people are still limping along with equipment that's barely usable. So, we'll keep that in mind. Um, I know you made some recommendations. The committee is going to look at those and bring those back to us, but just want to make sure as commissioner we keep all those things in mind. And then, uh, let me go ahead and say this after we heard the presentation from Gateway. Um, that's something we're going to have to work out, too. Um, and you saw what other counties are doing. Now, not trying to necessarily match them, but I want you to get a picture. Then you're all going to try to get information from Brian Bulock and Effingham.

Yes, sir. I've already sent information. We can look at that. But there'll be some decision making has to be done about about gateway too. All right. Thank you so much. Mr. Long,

good evening everybody.

It's kind of interesting standing back there watching what they have on the screen and what's being shown on get to see where the cameras go. Um I'll try to be brief. Um, just kind of running through the report. Bacon Town Road is starting to wrap itself up. So, it's looking a lot better out there. Not finished with them yet, but they still got a few things left to do, but it's getting on the mend. Uh, the guy's still working on his appraisals for Mary Todd Road. He should be through pretty shortly. Um, I'm trying to get a date from him when he's going to be finished on Mary Todd Road. Um, we did have a request that's in my uh the last thing on my report. Um, everybody knows Mr. Ferro Mob, who lives out on 196 at the intersection of Curtis Road. Uh, he has the large house there with a big grass area all around it and he borders 196 Curtis Road and in the back is Williams Road, which is a dirt road. and we've been maintaining Williams Road for probably 40 50 years. Um, we don't have anything but a prescript we have a 30-foot easement that's on there, but it's more of a prescriptive easement. Um, but the 30 foot doesn't really cover the whole road. And what Mr. Maui contacted um Commissioner Thrift and kind of wants to kind of clean this up and he wants to go ahead and grant us a 35 foot easement, a rightaway through there. So, he would just be dedicating a road that we're already maintaining, dedicating the rightway to us. Um so, I I would recommend that we take it and uh I would recommend that you probably have a motion that allows the chairman to sign the documentation to accept the road. if y'all want to try to add that to the agenda tonight and try to take that.

I want to hear from Commissioner Swift on it. Okay.

Yes, sir. I've been working with Mr. Mobly and Trent for a couple months now trying to get this resolved after he had it um surveyed by his own surveyor when he bought the property. Uh the man told him said, "Well, you're buying Williams Road with it." So, uh, he bought he bought the road, too, but he's trying to get it ted up now in case something he's getting, um, up in age and his wife has passed away and he only has to one daughter. So, he wants to make sure if she or he ever decides to sell it that the next buyer would not be buying a road that the county has been maintaining. Mhm.

So, um I would like to follow the recommendation of the county engineer in approving I guess you said 40 50 years. That's been a long time. So that's before I don't know what kind of we had when I came to work in 95. I mean we had been maintaining it for a long long time in 95. So I know that the road superintendent Williams may had work somewhere and it was just one of those aggressive. Yeah. Okay.

roads that we maintain, but he's willing to give us the right away and to get it cleared up and off off the get his land property line corrected and and it's fairly wellmaintained. Oh yeah, the countyy's maintained. It is. Yeah, we we've got it. We pull the dishes regularly. a well-maintained road with with some additional for a dirt road. It's a well-maintained road. Yes, sir. Right away. Yes, sir. We can turn that deal down and and no money involved. He's going to need it. Yeah. Uh let's see. That's a part of your report, Mr. That was on the last page.

That's the last one in there, but that's not on here on our agenda. That's not an agenda item. So, I don't know if y'all want to take how you want to handle that. Monica and Miss Maria said they learned in school when these kind of things happen, you have to go back and amend your agenda and then you can move forward. Okay. At the last ACCG class, that's what they the knowledge they brought back to learning this, but we have to make a motion to amend the agenda to add uh what the acceptance acceptance of Williams R.

Is there a motion to the agenda to add that? Uh let's just say for procedure purposes that'll be I guess that's new business new business item ABC E. Yes sir. That would be Is that a motion or second to do that? I'll make a motion. Second.

Any further discussion? Everybody clear? All in favor? Show your hands please. All right. Now is an agenda item. Now the chair entertain a motion to approve the request from uh as presented. Yes, sir. Mr. Chairman, I make a motion we approve the recommendation of the county engineer to accept Williams Road as a county road and give you the authorization to sign all necessary paperwork documentation. There's second to that motion. Second motion and a second. We approve the recommendation to accept Williams Road. Uh any further discussion? Everybody clear? All in favor? Show of hands, please. The motion pass. We enroll now belongs to Liberty County, Georgia.

Yes, sir. We'll get that paperwork signed from Mr. Frell. All right. Next thing I have on my agenda is the Freeman Road roadway improvements. We took bids on lease several months ago. Uh we looked at trying to value engineer some of it out and try to change the project, make it look a little bit cheaper, but I really couldn't come up with any better ideas to make it any cheaper. Um this will get us several more years out of Freeman Grove Road. Um, so what we're recommending doing, I I talked to Commissioner Blunt about this, uh, that what this will do is do some deep patching along the edges where the roots are kind of pushing up the edge of the tree. We'll do a lot of root block, cut the roots off, and try to get them from coming back and, uh, get that road smooth and drivable again. So, uh, it's it's drivable, but it's just got some repairs we need to take care of now. Otherwise, I think it'll get worse. Um, what we would like to do is uh enter into contract with uh settle construction in the amount of $322,66 plus a 10% contingency and we can get those uh areas in that roadway fixed and get up to up to speed.

Mr. Blunt, will you speak to that request, please, sir? I will. It um me and Mr. Long have talked and I've live in that area, rode that road several times. Uh this road If we don't do something now uh with it versus spending $322,000, we're going to be looking at spending probably over a million dollars soon whereas it the road deteriorates. Uh this will help get us some more longer life out of that road and save us some money for later on. This uh T plus funded. Yes, sir. Okay. All right. Commissioner, if you allow him, I'm sure Commissioner Blunt would offer a motion to

I make a motion that we accept this from Trent Long Engineering and move forward with Cal Construction to do the work. I second motion and second and that is for the amount of $322,000 $66 plus 10%

10% contingency. Everybody further discussion all in favor show hands please. All right, motion passes. And then the next thing I have is uh we took bids for the landscaping at Jones Creek. Uh we had two proposals. Um one was from Sil Construction, one from RL Construction. Um what they're going to do is that we have a landscaping plan that we've done for the entirety of Susie King Taylor Park. Um sometimes I'll call it Jones Creek. That way everybody knows where it is. Um, and if you didn't get a chance to check catch the WTC WOC article last night, it really nice. She did a good job kind of covering the area and what the park's about.

I saw that Trent and they they said um, Commissioner Trent Long. So, did you get a promotion? I didn't know that I got that promotion or the motion. I was wondering about I saw it. I I will tell you I didn't see but she said she didn't mention your name commissioner. I was hiding behind her mana Herman and we were all fighting in that so bad this morning it doesn't matter what anybody said you're just ready to get out of the nets. Now look, you can't charge us for the promotion.

Tren, while we're on that, Trent, if if if y'all if y'all would we go back to um page four or on your report and I see the I mean you got headings and the head is John Creek improvements park and then you got a bunch of um subheadings. You got the pavilion, the landscaping, the fishing pair, the Kayak launch, the walking path, the raised platform, we wetlands and entry gate. All of that's Jones Creek. All that's all of that is Jones Creek. Okay. All that. Okay. Not today. Not today. But but

those are So those are sums that So I just run through pavilion and the main walking trail is complete. Landscaping is what we're talking about today. Fishing pier is out there. We've done a uh grant grant application through the Georgia Outdoor Stewardship Program. The the walking path is complete. The race platform walking trail through the woods. We've pretty much got that designed and going through permitting on it. The amphitheater, all of those subheadings is what that project. All right. In that all of that. Okay. That's right. That was my question. Amphitheater. And then we got the entry gate we're trying to work on now, too. But we're trying to get somebody to help us with a design build that that can have something to look nice on.

You didn't tell Frasier that y'all was going to be by there. He could have went by and sprayed before y'all. I probably should have cuz uh not saying that he do nothing with them. They were tough. So the landscaping bid is the landscaping bid. We had to uh the uh selection committee met yesterday and they selected uh Ciddle Construction um and we're recommending that you enter into a contract with Siddle Construction. I'm looking for that. It would have been separate that because we'd sent that over separate from our report.

Okay. And you'll have your rating sheet's going to look like this. So it may look a little different. Yeah. I was looking I look I was looking at your cumulative report who did the rating. We had four evaluators. Who? It was not me. So it was Keith from my office. Chairman Raymond. Raymond and Mr. Moses. Mr. Okay. Yeah. It wasn't was not me. I I Okay. I was at home. I was obeying the doctor. All right. Chain a motion. You know, that's coming out of my splines. So, thank you, Mr. Chairman, for

looking looking out for district one like Commissioner Gill does. I'll make a motion that we accept that bid. All right. Second. Motion to second. We accept the bid presented. Any further discussion? Make sure you get uh Mr. Fraser out Fraser out there to spray before we have that before we have the unde. Okay. Well, the best thing that's going to happen is in the April if it's a hot day, it'll be much better. And it feels nice outside. The Nats think it's nice outside, too. So,

Commissioner Stevens, on this um on this evaluation form, um if you want to take a wild guess which one was Miss I I I I can tell you just by looking at I know exactly. You may as well have put his name on there. I don't know. You may have it wrong this time. I I had to hire your number. Okay. They were they were very We got a motion. All right. All in favor show your hand, please. Motion passes. Thank you so much. We going look forward to let me go. April 10th, 10 o'clock a.m. we will have the ribbon cutting for sir this phase of the park. April the contract all be liberty kind of product.

We'll get the contracts out to him tomorrow. So, thank you very much. Y'all have a good night. Trent Trent, I got one question for you. Trent, Mr. Long got one question for you. No, one statement. country. Appreciate your dedication and helping us to get Bacon Town Road up the paw. Yes, sir. It was a struggle, but struggle. We just have to watch the shoulders down and make sure it doesn't wash away. There couple got a couple places I don't like how they're doing right now. Um, so we we're going to work on those. Okay. You can ride down and see where people run off the road and it's kind of squashed down really bad. Yeah.

You got to get a little bit more compaction on it. And you and I need to establish a date to go look at hometown and Yes, sir. Probably just don't need to be in truck with me until next week. Okay. All right. Okay. All right. Mr. Mosley, Mr. Chair,

Mr. Chair, you have uh on their agendas resolutions to consider. Um there are two roads. We received a request from the property owners association for Drum Point Way and also for the property owner who's bought all the property in Sunshine Camp Road. Uh Mr. Davis laid out all the uh restrictions we have to do. And if I could, if you allow me a little time, I I'll lay it out. Uh one of the first things that the board has to do uh is basically pass the resolution that's which is before you is basically a resolution to consider and uh we are required to um send letters to all the property owners abing those roads and we did that on yesterday. Uh then we'll put up uh we'll advertise in the paper twice and then the last thing you'll do is you'll have a public hearing which will be scheduled for April the 16th which you guys will have a public hearing and then at that time y'all will consider official action and then you'll pass a second resolution. So tonight just before you for both rows is uh what we call an intent to consider and I asked Mr. long to stay because he's been involved in that process as well as we've uh looked at everything that's required to to abandon the road. I know we had um a lot of discussion on this uh this is all this district one and four.

Yes sir. Drum point is district. We want you gonna do them one by one sir. Yes sir. Okay. All right. Let's deal with yours first. Commissioners Stevens uh drum point. Wait. Uh, Mr. Mosie, this is all of the residents at Drum Point. Yes, sir. We We sent out what about 30 letters? 29 letters we sent out. Number six. Okay. All right. Well, so this is just the intent. Yes, sir. This resolution is just the intent. The next one will be whether y'all want to approve it. Yay or nay. Okay. All right. And that's a public hearing, you said? Yes, sir. That's a public hand required

and there they I guess the rule would be since they got that fence there would be like other private properties if like EMS or somebody trying to get in there. Somebody's got to open the gate. The the I conversation with them, Commissioner Thrift, was the gate had to stay open until this process unless whether y'all approve it or not. But the gate was supposed to be open, right? Yeah. But after we approve it. Yes, ma'am. They were supposed to provide a code. a code in case, right? Yes, ma'am. Okay. Is that the way the other gated community? Yes, ma'am. That's what uh pro supposed to provide a code at 911. At 911.

Yeah. I thought about that. So, so 911 has a code to get into Bluff Creek. Good. Should Yeah. Okay. Interesting. That's the rule. All right, gentlemen. I make a motion that we accept this intent to um abandon this road process for drum point. There second that motion. Motion second. We accept that we extend the open up whatever the word is resisting to abandon Drum Point way coming back at our first meeting in April for the hearing and final decision. 16th 16th 16th. Yes, sir. Okay. Midmon. Okay.

Midmon. Yes, sir. All right. Thank you. Any further discussion? Just one. Uh now that Miss Mun when you said uh 29 to 30, that was property owners that that wasn't the number of people that live in there. Was it the property owners association uh made the official petition, but the law required us to send the letters to everybody that's everybody that lives in there? Yes, sir. Every adult or Yes, sir. Every every person that owns property. Every person that owns property. Oh, that's the property owners received the Yes, sir. the letter not just like if it's you know three people in one house everybody in the house the property owner it's on the property card yes sir I don't know if it's 29 30

the house is back there all right in favor show hands please all right that takes care of Jumpoint way sunshine campground road which is district for uh Commissioner Blunt, you want to speak to that?

Yeah, it uh I've uh got with Jeff Rickson and several others concerning this issue here. Uh rode down and looked everything over. Um I know it was at one time planned for lot development but information I've got a individual has purchased that entire area and all um so he know he doesn't need those roads he wants them to become private. I have no problem uh issuing them back over to it. Okay. You make that a motion. I entertain that. I make a motion that we uh turn these roads in Sunshine Lake, give them back to that property owner. Follow the same procedure. It'll be on a midmon. Yes, sir. Second.

Okay. Any further discussion? All in favor? Show hands, please. All right. The process. Let them have it. Process begins. Okay. Next resolution. resolution to convert code enforcement position to full-time which we discussed in our work session. Uh Mr. Chair, for you is a resolution to make that position to full-time. It will use existing funds within the um building license department. So there'll be no increase and position is I talked to Mr. Mullis with that position would start on uh Janu I mean on July 1. Mr. Mr. Chair, M. Yes, sir. Mr. Mothers said that he had enough money in his Yes, sir. budget that he wouldn't wouldn't have to do anything with it. That's right, sir.

Okay. And um to answer earlier, Mr. Chair, Mr. Mullis, uh one of the things that he do want he does want to focus on is uh and something y'all had talked about was the gateways, the major gateways is make sure that that person focus on that to clean up the gateways in our community. So, that's the report he would have given.

We're going to make that statement to our citizens, especially those who are here and those who may be listening live stream. We are asking the citizens of Ly County, Georgia to help us with the look of our gateways or the major gateway. I mean, countywide, but certainly the gateway. So, if you can help us by moving abandoned vehicles and any other debris maybe uh in in the front yards, um we would appreciate that. uh our code enforcement agency is going to um have someone who will be focusing on that and it's not to penalize anybody. Uh we'll work with you as long as you work with us. But let us let us make a community effort to improve the look of Liberty County. U we may ride by every day and think there's another other folk have different opinions. So, I'm going to ask my other municipalities to have the same uh program or same emphasis in their respective communities so we can make it once again something that's happening countywide, but we can only do it if the citizens work with us. Your commissioners will work with you. Um, and I know in the past some of you have come to the commissioners and we'll we'll listen to case by case based. No doubt about it. But as a as a county, let's just make that our objective to have a the best looking county. Uh you know someone said we keep talking about keep living beautiful. So let's let's all keep living it beautiful with our prospective uh properties. Uh shar motion then to uh make that person fulltime for code enforcement beginning July one.

Make that motion. Second. We approve that. Any further discussion? All in favor? Show your hands please. Thank you so much. All right, Miss Mosa, you on the road with summer? Yes, sir. Summer food program.

Uh, Mr. Chair, before you and members of the board, it's before you uh request to appoint Miss Nelle James. Uh, as as y'all familiar with the program, every year that individual has to go through um training from uh what Brightway Food or I forgot the name of it, but uh they have to go through training to uh be able to facilitate the program. And she has done the training and she's ready to move forward. Um, if you notice a little bit, we're trying to move everything we doing this year, uh, move it ahead of time and move it ahead of schedule so we can make sure that things are in place instead of doing things at the last minute. So, we're trying to stay on top of things this year.

So, she will uh she's working with Laura to do the advertisement for the different staff that'll be a part of the program. And we're excited this year because uh you have graciously funded um the improvement to the uh Liberty County Community Complex and have made it a certified kitchen. So uh she'll be able to provide hot meals to um participant this year as well as that kitchen will be able to in the future we have disasters. It'll be able to be meat certifications to to provide food from that particular local if we have a FEMA disaster. Right. Okay. I don't see a copy of a contract in my Am I overlooking it? We don't have that.

We we we just typically do it as a a verbal, sir. And we hire and but it would be good to know uh salary everything remains the same. Yes, sir. Okay. If you would just send that out to us, we will. Do you know how many sites we would have?

Uh that would be normally I try to get y'all's participation in in that. Uh, I think she had about 18 last year, but um, we can in May, I mean in April, uh, typically the latter part of April, I can ask y'all to I can get her to provide me a list that she currently have and and bring it to you guys. So, if y'all want to add some more to that list, we can do so. Um and we're we're happy to report that uh uh we'll be working with um uh Bradwell football team as well as Liberty County High School team to provide them hot lunches during the summer as they practice because they would be eligible participants.

I know we're saving a a good bit by having our own commercial kitchen at the complex. Yes, sir. We've we've spent well over almost $4,000 the last two years for contractual obligations to have a kitchen. Yeah. Just make sure that Brad will um get seconds and then win a couple of games. The new coach hopefully. All right. Chair motion to approve Miss Nelle James for as the summer foods coordinator. So move Mr. Chairman. Is there a second of that motion? Second, a second. Commissioner BL made the second. All right.

Any further discussion? All in favor, show hands, please. Look forward to that. We'll hear from her full report. And Yes, sir. And I do know once the word gets out uh several folk may request to have to serve as a um a site. So, I'm sure that's on the way after today. And we're excited, Mr. Chair, with having hot meals that seem to attract more participants. So, we're excited about that.

Building licenses, Mr. Mr. Chair, you have a application here uh with Mr. J. Patel. Um Mr. Cole shared with me that uh this is the annual uh Rotary Club uh fundraiser is what this is. It's a one-day event, special event and individuals met all the criteria. So then they license for that one day event. Yes, sir. This is for that one day event. Remember that. Okay. And all the paper, all the paperwork is our requirements. They met all the requirements.

Okay. All right. District one, sir. Mhm. Let them have it. All right. I consider that a motion. Is there a second? Y'all didn't say let them have it. One day. One day.

All in favor? Show of hands, please. All right. They can proceed. I remember them having that event. Uh EMS furniture proposal. Mr. Chair, members of the board, we had uh working with Mr. Brown, we sent out uh proposals for our furniture for the new EMS building and we had one vendor and working with Miss uh Miss Hensler and Mr. loan. Uh we reviewed the one proposal from coming from VIP and um it was um anticipated it would be about 90,000 but they came in with a price of $79,496. So that was uh came under our anticipated uh amount for estimate rather for for the furniture. So uh Miss Inler that building still scheduled about May to be on come online.

It's looking good from the road. Sure is. different. I was concerned one time, but it's a good blend now. It's looking good. You probably going to get lost in that building. Wait a minute. You know what you just told me now? You going to have too much space. Sharon entertain a motion to approve the bid from a local company been in Hansville a long time. VIP second motion second. We approve the bid to present 7949634. Any further discussion? All in favor? Show your hands. All right. That Crystal order her furniture. What's the turnaround time on on delivery?

Do you remember that? They told us from the time we can order about 30 days. Okay. Thank you. Uh, commissioner, any announcement before we go into executive session to discuss uh, personnel. Anything you need to say publicly before we I just want to remind the commissioners that we'll be having our county family fund date this coming Saturday at the Stratford building there on the LIT campus. At the what building? This is Stratford building. Stafford. Stafford. Stafford. Stafford. Okay.

Stafford. We we called Stafford Park State Park. Stafford Park. Raymond. They call it LIT. We call it Zapp. I call it Staff Park. Yeah. All right. That's it. A motion to close this session. Go in the executive. So move second. All in favor. All right. Thank

All in favor? Uhhuh.

All right. Good evening. Uh, as the board knows, uh, operations at our animal control facility have been suspended pending an internal review of operations as well as inquiries by the Department of Agriculture. And, uh, those inquiries and reviews have been completed and we have agreed to enter into a consent order with the Department of Agriculture resolving all the regulatory concerns and allowing u operations at the facility to resume. you know that uh consent order has been presented and is before you and I ask that the board vote to authorize the chairman to execute the order and return it to the department of agriculture. So move chairman

second presented by council. Yes sir. And then as as soon as it's executed by the Department of Agriculture, then the the facility will resume operations as normal. For the good of the order. So move second. All the paper.