Board of Commissioners - Regular Meeting

Good afternoon. Michael, are you ready? Thank you. This time we call the meeting of the Liberty County Board of Commissioners to order. Mr. Mosley, has the meeting been properly advertised? Yes, sir. I think I saw a press in the house. Thank you so much. Would you be so kind as to lead our prayer and our pledge? Please stand for the prayer and the pledge of allegiance. Ladies and gentlemen.

Let us pray. Most kind and gracious Father, we come before your divine presence. Thank you for this beautiful day and all the blessings that you bestow upon us. We pause and ask for your divine wisdom and insight as this Liberty Body discuss business for this community. We pray that you be with them and give them the wisdom that they need. Father God, we thank you and we bless you. For us in Christ's name we pray. 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.

I still can't remember. All right. We're going to start on a high note today with recognitions of Liberty County track and field state champs in nine events. Who is leading the effort to do that?

Brian Williams.

Oh, Mr. Bryant. Then, Mr. Gross, before we leave, you might want to make a statement by the young man from Liberty High that won the state. One of you all who... Okay.

All right. Okay. I would just like to thank you all for allowing us to come be recognized. We wanted to recognize some of the members of the Liberty County Rec Department who represented Liberty County at the state track meet in Atlanta, Georgia. And we had several athletes who came back as state champions. And we just like to recognize them. We had Sean Cuffield, who was a state champion in the standard long jump. I don't think we have it. This is going down, y'all. Just go down the list? No, we're coming. OK.

Since you haven't come, we'll come on.

Oh, it's fine. It's fine. Okay. Down the list?

Yeah, down this list. Okay. Hold on, Sean. We'll start over, okay?

All right. So, well, our first on the list was the eight and under girls relay team. That was Harmony Roberts, Autumn Thomas-Campbell, and Camila Rocco, and Camille McCord. And they come up. It was the eight and under girls, four by one relay. Yeah, so. We have Autumn Thomas Campbell, Camila Rocco, and Harmony Roberts. And while they're up here, they also won two relays, the eight and unders. Autumn, Harmony, and Camila was on both relay teams. We have two people who weren't here. Would you like me to hand those out? As I go down? OK. So first up was Camila Rockle. She's going to be the third one. OK. Camille McCord and Hazel Cadell are not here, but everybody else is. So Camila Rocco, you can go get your certificate. Autumn Thomas Campbell. Harmony Roberts. Tristan McDonald in the shot put. Georgia Magruder is not here. She won the softball throw. Tristan Green won the high jump. He was unable to make it. Sarah Washington won state in the standing long jump. Josiah Triplett had two state titles, the high jump and the four by one relay. And that relay consisted of Josiah Triplett, Breon Richardson, Ja'Warren Price and Sean Cuffield Jr. And so if y'all would come up here. Sean and then Ja'Warren. And once again, thank you all for allowing us to be recognized and supporting us. And thank you, parents, for coming out.

All right.

And if y'all would, I guess, come on this side for a picture.

Come up front right here, ladies. Go ahead, Brian. Yeah, everybody, everybody in the picture.

Look over here.

All right, I got two more.

Oh, my bad, hey.

Patrick, they said you're going to listen. I don't think we can leave this room without Mr. Donahue, acknowledging the young man that won the 4x100 from Liberty County High School. No, that's Bradwell.

He's Bradwell? Bradwell, I'm sorry. He's Bradwell. That's Liberty up there.

Yeah.

No, there's no page. He won the 100, 200, 400. It's kind of unusual when a kid wins.

Come on, you can't have somebody do that. This is Jacoby Pasley. He won the one, the two, and the four at the state track meet.

Yes, sir.

Never been done before in Georgia. That's why we're giving him a shout-out right now. Let the record show. Not Herschel Walker, not Houston McTier.

I guess we need to have him come. Yeah, definitely. Did he come through the LCRDs?

We will surely invite him to be front and center. Thank you so much. Had to give him a shout out. And now you'll leave on that. Thank you so much.

All right, Ms. Richardson, budget. Gets a little warm to me too. Ms. Monica, I don't know. A high humidity season or something.

Uh, good evening, Mr. Chairman commissioners. Um, I'd like to welcome everyone to our annual budget public hearing for the county's 2027 proposed operating budget. Um, and then there is a signup sheet for anyone who wishes to speak. Yes. Um, this, this hearing is an opportunity for us to receive public comments on the proposed budget before the board considers for final adoption next month. Our budget process begins in March each year. Uh, department heads and elective officials submit their requests to financing finance, outlining operational needs and priorities for the upcoming fiscal year. Uh, County staff members meet carefully, uh, to review the budget in detail, um, to help pro prioritize those requests with the upcoming fiscal year. Uh, we then have budget workshops with the commissioners, uh, to review. The total original budget request submitted for FY27 was 74, oops, I went too far, 74.7 million through a collaborative effort between finance admin and the board of commissioners, approximately 3.5 million and reductions were identified and incorporated into our budget process for this year. As a result, the proposed general fund budget for FY27 is $71.28 million. Comparing it to our current FY26 operating budget, which is $68.5 million, the proposed FY27 budget represents an overall increase of approximately 4%. This slide provides a summary of our general fund revenues by category. As shown, general property taxes which includes all of our ad valorem taxes remains the county's largest source of revenue accounting for 58% of our total general fund revenues. And because the taxable property digest is not yet available, the county is taking a conservative approach in estimating the FY27 general fund revenues. Once the digest is finalized and received, staff will meet with the commissioners to reevaluate to determine whether any budget amendments may be necessary at that time. I'm not sure if Mr. Mosley is going to bring it up later, but last week we did receive a letter from the state saying that we could go ahead and apply collections of floss to this year's tax digest. So where we have budgeted the property tax revenue, this will be reduced by the amount of floss we collect by June. So this is five months, and it's about... a little over a million dollars a month. Our share of that is gonna be 61%. So we hopefully can work toward reducing the millage this year when we thought we had to wait until 2027. But that is good news.

You said hopefully, when will we have a definite?

Well, I don't wanna promise anything.

But we can apply.

It will, yeah, it has to be.

Yes, sir, it has to be applied. I heard y'all say you could, count it, but I didn't know you could actually apply it.

We have to, what I read and talked to the state yesterday, we have to apply it to this year's digest and roll it back in our millage calculation.

Yes, sir. Good news. Yes.

Let's see. This slide shows a breakdown of the county's total budgeted expenditures by expenditure type. The county is a service-based organization. The services we provide our citizens are carried out by our employees. Because of that, salaries and benefits consistently make up the largest portion of the budget. Simply put, our workforce is one of the county's most valuable assets. The other expenditure categories can fluctuate from year to year based on economic conditions, operational needs, inflation, fuel cost, et cetera. This is our proposed expenditures in a pie chart. But as you can see, the largest portions of the chart, the Navy on the right and the orange total 65% for salaries and benefits. If we take the same budget and break it down by function, public safety accounts for approximately 50% of our operating budget. which is a significant portion of the county's overall spending each year. This category includes sheriff's office, jail, EMS, fire, animal control, coroner's office. The fact that public safety represents the largest share of the budget reflects the strong commitment and investment that this board has made toward protecting the safety and well-being of our citizens. I've also included the FY26 percentages just for comparative purposes to see how each category aligns. Overall, the percentages are fairly consistent from year to year. Another way to break down the budget is to classify it based on types of services the county provides. Mandated services make up approximately 42% of our budget. Essential services make up 56% and discretionary about 1%. The mandated services are those that the county is legally required to provide to its citizens and taxpayers under state law. And this chart shows how our departments fall, excuse me, in this, in these states classification. Um, so the mandated services on the left, um, include a large portion of our county departments, but the essential services which are not required to this degree by the state comprise a huge amount. And this includes like fire, EMS, 911, important things that the county offers to its citizens. And let's see. And lastly, this proposed budget includes a cost of living adjustment and a longevity bonus for full time county employees. Can't speak today. And that concludes the budget presentation.

Thank you. Most of us was privileged to work through this process, so none of what she presented should have been foreign to us. And I think the process spoke for itself. The department heads came in. Some came in twice to make their request known and to justify for the second time their request. We appreciate those departments, all of them who are doing a good job. Some of them had even budget reductions this year. So we appreciate those that did that. So I'm pleased with the process. This has been Now for the public hearing. So chair, I'm taking a motion to go into public hearing to discuss the budget. So moved. Second. All in favor, show me your hands, please. All right. We're now in public hearing for the budget. Mr. Glenn Burch, would you come speak to us there?

How you doing this morning, Mr Chairman? Okay, I'm Glenn Birch and kind of in. I don't normally read things, but in the interest of time and accuracy that I'm going to read the first part.

Okay.

Since 2020 when the Liberty County budget was 32 million, we've experienced over 100% growth and spending. Uh, and we're now brief tonight over 71 million. In the same period, the household median income has increased to about 60,000, roughly 30%, about a hundred percent in vice, the hundred percent increase in the budget. Uh, Pat, this past September in, in the courier, the United Way put showed that 54% of Liberty County is below their threshold for living in our county. The threshold is 78,800. That's for a family of four. For a family of four to thrive in this county, it's 121,000. That's twice what the income is at the family level right now. Well, the state of Georgia actually went down percentage-wise on that rate from 48 to 45. The percentage of people in Liberty County that fell below it went up by 9%. Only one county of the 159 counties in Georgia have a higher tax rate than Liberty as a percentage of home value. Overall, Liberty ranks 19 of 159 counties and property tax rate. And Liberty property taxes are 38.6% higher than the state average. Our tax rate is in the top 35% in the United States. Our poverty rate hovers at 15 to 16%. The number of people employed in Liberty County has been stagnant at about 23,000 since 2020. Chairman Lovett, my question to you tonight is as follows. Could you address what the county is doing to ensure residents can maintain their homes, their businesses, and their standard of living under these financial pressures? Additionally, do you have any concerns the glide path we're on in terms of county spending and resulting tax rates And is it sustainable in light of the disproportionate income growth in the county?

Are you done, sir? Yes, sir. All right. Um, a public hearing does not mean a question in Q and a, this is not a Q and a time for you to make your statement and you made your statements. Uh, The audience may not know, but we've had conversations before. It's nothing new. And you've made your positions known at that time as you have again today. And I thank you for that. I thank you for being interested in citizens. It really means a lot that you're interested in your community. But if you will, again, see those people, if you want to meet again, make an appointment with Mr. Mosley, and we'll go back in the conference room again and do it like we've done twice before.

No, that's fine.

Yeah.

We're out in public. If we're not going to deal with it here, we just won't deal with it.

I appreciate your time. I offered to deal with it. It's not on your terms. That was the only one I had. All right. Chair, I'm going to motion to go out in public here and back in the regular session. So moved. Second. All in favor, show of hands. Now back in the regular session. Ms. Richardson, are you... Come on. Oh, you had someone to come in? Yes, sir.

Okay.

Sorry, but we had another state champion come in as we were going out the door. This is Camille McCord. She was on the 4x100 state champion team. Hey, you and I. This is her mom.

Thank you. We have to take a picture of her too. Can she come up here? Yes, sir. Yeah.

We're going to let, we're asking mom to come up. Sorry, I just came from work.

How are you?

Hold it down just a little bit. There you go.

Thank you.

All right, Ms. Samantha.

Next on the agenda for finance is the financial report for March.

Starting with the general fund, as of the end of March, we have collected approximately 86% of our anticipated revenues and have spent 70% of our total expenditures. Looking at the departmental expenditures for the general fund, there are only a few that are running ahead of schedule for this month. Superior Court, which those expenses for the law library are paid in July each year and it takes the whole year for them to catch up and not show over budget, but we don't anticipate this department going over budget. It will level out by the time we get to June. Animal control, still showing slightly ahead of schedule for March. However, when I ran the budget reports for April last week and sent those out to the departments, I noted that animal control is not going to be over budget for April. It is definitely trending in the right direction. The road department, Mr. Wells continues to have equipment repairs. He is currently showing ahead of schedule for March. Recreation, this amount seems to be coming down as well as we get further into the fiscal year, but it's for our part-time wages. And turning the page to solid waste, we've collected, let's see, just about 76% of our total revenues and have only spent 56%, which is causing us to show revenues over expenditures through March of $967,000. And there are currently no departments for solid waste that are showing over budget. And turning the page again to our special revenue funds. All those special revenue funds are operating within their budget as well through the month of March. And flipping over to the sales tax reports. So T-Splast. So our last month of collection, I'll call it old T-Splast, was this past October. For March, a little bit more trickled in, about $1,400. Since the inception of TSPLOST, we've collected $59.8 million. To date, we have spent $35.7 million. Um, the County is scheduled to receive our first paint payment from the new T-SPLOST, the 2025 T-SPLOST, um, at the end of May. Um, this new T-SPLOST was approved by the voters, um, in the November, 2025 election. And once we start receiving those distributions from the state, um, I will include those in your monthly reports. Um, Moving on to sales tax seven, March collections was 1.1 million. It's about the average of what we've been collecting recently. We have, to date, collected 40.3 million for sales tax seven. We've spent 25.7 million on our SPLOST projects. The last page I didn't include this month is our floss collections through the month of March. Floss, again, is going to offset property taxes. It's a way to collect sales tax to hopefully decrease the millage rate and the financial burden that it places on our citizens. And so January, only a tiny amount, $16, was collected. But February and March, these collections are right on par with our sales tax seven. And as I mentioned earlier in the budget presentation, we will be able to use five months of collections to apply to our property tax. this coming fall. I'll start including that in your packets as well.

Just so far, in case there's someone watching who's not in the know, when it comes to flaws, the entirety of flaws must be applied against property taxes. 100%.

Yes, sir.

And that will happen sooner than I thought it was gonna happen. Look forward to it. So, Commissioner, so the combination of your working diligently with your budget as well as now being able to use FLOSPA, that should put us in pretty good shape. We're looking forward to it. Are you able to run it? Well, not until the digest comes, okay. All right, all right.

Was there a question about the digest?

I've crunched some numbers, but yeah. Okay, all right. Thank you, Samantha.

Thank you.

Development agreement, Mr. Mosley, law of your track.

That was an agreement that y'all signed some two or three years ago. And so I asked Mr. Davis to come in and share that because Commissioner Blunt wasn't on board and provide an update on that agreement. Okay.

Yes, following this, you have approval of primary plat for a development of the Laurel View property by Lenore homes, and I thought it might be a good occasion to review the one of the most important mechanisms we have to help subsidize the cost of the island's highway transportation improvements. As you know, the cost of those are quite considerable, so a substantial portion of those costs will be paid by developers whose developments impact the island's highway transportation infrastructure, and this is a good case in point. Lenore Homes will be constructing 147 homes just on the other side of I-95, and as a byproduct of that, they have agreed to pay an assessment or contribution towards the cost of the Islands Highway infrastructure project and those costs approximate $400,000 so this is just one developer but other developers have paid whether it's industrial clients most recently the gloves project assigned assessment agreement other distribution facilities are scheduled to sign so these funds will be placed in a dedicated account and used towards payment of the Islands Highway transportation system improvements. The agreement is tonight given just as an example of what taxpayers or developers may sign. The board doesn't have to approve it. When you adopted the use of development agreements more than two years ago, as Mr. Mosley said, you authorized the chairman to sign these agreements on behalf of the board. That's what we're doing. The agreements are all standard form agreements. They really don't change based on the project. There may be some variation, but the costs are calculated by the county engineer in accordance with well-established criteria. So far, no one has voiced any concerns regarding the agreement or the costs that are imposed. I think most developers these days are accustomed to these sorts of costs given the significant cost that infrastructure, whether it's water or sewer or roadways, cost a local government. I've not had any concerns voiced yet and don't expect to have any concerns voiced. If anyone had any questions generally about how the county goes about this, I'll be happy to answer them.

questions for Mr. Davis.

Chair, with this agreement, bring me back up to speed on it. This will cover from what, on the west side of

It's the east side. East side. Yes, sir. It's the infrastructure improvements that you folks have authorized on the east side, and it goes from essentially the other side of the bridge on I-95. I'm not sure how many feet, but it extends past the Industrial Authority Park, Tradeport East, for a little ways.

That would be almost about 1,000 feet prior to Bridgeton Road.

It goes almost, that's the road. That's the road I couldn't think of the name of. Right, yeah. Okay.

But it includes everything from widening of the road to signaling to, you know, a variety of improvements that the county engineer, I think, reviewed with the board some time ago. And it may be helpful for him to review those improvements again, but. And I don't know what the estimated cost now for those improvements are, but it's in the tens of millions of dollars. 20 million.

Because you're right, everything on the island side, we have to fix. And then the other side, then it's a combination of state and county.

We would share interest in what's going on.

Now, what's going to happen, Chairman Kelly, when we look at the the widening of the overpass itself. I know that's probably years down the road.

All that's factored into the design. All that's factored into this? Yes. Okay, yes. All right, okay. All that's factored into the design. Okay, good. Now, so these funds will come in and they'll be set up like an enterprise kind of fund?

A dedicated fund.

Dedicated fund.

Restricted revenues, I think the legal term.

Okay.

County term.

Restricted revenues. Restricted revenues. All right. And then at what time can someone tap into those restricted funds?

Once they're deposited, you're free to utilize the funds for project purposes. I'm sure the county manager will have a program schedule. and you'll use those funds as needed. But payment under the agreement is typically in phases. When at the time of, for example, whether it's issuance of first building permit, or in this case, whether it's site plan approval, at some initial point of the project, a substantial portion of the fee is typically paid, about half usually, and then the balance is paid when they draw their first building permit. We try to work with developers understanding that cash flow is important for the fiscal health of their project. And so at the point they're beginning to sell inventory is the time we typically realize the balance of their obligation.

How do we monitor that? Is it through Tony's office? What triggers...

I was, in fact, I did have that conversation with him, but actually, I think Sam will need to set up the accounts and track those funds. So it'll be through finance. Okay, all right. You said the permits or the revenue?

Revenue.

The revenue will be tracked by Sam. The permits, okay, all right. And Tony will track the permits.

And it's a mechanism that's worked well in other jurisdictions and so far is working well in Liberty County.

You all may remember, if not, I'll remind you. I'm not sure if you were here. This all came about when the, The whole helping out the development in and around the trade port east was a hot topic and it was said that the citizens of Liberty County should not have to bear the burden of all the infrastructure improvements for industry, commercial, whomever that comes. So we started exploring this possibility because as Mr. Davis has said, other communities have been doing it for a long time and developers are used to it. So we did our research and had our hearings and put this in place. Now we're about ready to see some of the fruit there.

You make a good point. You know, the fees aren't arbitrary. They're based on the proportion impact of developments development has on our transportation infrastructure. So whether it's industry or residential units, the county engineer applies a standardized formula to calculate exactly what that impact is. And that's translated into a proportionate share of the cost, overall cost of the project. Now, of course, these assessments or contributions won't completely finance the project, but they'll finance a substantial portion of it. And we are fair. If a developer, for example, makes system-wide improvements, not just improvements which serve their particular project, we will typically give them credit for those amounts. If in connection with their project they agree to undertake a portion of the project we would otherwise be required to construct, we'll typically give them a credit. Also in this case, as with others, we'll give them a credit for their portion of your regularly occurring impact fees that are dedicated to transportation infrastructure. As you folks know, you recently imposed impact fees countywide, and a portion of those are intended to recover impacts on transportation infrastructure. but the county does not want to double dip, so to speak, so we give them a relatively modest credit, but we do give them a credit for what they would pay for their transportation impact under your general impact fee ordinance.

Any other questions for Mr. Davis? All right. The chair will take a motion then.

Oh, no motions needed. You're already authorized by standing resolution. I thought you needed to bless it again. Yes, sir. No, sir. We're fine. Thank you. Thank you.

All right. Speaking of law review, you want to talk about law review also?

Yes sir, good evening Chairman, Commissioners. I am here to present the Laurel View East Tract B preliminary plot. As Mr. Davis said, this is 147 lots. They're single-family lots. It's all part of the Laurel View PUD. The developer is Lenard, Georgia, and Thomas & Hutton has designed this project. It is off Old Sunbury Road in District 4. Laurel View PUD started out being behind the Development Authority property, mostly on the west side along 95 and then kind of curving over the top. I don't remember exactly how long ago it was, but this area here that this subdivision is in was added into the PUD. It wasn't part of the original Laurel View PUD, so it expanded into this area here. So there will be, in this PUD, a spine road that goes all the way through it. It roughly follows what's shown here as Conservation Way, but not necessarily entirely, especially when it gets into this area. It will follow along the top of this property, and then along this property line, and then connect down to Old Sunbury Road. So there will be two connections in and out of the Laurel View PUD development. This is the area to be platted. It's not along the property line with the development authority property here, but they will probably end up eventually in this area. But for now, we're just looking at this area outlined in red. What is along here is what we're dubbing, what we're calling the spine road. There is 100 foot access and utility easement already in place, and then it does track along the top of this property and then over into the rest of the eastern part of, I'm sorry, the western part of the Laurel View PUD property. Maybe a little bit difficult to see here, but what's here in shaded is the wetlands on the property, and then what is not shaded is developable land, and they will at some point come before, have something in place for these areas that are not wetland, and they have made some provisions in this preliminary plat and this phase for road stub outs that will be interconnected for what eventually will go here. And I can show you that in a little more detail as we go to the different sheets. It's a little bigger view. It's easier to see. The other thing I'd like to point out on this overall map is that this will be the spine road, as I mentioned, and they are proposing two connections to the spine road. This one here will have the lots developed along along this portion. This one here, they are making this connection in this phase because they are required to have two connections in and out of the subdivision. Later on, I'm sure they'll be coming back with development of lots on the area on either side of this part of that connection into second connection into the spine road. The water and sewer for this development is being provided by the development authority. The streets will be, of course, in unincorporated Liberty County. They will become public streets. There are three sheets to this preliminary plot. We're going to start down here in the yellow, move up to the orange, and then over here to the darker orange or red. So I've highlighted here the orange, I'm sorry, the red are the actual single family lots and there's the green is common area. Now these common area have different features on them. Some are just mostly detention. Some are just as you can see here, just kind of green strip buffers. Some actually have common area that will be usable. And there's even one that has, I'll point out that has a pump station. We'll go on it. But this is, as I mentioned before, two of those stubbed out roads that will be for future development in this area. Moving up, develop-able lots, a green strip. This will probably just help buffer whatever ends up being developed down here. Another stub out road, more common area. This common area here is providing a buffer for what will be the future extension of that spine road that heads west through the Laurel View PUD. And this is that road, that second road that will connect out to the spine road, and then this is just the inset that shows the remainder of the road, and that will be the spine road. And lastly, sheet four, this pump station will be here, more green space, and then the lots and a couple more stubbed out roads for future expansion of this development. This shows you, I know it's hard to read, the parcel area tables. The minimum lot size for single-family home lots in this development is 4,000 square feet, and the smallest one they are providing is 4,400, a little over 4,400 square feet, with the largest being just under 11,000.

What's the average?

I didn't calculate the average on this one.

I usually do that. In general.

In this preliminary plant?

Liberty County-wide.

Oh, I don't know that, sir. I have no idea.

I was going to say how it falls into what we see every day. Of course, there's several different size losses.

Right. I know the cottages on Carter, the Dryden Enterprise, I think they allow lots about this size. They're smallest. They have a graduated one. They have patio lots, garden lots, things like that. But that's kind of right in keeping with what we've been seeing for PUDs. We've gone in Hinesville as low as 3,500 square feet for a single family lot. And we're not talking town homes. We're just talking individual lots with a single family home on it. So it's not out of the ordinary, especially for Hinesville and Flemington. So these are those standards with the 4,000 square feet. They do have to have a minimum of 40 foot of lot width, and the setbacks are listed here. A side setback for the five feet is if you have two single-family lots together, it would be the side lot to that single-family lot. A side street setback would be a corner lot, and that would be the setback to the street side of that house lot. So proposed dedications to the county include about a one and a quarter miles of new streets and then the stormwater improvements within the right of way. So you will not be responsible for having to maintain the ponds or anything that's outside the right of way. That will be the responsibility of the H.O.A.. The development authority is being dedicated the water and sewer improvements as well as the associated easements. and the dedications to the HO way will be some drainage easements outside of the right-of-way, as well as a total of seven common areas, some with detention ponds, some with wetlands, some with actual green space, some are just providing a buffer, but they do total a little over 11 acres. This preliminary plot was before the Planning Commission last month. And before I get into the recommendation, I just I think you're all aware that when there's a subdivision in unincorporated Liberty County, the Planning Commission takes care of the plot and then the county engineer reviews and approves the actual construction plans. So in this case, the county engineer, when he concurred with the plans, he did have a list of special conditions two of which apply to the platting of the project. One had to do with the preliminary plat, and the other one had to do with the final plat. And those recommendations were made a part of the special conditions that the Planning Commission did here. So the recommendation is that for this plat, the preliminary plat, that they are approved with standard and special conditions. and the special conditions are prior to the issuance of the land disturbing activity for this project, the required transportation assessment agreement must be executed before the developer and the board of commissioners between the developer and the board of commissioners and the plans for the spine road from Sunbury road, which will serve the subdivision shall be approved. Um, this is a, relates to the preliminary plat because you don't want to approve a plat that you don't have your transportation agreement in place and then you don't want them to not have a road to get out to to Sunbury Road. So that is kind of the background on that special condition. And the last one is a final plat special condition where the final plat for any phase of this project is contingent on the completion of the spine road construction or the posting of the acceptable performance payment and maintenance guarantees and or bonds by the developer to the benefit of the board of commissioners. So what this is saying is like, you don't want the developer going in there, starting to build houses and then looking for a CO when that road is not done. Um, and that's kind of the, this was language that was from exactly from the, uh, county engineers letter of concurrence. We didn't make that one up.

And who's going to be the gatekeeper.

of these two, it'll probably be a combination of both Trent and LCPC. We've worked together through this whole process to make sure, you know, in a coordinated effort to make sure that the county's getting what it needs.

There's one thing to make laws, another thing to enforce them, so. Yes.

Yes, sir. So we do also do want to come to the final plat and any kind of certificates of occupancy, we do also coordinate with your building and licensing department. We work well with Tony.

Commissioner Blount, what say you?

So I just want to make sure everybody understands. It looks like everything's kind of contingent on the Liberty County Development Authority getting the water and sewer and the infrastructure. Yes, sir. What I don't want to see, I don't want to see a bunch of houses going up and there's a hiccup in their plan and can't move forward just yet. That's what I see.

I'll let you address it, sir. That's a great point, especially for the larger developments in this area. This particular project will be served with existing capacity that the industrial authority has based on its current order allocation as well as its wastewater allocation through an agreement with the city of Midway. Both the city of Midway and the industrial authority have already issued letters of service to the state EPD. So as far as this development's concerned, it'll be served through existing capacity. But you raise a good point. The future development of East Liberty County is contingent upon successful completion of the...

I didn't know that part. So it sounds like they want this phase and everything is okay to go with City of Midway.

Yes, sir.

Going backwards to go to City of Midway.

Yes, sir. Of course, as you know, from your experience, it's not an ideal situation. And that's one of the circumstances that the new... The new system is intended to correct, but as for now.

In the event anything with this development fails, is there anything that says they have to attach to the new system down there, or how will they make the repair?

It's intended that once the new system is in place, that all the current industry, whether it's residential, industrial, commercial, will transition to the new system. It's technically the industrial authority system they're on now. We'll just simply disconnect the point at which it introduces wastewater into the city of Midway, and thereby hopefully restoring a lot of needed capacity to the city of Midway for projects within its jurisdiction.

It's basically kind of a temporary, I didn't mean to interrupt you. No, go ahead. It's basically kind of a temporary until the new plant gets going and everything, and then the plan is to change over. And I can understand how they could do that. They would go in right in where there's a main line and tie right in. Just making sure.

Okay. Yes, sir. My question was going to be, and I think you answered it. Let me make sure. The last time we talked, I think Midway was having about, what, 250 million gallons left, Chairman, before they cap out? It might have been 150. Okay, so what's the time frame of the build-out of the new system? Because if you overload Midway, then Midway can't grow anymore.

That's right. And I think as all the board knows, this is a critical time in our county's history as far as economic development. And without the new wastewater treatment facility, economic development really is at a standstill in eastern Liberty County. uh but the industrial authority of the county and the city of midway are in discussions to discuss how we can accommodate the needs of each other especially midway and industry with uh within eastern liberty county until the new system is operational so those are conversations that we're all having with the city of midway and we i think we have a preliminary plan in place uh but of course further discussion is needed and midway has been a invaluable partner to date and uh The more we talk, the more I think everyone realizes that our approach needs to be a regional approach. It doesn't need to be just simply dedicated to Liberty County or the City of Midway or the Liberty County Industrial Authority and its industrial clients, but it needs to be a more regional collaboration for the benefit of everyone in Eastern Liberty County. That's what's been proposed, that's the plan, and that's my expectation of what'll happen.

The development authority has some capacity left as well as the city midway. There's enough to, what's the word, support this, but you're right. Going forward in the future, they won't be at zero, but it's not done yet.

Importantly, just like your transportation assessment agreement, the industrial authority is using capacity reservation agreements, whereby developers who are interested in reserving capacity, whether it's current or future capacity in our wastewater treatment facility, they will sign agreements. For example, Laurelview has already signed one, and they are committed to paying minimum annual payments that will help service the debt for the wastewater treatment facility. And of course, if you think roads are expensive, you should take a look at what wastewater costs these days. The initial phase of that project is expected to cost around $32 million. So the project would be perhaps feasible without developer contribution and partnership, but it would be much more difficult So it's hopefully be a mutually beneficial relationship for everyone, for industry, for commercial prospects, industrial prospects, prospects and local government.

Go back to your map to the what you call it a spine road. Okay. Where does that spline road actually lead off to? Where is Island's Highway in reference to that?

Island's Highway is down here. So this is the this property right here if I can go back is this property right here. So it goes along this property line and will connect down in to this area of Sunbury Road.

OK, and Sunbury Road is going to bring you back out to what highway?

Sunbury Road brings you back out to Islands Highway.

Thank you. OK, so now that's going to put an overload if the infrastructure is not in. Am I correct? The highway widening and everything?

Well, you know, that's really a... technical question, but I'll try to answer the best I can. But, you know, it takes time to put all, even to do this. Hopefully, that number of houses won't be to the volume where it just bombards Island Highway with traffic, knowing that we are going to make improvements to the fighting that is coming.

Keeping in mind, Chairman, I'm down that way regularly. It's a problem now.

Mr. Davis, I wasn't trying to pick you apart or nothing. It's just questions that I thought everybody kind of ought to know. All good questions. Before we get blindsided with something two or three years from now and we didn't discuss it.

Yes, sir.

I know about the future, hopefully, wastewater treatment plant, and I hope it all works out.

No, I want to thank you for your involvement. You have expertise in this area, and it's been invaluable when we have discussions with the community and other folks, so thank you for your help.

Thank you. All right, Commissioner Blount, if there are no other questions, we'll take action.

I would also note that the engineer from Thomas & Hutton is here if you'd like to have any questions of her.

You can't have company come and not say hey.

Hi, good evening, Chairman and Commissioners. My name is Kate Oppenheimer. I'm with Thomas & Hutton. Lennar could not be here this evening. Unfortunately, they are in the middle of an office move. So I'm here. Any questions that you might have beyond what you've already asked, Ms. Sanchez, or any other clarifications?

Unless there's anything else you want to add to what we've heard already?

No, I mean, the only other thing I will mention is that, you know, 147 lots don't go up overnight. So, you know, this is a couple year of a build out for this phase with the spine road going in. And so as far as I know with the wastewater treatment plant is coming in a few years, you know, time wise, it's not going to be too far long after. All right.

That's the plan. Yep. Thank you.

Thank you.

Motion to move forward. You ready for a motion, Mr. Monty? I'm ready for it. All right. I make a motion that we follow LCPC recommendations with this. We go forward.

With the standard and special conditions?

With all the standard and special conditions, just like it was laid out.

All right. Is there a second? Motion and a second that we approve the preliminary plant proposals as presented by Ms. Monty. Thank you. and for this project we've been hearing about for some time. We are working diligently, Commissioner Stevens, to make sure that everything we can possibly do to ensure that the infrastructure is in place and there's at least disruption as possible to the citizens. That's high on our priority list.

All right.

All in favor, show of hands, please. All right.

All right. Thank you.

Citizens of Midway, development's coming your way. Let me say before, come on, you're all right, but I was reminded, I know she's on a 1.6 miles of street, 1.4, what was that number you had, the streets that, which is not a lot, but my point is, though, for us as commissioners, as we, kind of like you said, we take on streets. Remember that we, when you take on these things, that's not just streets, that's, Fire, EMS, that's everything. So community of the species is you. When you grow like that, everything grows. Try to manage it the best you can. You don't go in and hire another whole crew overnight. But just know that the crew you had yesterday can't contain what we're doing today. Sustained, I guess the word is good today. And that's a little everything.

All right, sir. Mr. Chairman, commissioners. Good evening. Come before you this evening to discuss the, uh, the quarterly report, the Liberty County Sheriff's office kind of give you a snapshot of where we're at, uh, year to date for our stats. Um, we're not seeing any real major shifts in any one area. Uh, we are seeing, some increases in certain areas such as a total calls for service increased by 25%, which now that the quarter that we're reporting on is February, March and April of this year. And so those calls for service during that time frame is 14,046 calls for service, which is an increase of that 25%. Uh, deputies have been very proactive on the road. They've increased their direct patrols, walk and talks and business checks by 73%, which means they're actually getting out of the car, spotlighting businesses, riding through parking lots, and generally keeping an eye on everything in order to keep some of your up-top staffs here lower, meaning the burglary, the arsons, the opportunities for crime that occur out there on the street, and that's what they're there for, to prevent crime. And in the event that there is a crime, respond to it and conduct an investigation and hopefully make an arrest. To that end, arrests are up to some degree. So our DUIs are actually up by 49%, which is also a good thing. It's a blessing and a curse. We have a lot of drunk drivers, but we are getting a large majority of them off the road. So we made 76 arrests for those, and that's not counting the arrests that are made by GSP or any other agency in our area that are working and producing these arrests in Liberty County. That is solely based on Liberty County Sheriff's Office stats. And, of course, total citations for that time frame would be 3,856, and that's in addition to the 1,104 traffic warnings. We do work I-95 corridor because we do have a heat unit, and the Governor's Office of Highway Safety, that's one of their mandates that we write a certain percentage of speeding tickets on the interstate to slow down that interstate highway traffic. So with that in mind, I mean, these are the stats that are there for your review. I've provided them to you. If you have any questions, we're always available for discussion on these stats.

I'm starting with the 49%. You did say 49%, didn't you? Yes, sir. What more can you say about that startling number, sir?

Exactly. Like I said, there's some good things. The old Part 1 UCR crimes that we discussed, like ag assault, homicide, rape, robberies, burglaries, arsons, those stats are pretty much trending now. steady across the board with very minor influences up or down and that's when compared to the same quarter for 2025 and we actually keep stats for the last five six seven years as long as we've been in an officer bowman says we've been keeping these stats and so we had those available for any type of public release or if you're interested in those we have those numbers readily available for all of you as well

If there's any way they show trends, I'd like to see that. Absolutely. Is it the 25 to 30-year-olds? Is it the new driver? Who is it?

Right. We actually have a crime mental analyst on staff that can actually work up those numbers. And he looks for MOs. He looks for dates, crime trends, crime series, such as entering an auto. It may not be committed by the same person, but it may be a series of crimes throughout the county. And so we're constantly paying attention to that. We have monthly supervisors meetings to disseminate the data. and to identify locations that are problem areas or hotspots that we need to identify and kind of keep a closer eye on. And we're being somewhat successful. If you look at the stats, we're being very successful in those areas, which is always good to hear. The third up from the bottom, Liberty County Sheriff's Office DOS.

Right, and... That's why I say what is the...

You know, they do say that in harder economic times that you see, you know, crimes like that driving under the influence increase. Domestics typically increase, although it's not reflected here. We're pretty steady on the domestic, thanks goodness. But, you know, alcohol-related crime does increase during times of anxiety or stress, you know, difficult times out there. So that is one of the things we're taking into consideration. Also, we are getting more off the road simply because we created a traffic unit. And, you know, that's a six-person traffic unit that is working nothing but traffic in Liberty County. They don't answer calls for service unless it's to back up a deputy or it's a serious emergency call. And then they actually deviate from the traffic responsibility. But they're out there night and day trying to enforce these traffic laws.

So you have your traffic units out and your regular units out?

Yes, sir. Every deputy is equipped with a radar. They have access to LIDAR, uh, and you know, they're trained to investigate traffic offenses across the board. And so they're out there, but of course they're, they're responsible for handling calls for service, working accidents and all that stuff. So we do have dedicated folks that are doing nothing but traffic because it is such a problem here in Liberty County of them. I'm sure you're well aware.

Well, you know, When did the Colonel Weaver, he said everybody should be back about now? Those have been deployed? Yes, sir.

We'll probably see some increases. You're going to see some increases. Unfortunately. When you come home. Yeah, be careful. And we do do briefings every once in a while on Fort Stewart to the troops in processing. And we give briefings on DUI, staying safe, the rules of the road, Georgia traffic law. So we do go out there and make the message known. Like I said, we would rather prevent a DUI than actually have to make an arrest for one. They're very expensive. They're time consuming for our personnel. And of course, they're a danger to the public if we don't get them in time. So we would love to see prevention versus enforcement. Yes, sir.

Is your microphone on?

There you go. I was talking to Justin, and I didn't want to interrupt. When you come back, if you don't have that information today, I noticed one thing on some of your patrol cars, the wraps come off.

Yes, sir.

Are we having them, is someone locally doing them or what?

We actually have our fleet manager, which is Mr. Pat Cochran, and he identifies those cars and takes them over to have the decals replaced. We have a vendor over in Odom that actually does it at a lot less cost than one of our other suppliers does. They apply the decals, and they did get a batch of bad vinyl for what they're telling us. And whenever that happens, they have to go in, and they replace it at no cost to the sheriff's office or Liberty County. They replace it, you know, like under a warranty. And so as we identify those, and, of course, if you see any who still run around the very old decals, those are just about all gone. And the newer decals are on the road. Okay.

Well, and I was just looking at it, Chairman, and I know y'all do what you want, but I'm just looking at trying to keep the money in the county if possible.

Absolutely.

Okay.

Yeah. Anytime we can, we certainly do.

All right. Okay. Yes, sir.

And then the very last thing, Mr. Chairman, is Project 10 Years in the Making is Tyler Technologies. That's our record management system, which basically every piece of paperwork that we used to produce and we currently produce is managed through that records management system. If a citation is issued, it's tracked all the way from there through the courts. And just this week, we've made contact with the clerk of courts. And that link has been established between Tyler and her system as well. So that facilitates the citation being pushed from our system over to hers. And it helps that we went with Tyler because these two systems actually communicate. Also, we're able to see all these units from the CAD, from the 911 center, and the deputies on the road now actually have the ability to self-dispatch. So if they're going out on a building check, they can actually hit a button, enter what type of call it is, and dispatch gets a notification. That keeps the radio channels free, so deputies needing assistance or actually calling out some other type of activity has a clear radio channel in order to do so. Like I said, this program has been in the making for 10 years. We went live last week with phase one. This week, we still have representatives from the company on hand. They've been here in town supporting us. Very minor issues to report, and everything that we come up against, like we had a printing issue, it was resolved within two hours. Every other minor issue has been resolved by this company. They've been very responsive so far. We're happy to report. The next phase will be the jail going live in August of this year. with their new platform. And once again, it all falls under this Tyler technology. So everything links, it works together and a deputy making an arrest on the interstate before they, before they get to the jail, the name and everything, information on the arrestee, date, time, location, It's already imported to the jail, which decreases the timeframe processing at the jail. So it's already transmitted to the cloud and back down to the jail. So it cuts and it cuts out the redundancy. People haven't entered data twice is what it does. But so far so good.

It's being funded by Redspeed, isn't it?

Yes, sir. 100%. No taxpayers dollars paid for the program. Good closing statement, my friend. Yes, sir. Thank you, sir. Thank you. Y'all have a good evening.

Mr. Sharp. Let's go.

Good afternoon, board. Well, good evening, board, commissioners.

How y'all doing? All right.

So this is just an update from us talking about anything that we can, any taxes that we cannot collect past the seven year statute. I have my chief deputy and my delinquent property tax specialist, Ms. Carol Sterling here to field any questions and give y'all an update on that. Now I do have statute and law on those section codes that I can pass out. So if you need it, I have it. If not,

If you print it, we won't have you wasted this time.

I'll probably print it to you. Go ahead. Do y'all have any questions?

Carol can present and you can pass out. All right. Sounds good. He gets the hard job.

Our goal right now is just really to clean up the delinquent taxes that are on the records. In order to do that, some of the stuff that's just been on for so long that's not collectible We are getting rid of all of that. So moving forward, we've only got, right now, eight years, which our goal in the next couple years is to get it to where we only have a couple years in the rears, get it where we should be. But the only way that we can work the delinquent list and get the taxes collected is to make it manageable. so that we can get in there and really see what's going on with some of the properties. We're also looking at some other avenues of collecting delinquents. There's a process we can go through the court and do a judicial in-rim sale. We've never done that in the 22 years that I've worked in the office, but that's one of the- Is that a Latin term, in-rim? Judicial in-rim, yes. But that's just where if you've got properties where the title's clouded or there is no title, which we do have a lot of that here in the county, doing the process through the court will allow the bidder to be able to obtain clear title. You know, we're going to work with folks as much as we can. We offer we have a payment plan system when somebody is in jeopardy of losing their home. Our goal's not to sell property, it's just to collect taxes. But with a seven year delinquency, we've not helped them, letting them get that far behind, we've hurt them. And it's just time to have those hard conversations with some folks that, and we're gonna work with them, but the goal is to get it caught up.

Yeah. What would be the largest amount, if you can recall, you know, from eight years ago on delinquent, I saw some that was 90 something dollars. Some was 200.

Right. I mean, you've, you've got some tax bills that were low. You've got some, I didn't really, um, Pay attention to that when we were doing the write-offs, because we only wrote off original bill amounts. We removed any kind of fees, penalty, interest, so that the only thing in that write-off column was the original bill. Because when you have a tax bill from 1998 that's been delinquent that many years, a $90 bill looks a lot different.

Okay. How do you pursue? I see some names on here I recognize as deceased people. How do you pursue those?

We're in the process of setting up a delinquent tax section in property tax and we are, our goal is to have someone that aggressively looks. Um, we've looked at some programs to help find, um, family members and we have a vendor that we work with delinquent tax services. They do an amazing job. Um, they come on board, um, when, And they do an amazing job trying to find heirs. We've got some property where you've got somebody that's been deceased for years and years and years, and the family doesn't even live here anymore. And then now they're deceased.

The position we created in building licenses.

They're gonna work, Commissioner Sharp is taking the lead and we've already met twice. And they're all gonna work together to go after. They were kind of waiting till some things get settled and now they're getting ready to kick it moving forward.

Yeah, we've recently switched to a new property tax software vendor that will allow us to collect taxes on a more efficient level. And we've been going through that process over the last two weeks. So we should be good to go by next Friday.

When you say a more efficient level, now you got me curious. What's your question? You said a more efficient level. More efficient. Yeah.

So what's your question?

What will be the increase in efficiency?

What will we do? We have access to more data software. We'll be able to go in, and they have more programs that we can actually track people, find out where these folks are, see, leave and get their phone numbers, addresses, make sure we have current addresses, mail-in systems, all of that. A lot of the stuff that we had was antiquated. It was old. So this stuff is new, and it's really better than we last.

Right, and that's one thing we've never done before when you made a property payment was get somebody's phone number. With the software we have now, the clerk has to enter that information. So if we have a bad check and need to get a hold of somebody or the property falls behind for a couple years, we can look and see who last paid it and call them.

Okay. I'll give you another tool. Yes. Yes, sir. Yes, sir. All right. I've got a question.

Yes, sir. I'm going to make this real simple, I hope. I recognize several names on here that I know are not deceased. And I'm looking here. Some of them owe $4. Some of them owe $10. And then there's some on there that owe more. Mm-hmm. You might not be the answer. Why would someone not pay their $4 bill, their $9 bill? So I guess where I'm going with this, if we just waive them and they're gone, are we printing a message to people that they don't pay your taxes for seven years and it'll be okay?

No, because after the first year, second year, we're putting in the tax sale. We're not allowing anybody to ever go that long because you'll be in a tax deal.

You're trying to clean up existing stuff that's been before the two years.

Yes, that's past the statute of limitations. So, I mean, anything past seven years, we can't collect anyway, even if we wanted to, we can't collect.

The county can't put a lien against none of these properties that owe the filling for tax?

I mean, if we've sent them to tax sale and they've paid them, there's nothing that we can do.

Those properties do have liens on them. The previous tax commissioner was just very lenient. It's just one of those things. If you're not required to pay, it's the last thing you want to pay. Now we're looking at it and we're looking at this list and it's like we've got to get these folks caught up. Some of them are so far behind that

But there is a link. There is a link. One day it will sell to somebody with all these people coming to Liberty County. Hopefully you'll get Liberty County's tax.

Eventually, at some point.

I'm good. Yeah.

Are there any other questions for Mr. Sharpe and Ms. Carroll? Let's see. This is a voting item. Just one more time, put it into plain terms so the citizens who are listening or watching would know.

Right, we provided you with a list of the 2018s that fall within the statute of limitations. Just asking that we go ahead and remove that. What we should be doing every year is coming to y'all and letting y'all know. You know, this is what's not collectible. This is why it's not collectible. And then we just remove it. You're going to have that.

This is what we set our collection rate at, about 97%, 98% collection every year.

So we need to program you all to come every year this time?

Yes, sir. That would be perfect. With your request? Yes, sir.

Would it be? Go for it. You think you'll have enough of them to, well, it doesn't matter what it is, when at all, I'm not Commissioner Blunt. Just make it an annual thing, have a schedule. Yes, sir. Yes, sir.

Typically, it would be in April every year.

Yeah, that's what we talked about. I remember you telling me that when it comes to property taxes, when you advertise a property sale, what did you tell me, 90% of those folks came in and... Yeah, oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yes.

Because we have been in the last...

year and a half more aggressive in collecting delivery taxes yeah well thank you appreciate that you're welcome thank you chair lieutenant motion to approve the request from our tax commissioner Second, somebody? Second. Mr. Secretary, we approve the delinquent property list. Mr. Carroll, the only thing I would suggest that you all do in the future, you know, I guess someone out in the TV land would want to know what's the total amount that we're giving. Yeah.

So even if we get that number with that, this is just the very last.

I didn't go far enough. Right. The one, am I right? The 170. Oh, one more page. 105, 105, 203. Yes, sir.

That's the amount.

Somebody took the time to circle it for me. Thank you. Thank you. All right. Give me a vote. We're going to vote. All right. All in favor.

All right.

Okay. All right. You good? Okay. All right. Mr. Chair, I do have a question. Why do we have to vote on this? State law. Is that state law? That's protocol?

Uh-huh. State law. Mr. Davis told us it's state law.

Right.

I guess, you know, Mr. Sharp said that there's really nothing we could do. Right. You just want to clear the books. So I guess that's what we're voting on. It's not that we agree that, you know, seven years and they didn't do nothing, that we're okay with it. We're not saying that. No. We just have to clear up the record. Yes, sir.

Yes, sir.

I'm not okay with it, but. I'll be there. There's nothing we can do about it.

I wish we could collect it, but I mean. Yeah, just follow the law. But in most cases, in most counties, this does not happen. So we're just trying to make sure that we are along state guidelines. And I'm kind of looking at other tax commissioners, seeing what their counties are doing and trying to stay in line. with them, so they probably don't let it happen. Exactly. Right.

Exactly. Right. We shouldn't allow somebody to get that many beers.

We should have never allowed. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So we're being more aggressive. We got you. Keep it up. Yes, sir.

Because Commissioner Sharp, I know you know, because matter of fact, he called in front of while I was there in Atlanta. I met one of your colleagues, the tax commissioner.

I don't know. I can't remember. There's 158 of them.

I know, but you remember he called you. No, he just talked highly about you.

Oh, okay. I wonder who it was. He's a short white man.

Jay.

That's him. There we go. That's my guy.

There we go. Thank you. There we go.

All righty. We've got a little alcohol beverage license application.

Mr. Chair, members of the board, we have a request by Mr. Vilas B. Chonhari at 351 Isaac Stevens Road. This is a new owner at the location of 196 East, Highway 84. The background check came in with no issues, and this is a change of ownership.

Chair?

Yes, sir?

Where is this at? Ready for motion?

Yeah. Ready for motion. That overpass? Grab a bag. Oh, yeah. Got you.

I'm ready.

Make a motion that we grant them their alcohol license.

Second, somebody? Second. Second. You got a question or comment? I was just wondering. Normally, never mind. When it's on the other side of the county, it was a full house. You'll get it, Mark. All in favor? I'm thinking two.

Okay. But let me mention, you, moving on, you mentioned some concerns about the use of that road, too, in front of that. Right.

And it looks like they have put some asphalt on it to make it better to come out.

We need to get that road shut down. Yeah. So that, well, Stevens is a county. Have you and Trent had a conversation about it?

OK, that was the old 196. That road, it was not supposed to be a continuation coming on out to 84. Because we're going right back to the old traditional 196 and coming up the mountain with a load.

So by DOT not putting up some kind of barrier to stay open so the folk just use it,

And mainly, it's the trucks coming out the plant. And a lot of them, they'll come across the mountain and shoot right in there and go to the plant instead of going to 196 and coming out.

They're not doing it safe. T.J. Take note of this, too, man. We'll study it a little bit. Some of the folks leaving St. Peter's, they go that way if the traffic's bad. They just turn right and go that way.

T.J. That's a possibility, but... I know. I'm finished with it.

Yeah.

I mean, being good partners, I think even if we reach out to the, what is that, Robert Corey? Because there's two of them back there, right? Yeah, yeah. Even if we reach out to them, just... to talk about the public safety, because just like Commissioner Bruce said, I mean, blood, I'm sorry. You know, that's a public safety. Right, so, I mean.

Yep. All righty. All right. Board appointment, D-Facts Board, Commissioner Gillard.

Yes, Mr. Chairman. As you all know, we did defer this until we had a meeting, Mr. Moses' separate meeting with Commissioner Blunt and myself. Commissioner Walden made aware of the meeting with Mr. Mason from D-Facts, and we had a couple of questions. At least I had a couple of questions, Commissioner Blunt. was there as well, and she enlightened us on a few, she answered our questions pretty quick, and directed to the point, and so we got that point, which was the reason for the whole meeting, but we did meet with her, I'm satisfied with the response and we are ready to make the board appointment now. And it's the recommendation of the board, the three of us, by majority, this unanimous decision that we reappoint Ms. Patricia Stephens to the DPACS board.

Chair? Yes, sir. I'll make that motion since they didn't have any findings. I'll make that motion highly.

You make the motion to second? Second. Second the motion that we reappoint Ms. Patricia Stephens. Any further discussion?

Discussion? We weren't really looking for findings. We had questions.

All in favor, show of hands, please. Ms. Stephens is reappointed. Mr. Mosley?

Mr. Board, I want to give you some good news. Our EMA, we've been waiting for our debris collection check from the Federal Emergency Management Agency. And Bob went up to Atlanta a couple of weeks ago and got a check in the amount of $512,896.62. And so we're glad to see that. And we are in the process, a category E and a category Z. Category E we're waiting in the amount of 37,000 and category Z we're waiting in the amount of 60,000. So that's $97,000 that we're waiting on from FEMA. I'd also like to share with you in regards to fire services, the new recruits will have a graduation. I think Chief has sent out information on tomorrow night at the PAC Center, 6.30.

Class number what, Chief?

Class number eight. We got four... highly qualified recruits that will be there and would love for you to come out and celebrate with them. Uh, 911 and I. T. You're working with the sheriff office in the Hinesville Police Department to encode radios. Um, and that's the youth programs. Uh, we had an honors night with the youth commission on Tuesday night, May 19th, and it was a great program. And also they had a enrollment night with students and parents for the summer youth employment program on last Thursday, May the 14th. And the students for SGEP will start on Monday, June the 1st, 2026, working with a various assandria of departments and people in the community. Upcoming events, I think y'all received some of the information, The ACC spring legislative forum was counseled due to the governor calling a special session. Our health department ribbon cutting will be Tuesday, June 16th at 10 o'clock a.m. I want to encourage all the commissioners to come out to that. Progress through the people featuring Liberty County will be held on Thursday, June 25th at 12 o'clock p.m. at the PAC Center. I want to encourage all the commissioners to come to that. And then finally, Our ribbon-cutting dedication for the new playground equipment at Briars Bay Park be 9 o'clock a.m. and Jesse Stevens Park at 10 o'clock a.m. And I didn't write my notes. That's on June the 30th. June the 30th at 9 and 10. And we'll be sending those out to you for calendar invites. So just kind of want to give you an announcement on that. And, sir? Okay. And then also ribbon cutting dedication for the new MA administrative building is in discussion.

I'm sorry.

Sir.

So it's going to be like a program?

Short program.

Who's speaking?

No speaker.

I don't know. The same.

You got to speak about. Thank you. You're welcome. We'll hit it and quit it at broadband. Come on down to Justice Stevens and have our refreshments there at Justice Stevens.

And also, Mr. Chairman, Commissioners, Chairman, we had scheduled our monthly work session for next Wednesday. Chairman would not be able to do that and was wondering for you guys, would next Tuesday at 4.30 be fine? Next Tuesday, which is the 26th.

Just so you know, I have Savannah Tech's graduation that night, so I have to be in Savannah. I'm still chairman of that board, so can't miss the graduation for her.

Yes, sir. 4.30 is Tuesday. That's next Tuesday? Yes, sir. Man, I need to remember that. We'll send information out.

I just want to get it. It's just, yeah.

In fact, you did send a calendar invite out for it. I did. You want to talk about what happened here this morning?

Oh, thank you, Mr. Chair. I had it in my notes. And this morning, the EMA hosted their annual hurricane kickoff meeting on Thursday, May the 21st, this morning, and it was well attended, very well attended. And we had a lot of partners in all, I think most of the cities were represented, maybe one or two that weren't here, but most of the communities, the cities in Liberty County were here. And then in the month of June, as part of working with them, Monica has worked with them in terms of our insurance. They will be hosting some training for all of our departments, so working with drones. And then on the Thursdays, another date, Friday in June, they will be having, this EMA will be hosting a program out at the Lowe's parking lot where they'll be providing information to the public about hurricane preparedness. So they got a lot, we got a lot of things going on and with our various departments and we're just proud of them.

Nothing I noticed after this morning's meeting, maybe I just missed it. Would it not be proper or to our benefit to have like the chief from Midway, the police chief from Midway, so on and so forth to come to the session we had this morning?

So I can tell you on my side, I know that the email went out to all the city officials and public safety I don't know, for instance, I could see the police chief from Walterville here.

Or Hinesville, yeah.

And the fire chief was. So I don't know. I know that the email did go out. That district list is very long that Bob and the EMA staff just sent out, Chair.

Okay. And I'll stress it again to the importance of all them being in contact and touch. Because if we should go into... a serious storm event, then all hands on deck, all hands on deck. So you don't need to wait until then to get the information, how it works. You need to be involved in the process early on, so. Also, Ms. Moss is gonna send you all the names of the project manager for Independence Parkway, the bypass, so that we can have that person come present. And they also gave about Walt Ivella a tour, so do the same, so be looking for that information.

All right, sir. That concludes my report.

I think that's a good order. Chair, do you have a motion to adjourn? Mr. Chairman. Second. Good time.