Board of Commissioners - Regular Meeting

See everyone?

I did get a message from Commissioner Walden that he wouldn't be able to be here, but we're still praying for he and his recovery.

Cut your mic off. Is it? Uh-huh.

I need to move it closer.

My monitor's not working.

That better? Okay. All right. Thank you. Thank you. All right. At this time, we ask Mr. Moses to come lead us in our... prayer. Has the meeting been properly advertised, sir? I think I see evidence there. Will you please stand now for the prayer and pledge of allegiance?

Let us pray. Kind and benevolent Father, we thank you for all that you do for us on a daily basis. We thank you for the sunshine as well as the rain. We pray that you'll be with us all as bodies to deliberate the business of this community. And Father God, we lift up our Commissioner, Commissioner Walden. Father God, pray that you'll be with him and strengthen him. Pray tonight that you continue to be with us. These and all the other blessings we ask in Jesus' name. And everybody said amen. Amen. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

Thank you. Thank you.

So is that the right order?

No.

Let's change them right now then. Let's change them right now. That's the carpet. The carpet. The carpet, man.

I know we all did.

We all did.

Yeah. Chief Darby. Chief Darby said it. Was he doing it? It took me a second to figure it out. Yeah.

Yeah. Those carpet people.

If you hadn't noticed, we had the carpet replaced, and when they replaced the carpet, they transposed the flags.

Thank you.

Thank you, gentlemen. Presentations and recognitions, Boys and Girls Club, Opioid and Date Fund Check Presentation. Ms. Edna Walthow and her team are here. Would you please come to the podium? Ms. Walthow, a few years ago, through the Opioid Settlement Counties, maybe communities, maybe cities too, I'm not sure, counties, are given opioid funds from the settlement fund. to give to the organization to help combat drug use and drug prevention. And so our local Boys and Girls Club has applied and had been awarded. I'll hold that amount to just a minute. As well as the date fund, those funds come from fines and forfeitures. Once again, they can only be used for preventive measures, drug and alcohol abuse. So we thank you all for working that ministry, if you will, you know, with our young people especially. So who will greet us, and then we'll have Mr. Let's see. I got it back here. Okay. Who will speak for the organization? The chairman speaks.

Mr. Airbnb.

You just lost the chairman. I'm real, y'all.

Good evening, everybody. We want to thank you for... this funding. I want to thank you for supporting us on behalf of the Boys and Girls Club and everything that's going forth. For the continuous support is what I want to say because we recognize that you're always behind us as the years that we're coming through the ranks. So we thank you and please continue to support us and look out for us and pray for us as we go through these years and gather the youth in this county and keep them in a safe place and a safe environment.

Thank you. You all will come up for your photo op. We have the check up here.

And we have with us none other than the club director.

What's her name?

Bridget Kelly.

We can lower it if you want somebody to come in the middle. Oh, no, he's raising up.

Appreciate it. Congratulations. Thank you. Thank you.

Thank you. And y'all pray for us that we'll get a national championship in the region that we're in football again.

All right. All right. All right. All right. Oops.

The real thing. No, no, no. I'll take this.

I'll take that.

All right.

Chief Dobby, please come forward. National Firefighters Month. We're going to roll right through these. Proclamation and recognitions, okay.

Good evening, Chairman and Commissioners. September is Firefighter Appreciation Month, time to recognize the courage, dedication, and sacrifice of our firefighters who serve and protect the community each day. On behalf of Liberty County Fire Rescue, I would like to extend my sincere appreciation to our firefighters and their families for their commitment, professionalism, and the service that they give Liberty County each day. We as Liberty County are proud to honor those who answer the call when the community needs them most. In celebration, Liberty County Fire Rescue will host a firefighter appreciation cookout on September 26th from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. at Miller Park Fire Station for our staff. We invite you as the commission and county administration to join us as we celebrate to show our appreciation for our men and women and their families who serve our community.

September 26th? Yes, ma'am. Send us an invite. I will. Yes, ma'am. Thank you.

Mr. Chair, we're going to read all the resolutions tonight in short form. Proclamations, September is Firefighter Appreciation Month, whereas the Liberty County Fire Services recognize the benefits derived from the hard work, sacrifices, and unwavering dedication that the fire service members have contributed throughout this country, including the communities of Liberty County, and whereas the role of firefighters today is one of dedication, commitment, sacrifice, and willingness to put their lives on the line, and now therefore I, Donnell Lovett, and the Liberty County Board of Commissioners do hereby proclaim September 2026 as Firefighter Appreciation Month, so declared on this 20th day of August 2026, and urge all community members to honor the firefighters who paid the ultimate sacrifice for those they served.

All right. Do you have a team, sir?

I'm here by myself.

Well, come on up, sir. Thank you. Bring that with you, if you will. Dr. Bell, you and your team are lining up. We're going to do a three-for-one, just as it's listed here, St. Catharines Beach Sweep, Great Southeast Pollinator Census Proclamation, and Georgia Coast is not an ashtray proclamation.

Pop them all together.

All right.

Can we do it now? We're going to. All right.

Congratulations, sir. Thank you for what you do. Is Ms. Willa Lewis behaving down there? I don't know. I tried. She already acting up. I kind of figured. Mr. Scott in this world.

And the baby. She even down there.

All right, Dr. Bill, introduce those.

Yes sir, good evening.

Good evening, afternoon.

We're here to talk about water, pollinators, and cigarette butts. So they all three proclamations kind of go hand in hand. The beach suite is what we do on St. Catherine's. And unfortunately, what we do on the mainland end up in our waterways and on our beaches. So that's a cleanup that we get to do sometimes twice a year to help keep our waterways clean. And we look forward to doing that. This year, we had about 40 volunteers sign up. And we look forward to actually doing that at a beach suite. sweep on St. Catharine soon. For the pollinator census that's coming up, we passed out some pollinator kits and you have some on your table. And what this is, is actually making sure that we have pollinators around because we need them. They help us with our food and keep us alive. So you have some wildflowers that attract butterflies, so we hope you plant them. This weekend at the Recycler Fair, you'll be able to do a pollinator census where you get to look at a plant for 15 minutes and count all the lovely, friendly little flies or butterflies or any other insects that comes to that plant. And we turned that information into the University of Georgia. And it's five states, not just Georgia. It has expanded to all the way from North Carolina down to Florida. So we're excited that Liberty County could be a part of that study. And then Georgia Coast is not an ashtray. You have a coaster in front of you or that was handed to you. And this just lets you know that cigarette butts is litter too. I know that it's a small item, but it's one of the most dangerous and littered item in the world. Not just here in Liberty County, not just the United States in the world. And we here, um, people are beautiful. Keep America beautiful with trials. Um, Tricycle, TerraCycle, we actually recycle the cigarette butts and they make it into a plastic form, either what we can put on the ground for playgrounds or hard plastic like tables and chairs or ashtrays. They recycle the cigarette butts, so we have that program here. In Liberty County, we also offer free cigarette receptacle stand-along or on the pole wall. You just let us know, we'll give you one for free. And we are now taking our volunteers, are going around to the different restaurants or car dealership bars that these are located and collecting them for them. So the companies don't have to do it if they do not want to. Our volunteers are taking it upon themselves to collect them and mail them off. That's all three in a nutshell.

You did a good job, Ms. Moses. See, can you do a good job?

Okay. Precious. Proclamation, St. Catherine's Beach Suite, whereas adequate debris chokes, aquatic debris chokes on waterways and oceans, threatening the lives of thousands of animals and birds and putting human health and safety at risk. And whereas it's part of the Keep Georgia Beautiful Foundation, St. Catherine's Beach Sweep Day is the largest one-day cleanup of Georgia beaches. And whereas for each of the past 13 years, volunteers have collected an average of 50 tons of debris while raising awareness of the importance of being good stewards of our environment. And now, therefore, I, Donald L. Lovett, and the Liberty County Board of Commissioners do hereby proclaim August 15th, 2026 as St. Catherine's Beach Sweet Day throughout Liberty County, so declared on this 20th day of August 2026, and encourage all Georgians to work together to clean our beaches. Proclamation, Great Southeast Pollinator Census. Whereas pollinator species such as birds and insects are essential partners of farmers and ranchers in producing much of our food supply, and whereas pollinator species provide significant environmental benefits that are necessary for maintaining healthy, biodiverse echo ecosystems. And whereas the Liberty County board of commissioners provide producers with conservation assistance to promote wise conservation stewardship, including the protection and maintenance of pollinators and their habitats on working lands and wildlands. And now therefore I, Donald L. Lovett and the Liberty County board of commissioners do hereby proclaim August 21st and 22nd, 2026 as the great Southeast pollinator census. So declared this 20th day of August, 2026, I urge all citizens to recognize this observance. Georgia Coast is not an ashtray, whereas Keep America Beautiful, the nation's leading community improvement nonprofit organization that has taken aim at aggressively reducing cigarette litter and beautifying communities through its Cigarette Litter Prevention Program, which launched in 2002, and whereas Keep Liberty Beautiful was formed in 1983 and coordinates with other groups here in Liberty County and with Georgia's six coastal counties participate in the Georgia coast is not an S trade outreach program. And whereas keep Liberty beautiful mission is to engage individual businesses and governments to participate in the joint educational and outreach program. which started June 1st, 2024 and declare August 28th, 2026 that day for the Georgia coast. It's not an ashtray message. Drink coasters to educate locals and visitors about cigarette litter being used throughout Liberty County. And now therefore I, Donald L. Love it. And the Liberty County board of commissioners do hear by proclaim August 28th, 2026 at Georgia coast. It's not an ashtray awareness day and Liberty County. So declared on this 20th day of August, 2026, I urge all organizations, businesses, and citizens to find ways to keep Liberty County beautiful.

Sir, can I also say to help with the businesses and our citizens that go out on August 28th, if you take a picture with a coastal that you use at the restaurant, that restaurant will be put in for a prize pack. and the citizen would be put in for a beautiful swag. So we're trying to help the business that advertise and the citizen that go out and take the picture.

Thank you. If you all would come on up for your photo op.

Thank you. One, two, three.

One, two, three. All right.

We're going to do them all.

I guess I could have given each one of them one to hold up, huh? They think it was a different crowd.

Thank you all.

The spirit of volunteering is alive and well in Liberty County, Georgia. I thought Dr. Bell was going to brag about our local, our boat captain here, but she didn't talk about it today.

She didn't talk about it today. I had to postpone that particular day. I think I was the only captain. Really? I couldn't hold 40 people. No.

Thank you. Uh, I keep living a beautiful family. Uh, item five acknowledged me the proclamation on the center of Tunis camera senior and representative William Golden to Georgia's original 33 black legislators. Uh, Representative Carl Gidget from Savannah. I said we do this. We were up at the Liberty County daily kind of force today. there was a celebration on the floor of the Capitol to recognize these people. As America still celebrates its 250th birthday, this is a part of American history, and we're proud of that. brag or announce that two people from Liberty County signed the declaration. So also two people from Liberty County served as well as in the original legislators, two from Liberty County, one being Tunis Campbell Sr. I mean, I recognize that name, but the other one is William A. Golden, and that's where Snelson Golden gets its name from. It actually hyphenated Snelson-Golden, but they kind of over the years lost the hyphen in there. but the golden and, and, um, it's Nelson Golda's name come from represented, uh, honoring William A. Goldenberg's work in Liberty County. All right. Thank you so much for that. Uh, item C state judge, annual presentation, Judge Grinstead.

I don't know if I've met everyone, but my name is Leonard Grinstead. I'm the state court judge, probably better known as Bubba Grinstead cause I practiced law here in Hinesville for 35 years. I see on here it says it's the, annual judge presentation, but my administrative assistant said it was the first one, so I guess it's the first. It is the first annual presentation by the state court. I wasn't really sure exactly what you wanted, so I'll talk a little bit about what really state court is. State Court of Liberty County, like all state courts in the state of Georgia, were established by local legislation that was introduced into the General Assembly to establish the state courts. The difference between state courts and superior courts, like the five superior court judges we have in the circuit over these six counties, is that the state court only exercises jurisdiction in Liberty County, Georgia. Only things that occur in Liberty County. Statewide, there are only 72 state courts out of the 159 counties, so every county does not have a state court in some counties like the larger ones, Fulton, DeKalb, Bibb, Chatham have multiple state court judges, but they all still only exercise jurisdiction over their County. Now, uh, either the state court judges are either elected or appointed. If an, by the governor depending on what needs to be done. Qualifications for state court judges are you have to be at least 30 years old, a resident of Georgia for three years, a licensed attorney for seven. That's it. That's all you have to be to run for state court judge if anybody's interested. We're elected for four-year terms, and it's all nonpartisan elections. So it's not Democrats, Republicans, because the judgeship is a nonpartisan position. I was elected in 2024, and I'm in my 19th month of being a state court judge. I took over for Judge Osteen after Judge Osteen decided to retire from the position. Now, state courts handle both criminal and civil actions, I guess you have there. What is the state court? The traffic, what we handle from a criminal side are misdemeanor cases. They can be either traffic, simple batteries, assaults, anything that's a misdemeanor in nature. Misdemeanor is defined as something that can be punished by no more than 12 months in jail and or no more than $1,000 fine. If it falls within that range, then it can be handled in the State Court of Liberty County. From a civil side, we handle civil disputes also as long as it's a civil dispute that is not preserved for the exclusive jurisdiction of the Superior Courts. Superior courts have jurisdiction over domestic matters like divorces, child custody, child support, things of any domestic nature, real estate disputes, and anything that deals with giving an injunctive belief for something. We handle things like personal injuries. We handle a lot of personal injuries in the State Court of Liberty County, things like slipping balls, car wrecks, things where someone's hurt by someone else's negligence. We are also probably known as the medical malpractice court in this county. We handle a lot of medical malpractice cases where somebody's injured as a result of the alleged malpractice of a person or a organization. We handle a lot of contract disputes, a lot of cases involving property damage, a lot of debt disputes where people... especially collection agencies are filing actions, trying to collect money that was blent and never repaid or either on contract or as a result of financing vehicles just where it wasn't paid back. Uh, we also handle appeals from the magistrate court. People that have heard actions in the magistrate court where one of the parties didn't like the resolution that occurred in magistrate court, they have the automatic appeal. They come to the state court. They also could come to the superior court, but they seem to come to the state court. So we hear the appeals from the state courts. We issue bench warrants. We set bonds. We can revoke probation when we set them. We can set people on probation. things that we rule on can be directly appealed to the Supreme Court of Georgia or the Georgia Court of Appeals, depending on what kind of case it is. And like the Superior Courts here, we are a court of record, which means we follow the Georgia rules of evidence, the Georgia rules of civil procedure, and the Georgia rules of criminal procedure. Here is the three-year caseload that we've had so far in the last three years in 24, 25, and 26. You see where you have the criminal in blue, the civil. We have many, many more criminal cases that are filed rather than civil cases because all misdemeanors, traffic violations, things of that nature, all, if you do not pay ahead of time, you come to our court. If it's not in the city limits of Hinesville, where the city of Hinesville writes it, it goes to the city of Hinesville, and those can be appealed, or if they demand a jury trial on the issues even in municipal court, they come up to my court, the State Court of Liberty County. And you see the difference in 26, what's been filed so far, but if you'll flip to the next one, you'll see the difference right now. it's projected now from 26 and 26 that we're going to have about a 60% increase of the civil cases that were filed the year before and a roughly a 60% increase in the criminal cases that were filed in 2025. I don't know if people have gotten more fragile or people get more irritated easily, but it appears that, Many, many more criminal and civil cases are being filed at this time. We have in the State Court of Liberty County arraignments a couple of times a week to take care of the criminal cases that are filed. We have trial terms and civil cases a couple times a year, criminal trials terms a couple times a year. We also have criminal non-jury trials monthly for people that do not want a jury trial but want a bench trial, which is a trial just in front of the judge making the determination of their guilt or innocence. We have those every month. And sometimes, like next week, we have two days' worth of bench trials for people that have been charged with criminal acts and wanted a trial on their case rather than work something out and plead to something. And we have, again, criminal and civil trials, jury terms, two separate times a month, I mean a year. The civil trial terms are usually January and September, I believe. Now, January and July and the criminal trial terms that we set are in April and October. And depending on the volume that we have, we can increase and put additional trial terms in different areas in different months also and increase what we need to do to try to keep the caseload down. That's all I can think to tell you right now about the state courts. It might be more than you wanted to know, but I didn't know how much you wanted to know. I'm here to ask you, answer any questions if you have any.

Good briefing. Any questions for Judge Grinston?

Thank you for your service. Thank you, sir. We appreciate it. Thank you. Have a good day. You too, sir.

I'm going to put a program, Ms. James.

Good evening, everyone. I'm here to give a recap of the summer food program for year 2026. It has been a busy one. Okay, so to start off, we operated out of 15 sites this year, and the program ran from June 1st to July 31st. During those days, we served 17,918 meals throughout the county. Next slide, okay. Summer program staff consists of the program coordinator, two program monitors, one being right here, site supervisors for each site. We have a few here. Kitchen workers and delivery drivers for a total of 29 staff. Next slide shows the count for each site that was served, how many meals for each site. Highlights for this year was our state inspection. There was no findings. They came and they did a pop-up inspection on two sites in the kitchen. There was zero findings. They still have to order to do the paperwork, but they'll schedule an appointment to come back and do that. Going forward for next year, To implement hot meals, we will need additional freezers and we'll meet with the health department to get the kitchens situated for that.

Excuse me. So our enhancement of the kitchen at the complex still leave them short of freezer space? Is that what I'm hearing you say?

Yes. The freezer space and the health department has to do one final walkthrough for like piping and stuff. They said there may be some minor issues there. The more goals is to try and minimize staff shortages. We'll plan early and recruit strategically to ensure every area is fully staffed. Some ways to do that to keep staff retention. things like this to recognize the workers that are here that give so much of their time and effort to make this possible. As I mentioned, we plan to fully implement Hot Meals next year, and hopefully we can add more student activities. We had a couple of guests come in to do to visit certain sites. We had some people do financial literacy. We had some come and do activities with the students and the children there. So we plan to increase that activity and that'll boost participation at certain sites. Any questions?

What was your average age?

The average age was between 5 and maybe 12. Those were our regulars.

I'm thinking if you're going to interject, Ms. Hunter, an educational piece, then you don't say the same spiel to your 5-year-old that you do to your 12-year-olds. Maybe a little bit of a challenge.

We have worksheets and things of that nature to... That kind of can range for age, yes. Those things.

Mr. Chairman, I don't really have a question, but I have a comment. And you can see by the meals that were served, Gum Branch has really stepped up or increased the number. And I'm not sure which worker you had out there, but she did a phenomenal job. She was out there early and staying late. And I appreciate that also. One thing I didn't notice, if we could get some bigger signs maybe, a little bit bigger signs. Bigger?

Okay.

Or either a banner to put on the fence. But I know a banner. You know, if we rent the park, then it might get destroyed. But, you know, a bigger sign may be out by the road. But otherwise, I think Gum Branch did really good this year as far as participants. And that worker. Bring her back out there.

Had to.

I'm trying to get her back. They were there early.

When I see the recommendation about recruitment and sustaining, this is a program where we pay up front, then we reimburse from state. How would you work in a pay increase for staff based on that kind of formula? How would you work that in?

Yeah, right. I'm sorry.

The reimbursement is for the food.

Okay. So that's what's counting. Okay. All right. All right. Make a note. Okay. All right. All right. Thank you all. Appreciate what you've done.

You're welcome.

Of course. Oh. Well, yeah. Come right on up.

Is that okay? Yeah.

Absolutely. because that's kind of a bus driver. They don't work a lot of hours, but you're going to pay them a decent salary to do. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Yes, ma'am.

Patrick? Patrick? Thank y'all. Thank y'all. Ms. Hunter, is serving the hot meals going to produce any challenges next year doing that versus the way we're doing it?

Actually, we...

Actually, we think we do have the freezer space. It's just about preparing it in time. But we could have implemented the hot meals this year. But in terms of getting the employees adjusted and making that change, we thought it would be too much for them. So that's why we said we would just start fresh next year. Okay. All right.

Thank you. All right. Ms. Leopold. CBB update.

Hello. How are you? Ms. Jasmine is passing out some swag for you. We love swag. Yes. You weren't given my PowerPoint? Okay, it's gonna be a really short update then. Miss Maria had it.

Yes ma'am. That's okay.

So we are before you today to do our bi-annual update. So January through July we have accomplished a lot of things. I will make sure that you get the PowerPoint. I'll get it to Miss Lamisha. Um, it was sent ahead of time, but that's fine. I know she's been ill. Um, so we've accomplished a lot of things during that timeframe, including several spouse tours. We are also attending the newcomers fair still. So those welcome all of the new soldiers and families to Liberty County. Jasmine is usually out there and we have some very dedicated volunteers that also help with that. So today we welcomed 56 new soldiers, which is a lower number for us. Usually it's 100 or 200. They had some snafus on base today, but we had Mr. Alan Volskay with Georgia Power. We had Ms. Ursula with Interstate Credit Union and Ms. Charm, Ms. Susie Sunshine herself, out there welcoming new soldiers and families. Those are always interesting to me to hear, especially our young soldiers. A lot of them, they know they live in Georgia now, but that's about all they got. Um, so having those conversations and telling them about what the opportunities are here in Liberty County for them is always interesting to do. Um, we have also participated in the Susie King Taylor ribbon cutting. We hosted an evening under the stars before that. And I'm also actively participating in the planning committee for that. So we're happy to be involved. Um, we appreciate, um, Mr. Mosley and Ms. Hunter for involving us in all the things and, um, making sure that we feel like we're a part of all the planning. So we're happy to be there. We continue to pack lots of bags. We've packed some for Commissioner Gilliard recently, and it feels like a million of them, starting with Martin Luther King Day to now. We're always packing bags. We did have the honor of packing bags for the Atlanta Falcons when they visited Fort Stewart to do the touch or flag football game.

Oh, did you?

We were asked to pack for those gentlemen. We didn't get to meet them, but we did get to give them Liberty County swag, so that's good. They have hats and all the things, so hopefully we'll see photos of them wearing them. Other than that, we continue to push forward with all the normal things that we do, and I'm happy to answer any questions if you have them.

Any questions for the food truck festival that's chambered, not CVV?

It's both, sir. It's September 19th. We have 27 food trucks signed up. We're trying to get to 30. So I think we'll get there. We have a petting zoo, bouncy houses, live music all day long. So that's from 11 to 4. That'll be right here in downtown Hinesville. So we're excited about that. We're also in September participating in the Liberty County 250 committee that's formed. So our first meeting is in September. So we're excited to get started. We have set the date for Fort Stewart Liberty County Day at the Capitol as well. That's on February 24th, but you should plan to be there the 23rd and the 24th. So in Atlanta, the 23rd and the 24th. I sent the Save the Date out already.

I may have missed it. The theme for this year's Christmas?

Christmas parade is Cowboy Christmas, sir.

Cowboy Christmas.

Yep. So your best cowboy boots and cowboy hat and all the duds.

Hoots on the ground.

Hoots on the ground.

Mr.

Chair, I just have a quick question. Ms. Poole, I appreciate everything you do. I know you have to hold two hats simultaneously sometimes. You were saying with going out to Fort Stewart and meeting the new soldiers, that's on a monthly basis.

No, it's every week.

Every week?

We don't do it every single week, but we try really hard. I know these mics are off today. We have to pay to be out there. I'll back up just a little bit more because I am loud. We do have to pay for the opportunity to sponsor that, to have a table. So we get 51 opportunities in the year, and if I'm paying for it, I'm trying to do it, sir.

Right, understood.

I'm not going to waste those.

Understood. I guess with that being said, and when you were talking about the soldiers, You know, I think sometimes when we talk about Liberty County and we talk about this being a retirement community, I think people fail to realize most soldiers are going into the military at 18. So even if they do 20 years, they're still 38. And I know dealing with active soldiers, the average age is around, what, 21?

We usually have more single soldiers that are young than we do have married soldiers. They rotate them through in two groups, single soldiers and then the married soldiers.

Okay. So I guess the question I have is, whenever you have communication with them, what are they asking about our community? What are some of the main questions that they ask?

A lot of them want, well, they complain about traffic, which we all complain about traffic. But they also want to know about outdoor opportunities and recreation. So we have all of those materials with us to be able to have those conversations. So where they can go fishing, where they can go hunting, where they can kayak. All of those, they do like the idea of festivals and outdoor events. And, of course, young soldiers are going to like younger person activities. So that might be a bar. It might be a brewery. It might be those, which we have some of those here. We do have a brewery in Midway that we can direct them to. Of course, not our 18-year-olds, but the ones that are of age. Fort Stewart, I cannot speak for them, but they would certainly rather keep them here in our local community versus having them go far afield and potentially drink and drive.

Absolutely. Okay. All right, just was trying to gauge.

A lot of outdoor.

That's kind of what I hear Colonel Weaver say, too, just what you've said. Yes, right. They're looking for the outdoors. That's why we've got to lean more toward the trails and the bike paths and all that kind of stuff because people look for that. And you're right, they want to keep them off the road and go into Savannah for some of these excursions.

For wherever they go, they would like to keep them here.

Yeah, yeah. And it helps towards our sales tax.

It does, if we can keep them here.

Right. Thank you, ma'am. Appreciate it. Appreciate it. I think this might be the shortest presentation we've done in history.

Chairman, Board of Commissioners, this year we wanted to do something a little bit different with our summer enrichment program. And when brainstorming with Ms. Leah in a meeting, she offered to plan a tour of Liberty County history. She and her team planned the trip and even showed the students how to cast out a net. Took care of lunch and we just want to thank miss Leah for the work and the partnership not only on that event but all the events Choose open it slowly

Oh, Diet Dr. Pepper and lots of Sour Patch Kids. I'm not sharing, son. I'm not sharing. He always takes all my Sour Patch Kids.

Leah, Leah. Thank you. They're not coming back to you, son.

Thank you. Let me go and say this publicly to Leah. You do a lot, and Commissioner Frazier is right, you wear so many hats, and we carry on to do a lot of things, especially when it comes to greeting and treating people who visit our community. So thank you for what you do. Your footprint is well-entrusted in the fiber of soil of Liberty County, Georgia.

Thank you so much for what you do. We're working on that.

And then on top of that... You know, she's my classmate. She's a Liberty County High School Panther, by the way. Just to let y'all know. Not Bradwell, Liberty.

No comment. Thank you, Liam, and your team again. All right. Mr. Trent Long. All right.

How's everyone tonight? We're well, sir. I'll just kind of jump right in. One of the things I want to talk about... A little bit of the sidewalk projects you have going for Commissioner Frazier. We are working on the Paul Council Street sidewalks. Got that going and working on those, getting those ready to go. We do want to meet with you sometime next week or two to talk about Varnaday Street and see what we want to do with it. Because those costs are going to be pretty high. And we'll make sure we're proceeding the right way.

Yeah, we just... Matter of fact, we'll meet and then we'll get a meeting with hopefully one of our administrators and try to partner with the city of Hinesville as well. Okay, that's perfect. Sidewalks. Okay.

You have not because you asked not. Commissioner Stevens, as I was working on the main trail roadway improvements, as we're building that roadway and getting that done, we're seeing that we're going to have to go, when we're redoing, we have to We're raising the road a good bit, so I've got to redo several people's driveways, and I'm going to need to go in their yards to make the transition good, so I'm going to need some easements from folks. What I'd like to do is, if we could, within the next couple of weeks, let's try to have a town hall meeting out there. and meet somewhere on the site and let residents come have it, you know, one afternoon after five. That way we can talk to people what we want to do and, you know, hopefully go ahead and tackle that up front so we can get that one going. I'll have you a good date by Monday. Okay. That works good. Likewise, on Butterblunt Road, we have that one that we need to probably sit down and talk about which way we want to go with because she's kind of hard to get a hold of. So if we spend some time in the next week or two looking at what we need to do to accomplish that, then we can get that project on the road.

Whatever it takes to get this project out and on the bed before December 31, that's what I'm looking forward to.

I really want to do that. Thank you. I gave any package. We kind of have an updated layout of the roundabout. We're looking at Crossroads, State Route 119, and Barrington Ferry in Riceboro. I encourage you to take a look at it. We had a good meeting with some of the churches and the owners of the Four Corners. So I think we're in good shape to kind of start moving forward on that.

After the meeting that we had the other day, it brought my attention several of them down. It's okay to look at the drawing, but before we have another one, they would like to see some flags out to show exactly. They can look at it themselves, what's going to go, what tree's going to go away, and everything.

Yeah, we can do that. We can actually paint some lines on the road so they can see where things are and try to do that. So I'd be more than happy to do that.

As soon as you can get, the closer you get to that, let me know, and then I'll go ahead and have them set up so they can go back.

Let me get it on the calendar to get survey guys out there to paint some things up.

Right.

And then we'll get it set up. Put some flags out or whatever to. Perfect. Yeah. Okay. I'll make sure I get that on our calendar for the guys to go out there and do that. Okay. All right. Um, McIntosh Lake Road. This is one of Eddie's projects. We took proposals on this one today. The lowest bid was J.W. Oliver for $391,471.50, which gives us a deceleration lane and a right turn lane, which is a good price for the amount of work that is. So we will be bringing that back to you at the regular meeting for action. We haven't gone through and done the bid tabulations and made sure everybody did all the math right and did everything. But preliminarily, that's kind of where we're standing. Freeman Grove Road is finished. So I'll be taking that off of my report for the next couple of times. Sunshine Lake Road, there are some erosion control issues that, you know, the rainwater we had last couple months really kind of took a toll on some of the dirt on the shoulders, and we called him back several times, and he's supposed to go back out there next week to fix the erosion again. He's been fairly responsive. He's a little slow this last time to come, but we're trying to get him back out there.

Can I ask a question, Trent? Is this a good time? You mentioned the good bid price that came in. So is this a good time to maximize the use of our T-Spot dollars?

Well, I'm thinking we need to go ahead and get Butterblunt on out the road now. And anything else that I got that's close, get on out the door. If we're getting good prices, that's what I'm... Yes, sir. So we have on both of these, the St. John's Road... that opened today as well for Allenhurst and McIntosh Lake Road. We both had eight contractors picked up bids, and we had four proposals on each. So I thought that was fairly good. And likewise on County Line Road, we had eight proposals. So I felt like we're getting some. They're not as hungry. Let me back up. They're more hungry than they were just a couple months ago. The level of work, I think, on the horizon is less, and so they're bidding more of these things. You think you see the same for the sidewalk?

Yes, sir. Sidewalks are so expensive now. It's unbelievable. I remember sidewalk projects when I first got up here compared to now. Oh, you're not kidding. I don't get it.

I'm hoping Paul Caswell is going to be a lot less because we already have curb and gutter. It's going to be a lot easier to get that.

The issue is the older subdivisions like Yeah. That have the old ditches. Yeah. Like my neighborhood.

Your, your neighborhood has some really expensive sidewalks. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. That's why we didn't never finish.

Yes, sir. Um, I was also asked to talk about Jones Creek and dredging. Um, I think there have been some questions about why we don't dredge, uh, Jones Creek Lagoon. And that was an old, uh, dredge area that was done when they built I-95 and it was used as a launch so to speak for boat ramp over the years and it does fill up really quickly so we have a lot of sediment that comes from the river that just goes in there and the water sits still and it drops out so just over time it really really the sediment builds up very quickly We have looked at it several times over the last 20 years of what it would take to dredge it, and the cost to dredge it is pretty extreme. I think last time we looked, seven or eight years ago, it was more than $500,000 to dredge it. And if you cut it down to just a, like a channel to get in and out, everything kind of sloughs back down. And so it becomes where do you stop because of all the sediment that is in there. And to make matters worse is very much like J.C. Lanning over in Jessamine, Altamaha. They dredge that out, and they have to dredge it out every year. seven, 10 years or something like that. And it's very small, you know, about twice the size of this room and it's a hundred thousand dollars plus every time they do it out there, it's huge. And we'd be half a million to a million dollars every five to seven years just to keep up with it. So it just becomes a, an economically, unfeasible area to try to maintain on a regular basis.

Trent, just for curiosity, where would you take that, what you dredge out?

That's a real problem because you have to find a place to take that material as well. Once you start doing it on a regular basis, you've got to take it. The process is not just that easy either because you've got to pump it And for us, we've got to pump it into bags and dewater it so we can get it loose enough or dry enough to haul off. So it just becomes quite an ordeal. So it's a great idea. It's just economically not recommended, I guess, is the best way to do it.

While you're on the jump street, talk about the turning radius to get the boats in and the boats out.

Yes, sir. And that boat ramp is fairly small. So we have it set up for small boats, not big tandem axle boats or anything like that. And so we have a small turning radius to promote the smaller boats and not the larger boats coming in and out. And you can only use it a couple hours each tide. Where might the larger boats put in, sir? So there's a couple places in Liberty Canyon. Half Moon is one of them. You can also do interstate paper. It's got enough that you can get a little bit larger boat in there. You can go to Sunbury Boat Ramp.

Still got the boat ramped down at McIntosh Liberty County line down there.

I was about to say, I drive by that one every day, and people are there all the time. That's just a long way out. Right. When you put in that one, I've taken my boat up to it before, and you're like, am I ever going to get there?

What's it a good 15 minutes drive from, if you live in Isle of Wight, to the Sunbury? Yeah, it is.

About 15 minutes. Yeah. Okay. Crazy.

If you're coming from Hinesville, longer, any of them. You need to keep going that way. That's right.

Sunbury can handle some large boats. Right.

You know, we have the cattle hammock property that we got the marina set up for. And, you know, I think we get to start finding some money for that. that'll be another good place. And then eventually we'll find a technology or a way to get a boat launched there as well. But right now it's just, you can get about two boats in an hour and you spend well over a million dollars. It's just a lot of money for a very little output.

I want you to explain that because we've been hearing that from people I know ever since I've been here, uh, occasionally that's been mentioned that it would just not be, uh, it'd be a costly measure to do that. And it, and it's not lasting. It's not lasting.

So why would you, if it were to stay a long time, it'd be great. And if we had enough boat traffic and just the location of it is not going to generate the boat traffic that you need to, to keep it turned up, you know? So it's just, It's an economical thing.

All right.

Thank you, sir. Yes, sir. Live Oak Roadway improvements. We talked to the contractor. He's supposed to show up Wednesday or Thursday and start milling. So you'll see some action happen out there next week.

Thank you.

I appreciate it. I think the weather this summer, he had taken a couple of school jobs and then he was behind on school jobs because of the weather and we got behind the school jobs. And so it just took a while to get done, but I think we'll be there and get it done. Good. Um, Mary Todd road. Um, we've been meeting with a lot of the, uh, property owners on the roadway. I've talked a little bit with commissioner thrift. Um, right now we have 72% that have either agreed or, uh, are willing to sign. Um, and what we'd like to do is we've presented all these folks with the appraisal that we did on the project, talk to them about it. Um, what we'd like to do is go ahead and release $37,000 and go ahead and purchase and record the 72% of the right of way that we do have. I want to make sure that we don't have people move or change ownerships while this is going on and delay the, the project any further. So if we could get that money released to do that, that would be great.

Yes, sir, Mr. Chairman. I've been speaking with Trent and some of the property owners on Mary Todd. Like he said, we've come a long way since we hired and got the appraisals from the consultant. And while these folks are willing to sign the agreement, then I would make a motion that we release the funds to go ahead and pay these property owners for the property. We'll be coming out must-blast.

T-SPLOS and not T-SPLOS?

T-SPLOS. Okay.

All right.

T-SPLOS.

All right. Okay. Commissioners have made a motion that we accept the bid price. Am I reading right, Mr. Lone? 957.

No, no, we're not there yet. Not there yet? No, no, we're on Mary Todd Road. This is $37,000. This is $30,000. Spend all your money. He's spending more than me. That's a second. $37,000. Up to $37,000. $37,000. I thought you said $36,000, but $37,000.

What's in the second? Second.

What's the number for the matter of record?

$37,000. $37,000. Okay.

Any further discussion?

I do. Because I'm just looking, and it says that with a non-responsive, 14 of the 21 certified receipts were received. So I guess when I'm – or you don't have to just do some additional engineering if they –

So what we're going to, we've kind of set this up so that we can take other steps as far as trying to contact folks and moving through the process to obtain the right of way. Uh, so we're trying to follow the federal process for obtaining rights away. Um, our, what we're going to have to do on these others that are in red is just going to have to go knock on doors and hopefully find people with night or weekends or something.

Right. But what I'm saying, in the case of you not getting, you know, the whole 100%, what will be the next step?

So what we have to do is, you know, prove our efforts to get in touch with everyone. And once we've proved our efforts, we start moving toward imminent.

Okay. Right. You can say it.

That's kind of the process we're going through. That is the end. Right. That is the end. That's the end game. If I can't do it.

Right.

Yeah.

Okay. Okay, we have the motion to second the discussion. Everybody ready? All in favor, show of hands, please. 37,000, okay. All right. I apologize for jumping ahead.

I was looking at the... No, no, that's no worries. I'm trying to save county line rates for the last, because it is a line item by itself in the agenda. I see it is, yeah. Okay. I've talked to Ms. Julie Martin a little bit about the Isle of Wight Convenience Center. I'm going to need to get in touch with Mr. Van Martin and talk to him a little bit about that. Um, so I'm in the process of trying to make those contacts to start working on getting that one done. Cause that is next on our capital improvements list for solid waste. And, uh, part of that is relocating, uh, quarterman drive. So it doesn't intersect so close to highway 84. Um, so we just got to have the right away and the property to be able to do it. So that's next on our list to be able to try to acquire. Um, County Line Road. If that's okay for me to go ahead and move to County Line Road. Oh, I did not. I skipped it. Commissioner Gillard had asked me to talk a little bit about, make sure I had on my list, the St. John's Road. And the proposals came in today for $790,000 for St. John's Road. But I'll try to let him know that as well. County Line Road. We did receive... Eight bids. The lowest responsible bidder was McClendon Enterprises, and we have a job going on with them now in Jessup, and I have done several projects with McClendon Enterprises over my career, and all of them have turned out well. And their price was $957,960.30. We recommend, and Commissioner Thurft does have the money to do this plus a 10% contingency. And it also leaves enough money as the proceeds come in for Mary Todd Road that she'll be able to build Mary Todd Road once we get the right of way. So we're not just depleting your funds.

That's right. I've been a very good steward of my money.

That's right. So I recommend that we enter in a contract with Linden Enterprises for $957,960.13 plus a 10% contingency. Yes, sir.

You want to make that statement again about it came in what?

It came in really under what we had originally estimated. I think it was a little over 1.1, something like that. and it came in at 957, so I would make a motion that we go ahead and approve McClendon Enterprises for the repaving of County Line Road.

And the amount of? 957. Oh, I'm sorry.

$957, 960, and 13 cents plus the 10% contingency fund. And this project is to start

We have to give them, what we'll do is once you approve it, we will have to issue contracts and it'll be about 45 days before we give them notice to proceed. By the time we get through this, it's gonna be a little bit.

Okay.

And how long is this?

The length of it?

That road there is two, three miles.

We're doing a little over two miles. I saw that. We're not going all the way through.

We're going to Long Road.

And that's resurfacing. Yes, it's resurfacing. Okay. Now resurfacing and deep patching.

Deep patching, there's some bad.

Right.

You're starting at rye patch.

Starting rye patch going that way. Yes, ma'am. Then we're also doing an OGI course, which is open graded interface, which should help the reflective cracking. There's a lot of cracks in it, and the OGI helps keep the cracks from coming through.

I'm not trying to get into weeds, but

I can get a road.

Right. She's getting two miles of roads. Compared to his sidewalk.

In my sidewalks. And I understand him piping and all of that. But that's not. That's not even. What is that? A half a mile?

Two miles? It's a little more than a half mile.

Right. It's not a mile. I know it's not a mile. I've walked that street as a kid forever.

Yeah, and it's, you know, the difference is just the intensity of work. Yeah. A live drive versus. Man, I'm in my business, man.

I need to just be in sidewalks.

That is unbelievable. McClendon, where are they from? Just out of curiosity. You say you work with them more?

More Southwest Georgia, but they do a lot of stuff.

Okay.

They're the primary contractors doing all, you see all the Evans contractors. Uh-huh. They do a lot of the side work stuff. All right.

Well, you're comfortable with them.

Okay. They're top notch. All right.

All in favor, show of hands, please. So, Commissioner Stiffen, get the work started on County Line Road.

Talk about that for a while. And, Mr. Chair, we do have it in our ordinance. for Liberty County that all new developers have to do curb and gutter, right? We do. Okay. I just want to verify that because I don't want the next commissioner that might be sitting in my chair, one of y'all chairs, to want to put some sidewalks and it costs them an arm and a leg to be able to do it. Unless we give them a variance. Because this is going to be put in the email so he can come over there to the city. He'll walk over there with me. With us. Please. We'll do it. You know? You remember you used to sit over here. Yes, sir. Man.

All right.

That's all I have. Thank you, sir.

Thank you.

I just want to say thank you for the signs on Highway 84.

Yes, sir.

5 o'clock.

They got them in?

Oh, you didn't know. I'm sorry.

I didn't notice. You're welcome. I'm glad they got there. Well, thank you very much. Y'all have a great evening.

Did we vote? We voted. Yeah, we did.

We did. Mr. Wells. To John Deatractus.

Chairman, commissioners. Told you I'd be back.

You did.

We're not going to keep you long tonight, okay? No. We'll make it home time for dinner.

Yeah.

Or see them boys play ball.

Yeah. We sent out some bids to try to replace a couple tractors. Unfortunately, we didn't get one bid back. I sent out bids to three different companies, and when I questioned that, they simply could not provide the tractor, so they didn't bid on it. We got a bid back from AgPro. for 200 horse tractors after trade is 163,991.03.

You said they couldn't get the?

Couldn't get the tractors. They didn't know when they would be able to get them, so they didn't bid on it.

Coming from overseas? Are they coming from overseas? I'm just asking.

No. Well, I'm not sure where the tractor's coming from, but the guy I've been working with, he's got them. He's got one in Brunswick and got one in Augusta they can get. I'm not sure, I reckon it's just high demand for the tractors. They just don't have them.

You're getting into the, where's Crystal? The same concerns that getting EMSs and getting fire trucks and stuff, now it's hard to get.

Yeah, any equipment. It's gotten better actually, but it's still hard to get equipment.

Coming from the straight arrow moves.

Four-wheel drive.

Four-wheel drive.

Have you ever looked into that lawsuit?

With the fire trucks and... That's actually a lawsuit on that.

Outside of the availability, you comfortable with the price, sir?

I have. We actually, you know, back when I, a couple months ago when I bid them out, the other dealers had tractors and they bid. It's all right there in line from what it was. So I know what the other dealer's prices is, but they just didn't have the tractors now. And didn't know when they did get them.

And you're comfortable with the durability?

I hope so.

Yeah.

I've looked at them and talked to people, and I'm hopeful.

No one gives you a bad? No, I haven't got any bad, anything bad on it. All right, commissioners.

Yes, sir, Mr. Chairman.

Second. In the amount of 163,991.03. All right. And the shelf life on these are? Sir.

The shelf life, you think they're going to last for how long?

Two summers. You know, it's a funny thing. I've got tractors from 2008. I'm still running.

Right.

Some of them, you know, these I'm replacing from 2020. The word I hope. I hope.

If it helps in the area I work in, I have six John Deere tractors. The 2009 models, they're still going strong. Oh, I have an 08 at the house. Yeah, but it's not.

Most of you. Yeah, I don't use it like that. County departments and state, everybody's going to John Deere.

I'm not on it every day.

All right.

All in favor? Show of hands. All right, sir.

Thank you. Thank you.

Thank you. Hey, John Deere is going forever, though.

Timber tax resolution.

Mr. Chair, he's getting a memo that nothing runs like a deer.

I'm okay with a deer. He's making a commercial.

for you is information from the state of Georgia. We talked about this on last year and at the time we thought that we had to have damage and a couple, in July, Chairman received a notification from Department of Revenue and I received information from ACCG saying, guys, y'all got money in this bill and y'all need to take advantage of it. It's part of House Bill 223, which is the Timberlands Recovery Exemption Earnings Stability Act, otherwise known as the Tree Act, and basically it has to do with all the local governments that were involved with when Hurricane Harleen came in and damaged properties and trees during that time period. And so in order to apply for the funds, we have to pass a resolution, which is in your packet, and then we apply for a complete application. And what we look at is they're looking at the average and not average. that they had of timber was $97,000. So Ms. Richardson has prepared application that's ready to go. So tonight that depends on you guys passing the resolution. Now for any property owner that's affected, what they would do is go to the Department of Revenue's website and they would complete a, application, Department of Revenue would vet it, and then they would send it to us, and the tax commissioner would cut off a check for whatever amount that their property was damaged.

Commissioner, I'm not going to speak to that, but we talked to the people, a few in your area, but they didn't feel they had enough.

They had some damage, but they didn't feel like they had enough to qualify for any help.

But you were saying any damage. For trees. So if a tree fell in your yard, Well, I mean, no. So the tree will have to fall in your yard, then hit half the building, or? It's for timber, though.

You have to have a timber. It probably has to be in conservation or something.

So it'll have to be in conservation. I would think so. Like planted pine trees, yeah.

Like a tree farm.

Like a tree farm.

Over 10 acres.

Part of those forests don't even have tree farms, pine tree farms. Yeah.

Was it in a science class when they asked about if a tree falls in the middle of the forest and no one hears it, is it still a sound? Y'all don't remember that? I do. Oh, my bad.

We graduated into eighth grade. Hey, let's not leave them on the table. Chair intend a motion. So moved. Second. Second. Second. Further discussion? All in favor, show of hands, please. Let's do our part to bring in whatever those funds. You quoted 97.

They said we were eligible up to $130,000, but I was reading again today it said whatever your three-year average is, and they provided that, and that was $97,000 and some change.

We'll take it. All right. Thank you, sir. MOU between Liberty County Sheriff and Liberty Regional Attorney Kelly Davis. How are you, sir?

Good evening. Good evening. I think everyone is familiar with the security concerns of the hospital and the agreement that's proposed between the hospital and the sheriff's department. The hospital would like to contract with the sheriff's department to provide exclusive full-time deputies at the hospital, maybe four deputies, as well as provide necessary equipment in one vehicle. And the hospital has assumed full responsibility for payment of these deputies, as well as all benefits and training-related equipment, personal equipment they may need in connection with their job. And the agreement that's before you tonight has not yet been finally approved by the hospital authority, but I think everyone is asking the board approve it now, subject to approval of the chairman and whatever changes might be recommended by me. just to advance the process. And I think I mentioned at your last meeting or meeting before, the board really has no active role in this arrangement. Your only role is to budget the funds and collect reimbursement from the hospital authority. And so there'll be out-of-pocket costs paid by the board of commissioners. The hospital agreed to pay all costs associated with the security. So if it's the pleasure of the board, I just ask that you authorize the chairman to sign the MOU between the county, the sheriff, and the hospital authority to allow security to be put in place as soon as possible. If you have any questions, I'll be happy to answer them. But Commissioner Thrift might be able to answer the security concerns better than I could.

Yes, sir. Mr. Chairman, like I spoke at the last meeting, there's definitely a need for security at the hospital. They currently have a contract with the Sheriff's Department, but it's not as stringent, I guess, as this one would be. And this is kind of in line with like the one that commissioners have with the Board of Education. Yes, ma'am. And so and I know the first year of it, of the like he said, it's going to be a wash, really, because the hospital is going to reimburse the county back. But anyway, the first year it's set up and everything is a little bit higher than they'll negotiate. or I believe they have a price in there for the following year, which is a little less. But we are having some issues, or they are having some issues over there with patients that need to be addressed, and I make a motion we go ahead and approve this inter-government, or this agreement with the Sheriff and the Liberty Regional Medical Center Hospital Authority.

Second. My one comment is that one of the retirees who's a friend of mine, and Mr. Steven knows her very well, was injured at the hospital.

They've had several employees injured and had to go out on FMLA, and it just needs to be done.

And that is one specific concern the agreement addresses, not only emergency department security, but security for parking areas as well.

Yes. That is right. They'll make up the schedule. Okay.

And I hope so, too. Right. Because most of those patients that are causing the harm over there are mental patients, and they need a special type of assistance over there for those patients.

That's a good point, and that will be the focus of a lot of the training of the personnel assigned there.

Yes, sir. I was listening to NPR, and they did a story on this, how prevalent it is nationwide. Yes. Injuries in hospitals. Nurses are getting very concerned about their security. I say nurses, hospital staff in general. All right. For discussion, all in favor, show of hands, please. All right. Thank you. Execute that contract, sir. Mr. Dodd, Homeland Security Grant. And the weather report.

Good evening, Mr. Chairman, uh, commissioners. Last year around August, September, we approached Ms. Rhonda with a voter registration about a Homeland security grant. Um, if she wanted to apply for it, well, she gave us the paperwork and she did apply for it. And then we just found out last week that she did get approved for 66,600. Sir. I thought you said something. I said, wow. $66,676.65. What I'm here for tonight is just to get the approval with Mr. Chairman's signature that we go into that agreement with. And what she's going to use that money for is she's buying... $40,000 of it around ballpark figure is for security purposes, and then the other $20,000 she's buying like an emergency panic button for her poll workers, and that's what she's going to do. And right now we have to sign the paperwork to get into the agreement with the GEMA, and then she can purchase the stuff once they approve it.

Questions for Mr. Dodd? It's amazing what we have to do for security nowadays. That's where we are. All right. Let's please allow our Board of Elections to receive a granted amount of $6,676.65 for security purposes, as stated by Mr. Dodd. Chair, intend a motion. So moved, Mr. Chair. Is there a second? Motion is second. We approve it as presented for the press. All in favor, show of hands, please. All right. We've made Ms.

That is, sir, one thing. That is a 100%. We don't have to match nothing. It's not a 75-25. It's straight 100%. All right, sir.

Getting better and better. How's the weather?

Weather. Weather's going to be hot. I can promise you it's going to be hot.

You got it.

I knew Mr. Chairman was going to ask me, so I brought it. I know we're going to have a heat advisory possibly tomorrow. They're expecting some rain to come in tomorrow evening. But the heat index tomorrow, we're looking at 106, 105. Then possibly cooling down a little bit on the weekend. But rain, no tropical weather. That's the good thing. But it's just going to be heat.

Right. And I'm glad you kind of mentioned that. And I know in the past we've had discussions about, you know, having... because of the weather either is super hot or super cold where we have like warming stations in the wintertime and cooling stations. And, and I understand the city of Hinesville has done their part. And I know I represent, I get elected in Hinesville, but I represent all Liberty County. So what I'm saying is we have citizens outside of Hinesville who might need those, those type of needs. And I know Chatham County, You know, they have some things. I was watching WTOC the other day, and I know Chatham County, even right now, they have cooling stations for their citizens. And Beaufort, they were just talking about other communities that had them. And I just wanted to know, and I know that's your area, because we're talking about weather. Are we, in the future, going to start looking at expanding where we have some type of facility for our citizens? Sorry, Mr. Dodd, to put you on this. I mean, y'all talking about weather.

I know the city of Hinesville's got the agreement with Bethel, the church, for the heating and cooling in. I know Trip always sends them the weather and we keep in contact with that right there. I know some of the municipalities and I can speak for Walterville. I know Chief Maxwell has opened up the fire station if people is cooling. And it's just, we go back to the same thing, space and the money to fund something like that. That's the biggest thing. I think everybody in Liberty County is on the same sheet as you, but when it comes down to the space, and the funds to man it, to support that shelter.

Understood.

Find a way to make one. And generally they generally quote the liability issue too.

You know, I come, like you said before, I'm not going to stir that too much because I don't want, I mean, I understand, but I think that's, I mean, every, every season during the wintertime is a discussion. Summertime is the discussion. So I, I don't, I think, um,

Yeah, okay.

Right. Or just talk to some of your peers, you know, from around this particular area.

Well, I can speak for Region Area 5 with all the EMA directors. There's 13 counties. We're all in the same position in Chatham County. You know, they're involved in that area too. Right. All of us face the same things with them when we start talking about that shelters for... you know, the heat or the cold.

Right, right, right. All right. I just want to know if we are going to come with some type of strategic plan for that, but, or we just want to let Hinesville handle everything, everything either way. I just wanted to mention it.

Thank you, sir.

No problem.

All right, Mr. Dot. Yes.

So last year, January, January of 2025, this board approved us to rewrite or update our hazard mitigation plan for the whole county, the multi-jurisdictions. We went through, we had a kickoff meeting in March of last year, and we did all the briefings. I know my staff, we worked a lot with AG Witt. That's the one that we picked. Right now, the plan has went through GEMA and FEMA. It's been approved on the exceptions that we have to go through all the government agencies to get it adopted. We've done... We've done four, well, this is the fourth one, and we got the other municipalities scheduled to adopt this plan. The only thing I'm asking tonight is just to adopt a multi-jurisdiction plan. That way we can send it up to FEMA and we can get the plan back.

Is Watteville on board?

It was Tuesday. We're presenting Tuesday.

I mean, you get it? Walk a little. I got it. Thank you.

Chair, entertain a motion.

So moved, Mr. Chair.

Second, we approve. Thank you. No problem. All in favor vote. Ms. Monica, you have that there? Okay. All right. Administrative report, Mr. Mosley.

Chair and Board of Commissioners, briefly, under Human Resources, we have started the process for our Paying Compensation Study. On the SPLOSH negotiations, we are meeting with our cities to start that process of negotiating projects, and we'll be bringing a list to the board at our work session on Wednesday. And our upcoming events is a work session for Wednesday, of course, and then the ribbon-cutting and dedication for the new MS on September 3rd, 2026 at 9 o'clock a.m. And going back, on yesterday, we got a chance to meet with Ms. Brynn Grant and Ms. Melissa McKay from the Development Authority, and they talked about the Georgia Tech study. And what I would love to do in one of the next upcoming sessions is have y'all get a debriefing on that. I think it's some great information in terms of what it costs to provide services with dollars, with tax dollars. And on that note, I've been asked to serve on a ACCG special ad hoc committee dealing with the tax issues that will be coming before the legislature. And on Tuesday at a library board meeting, I got a chance to talk with Chatham County manager, Michael Kegler, and he's going to assemble some of the coastal county managers to talk about it. We know from our consultant, Mr. McDonald, that the issue will not go away. It will be back on the 2027 Georgia General Assembly agenda. So we need to have some strategies in terms of how we're going to address the issue. So I just want to give you all an update on that. Yes, sir.

Where are we with the decals on the vehicles?

If I remember correctly, I think we're at about 75%. I've been seeing them. It was paused, and it's going to start it back.

No, sir. We'll get it done. Yes, sir.

Shows up good when I'm passing them by on the streets. Mm-hmm. Sir? Shows up good. Yes, sir, it does. It does. It looks good.

The numbers on them and all. I'm tracking.

Thank you, sir. All right. Ladies and gentlemen, we now need to go into executive session for a real estate matter. Our chair will take the motion to adjourn this session and go into executive session. So moved, Mr. Chair. Is there a second to that?

Second.

All in favor, show of hands, please. We will now go into executive session for a real estate matter.

Motion to come out of executive session.

Chair Taylor, motion to come out of executive session.

Second.

Second. All in favor? All right. Chair Taylor, motion to adjourn. So moved. Second. Second. All in favor? All right, sir. Yes, sir.

Oh, yeah, let me see that. Oh, by the way, y'all, I lost my keys. You don't fit losing things. Man, listen. No, no. I got smart this time.

I know. Yeah, that was something else.

But look.

Because I had to buy a whole lot.

No, listen.

I lost for both my trucks. So I was able to afford one. I didn't have to pay for the next one.