Board of Commissioners - Regular Meeting

Good afternoon. Good afternoon. Call the meeting of Libert County Board of Commission to order. Miss Hunter, has the medium been properly advertised? Yes, sir. Thank you so much. I see evidence thereof.

Let us stand now if we will for our invocation and our pledge of allegiance. Dear Lord, we thank you for allowing us to come here today. We thank you for your presence. [clears throat] We thank you for your guidance. We thank you for your wisdom with ask that you would bless and everything be decent and in order. Wish you would bless these commissioners who give her their time and talent. Bless this community that we love to serve so well. Bless this meeting. Let it be done. Everything will be pleasing in thy sight. And then oh God, we ask that thou would help us to live a life that will find ourselves able to hear you say well done their good and faithful service. This we do ask in Jesus Christ's name we pray. Amen. Amen.

I pledge algiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the stands one nation. Thank you. [clears throat and cough] recognitions. We need to hear now and receive our Liberty County Sheriff Office to make a very pivotal um announcement of it takes two and up three to conclude. [clears throat] Good evening commissioners. Those are served

in the audience. Good evening.

Uh it is my honor to come before you today uh just to let you know exactly uh what the sheriff office have been doing since the past five years. Uh as you know we came in and we wanted to establish standards, procedures and policies uh so that we can better serve our citizens here in the county. Uh so what we did was set out and [clears throat] put in for our certification through the the first one we got we received was from the chiefs of police uh through the state. So we have that certification and that simply is not an easy thing to achieve. It takes a lot of hard work and dedication uh making sure you have all your policies together, all your procedures you're doing, all your standards. They go through all your paperwork, all your the your operations to make sure that you're doing everything in compliance to the state code and state level. So by doing that and get into that program that that helps us get grants and it opens us up so that we'll be one of the top agencies in the state of Georgia. So in May we received the um certification through the state by the bureau chief of police and like I said we have to maintain this and every three years we get re-evaluated to make sure that we are hold upholding the standards and [clears throat] this is something that show the citizens of this county how hard we work to make sure that we do everything right. So, uh, I like to thank all my staff and everybody that in the sheriff office and your support from what y'all have doing to help support the sheriff office and we really appreciate it. So, this is not just our award, it is the county award. So, we really appreciate it. So, I just let everybody just take a look at that. I'm very, very, very proud of this. [applause] Sheriff Association.

Oh, this sheriff. Okay. This is GCP.

Okay. That's the GCP. Okay. This is the one through the sheriff association. Now, this is the one that we just received. I went to the sheriff conference we had in in Savannah and we are now one of the 14 sheriff office out of 159 counties in the state of Georgia to have a state certification. Um, the sheriff association wanted to do something along with like uh the chief of police, they want to have their own certification. all sheriffs in the state of Georgia will all have the same uh [clears throat] standard and procedure on how you should act and conduct yourself as a sheriff's office. So, uh we were going to be like one of the last ones to get this certification, but I pressed forward because they say we're already doing what we were supposed to been doing by already going out getting that certification through the Bureau of Chiefs. So, we were already tracking. So out of 159 counties, we are ranked we are number 14 to have this achievement. And we are the only county in the state of Georgia to have both at the same time.

All right. Good job. All right. [applause] All right. And just by having this, it let us let us know that we're doing the right thing and we're trying to make sure that the county knows that your taxpayer money is being spent well. We're not doing anything illegal and we're going to continue to do things the right way. Um, thank y'all for y'all support and we appreciate it. Congratulations. Congratulations. Good job. If y'all don't mind, would y'all like to take a photo with us so we can uh You want to come up? Yep, we can come up. Come up.

Come on up a little. [laughter] to me. I will grab that. You know, I was worried about the glue on my head.

Congratulations. That's good. Bragging rights.

Now, you're going to provide your updates. We [clears throat] we we asked the sheriff, other departments, too. And I see Liberty Regional that they will provide updates from time to time. And dear, we got to get you scheduled for whenever that time is so that we can hear from you. So, tonight's the time to hear from the uh church department.

Okay. This Joe is this for me to change it. Okay.

Good afternoon. Good afternoon, sir.

Honorable chairman and commissioners, want to first off thank you for allowing us to appear before you. [clears throat] Um, all the things we'll be talking about here is all thanks to you guys for your support and a lot being for the Sheriff Bowman and I and our staff to be able to put all this stuff together, the numbers to show you what we're doing here in the county. We talked about transparency. The sheriff ran on transparency. Want to make sure we do just that. And first off, we want to let each and everyone even in the audience know if you have questions of anything within the sheriff's office, please reach out to the sheriff or myself. We will gladly share or find an answer if we don't have it to whatever question you may have as it relates to law enforcement and the sheriff's office. Thank you. All right. Next, Liberty County. And mo a lot of these numbers you all may know. I'm not going to read all of them, but just kind of put them there for you to see. This county is comprised of 603 square miles, which is actually a very large county from east to west. 113 of that square miles is coastline and we're now at approximate population of 70,000. And one thing we always talk about, we're Liberty County proud because of the growth. And as we all know, with growth comes other issues, be it traffic, roads, with all of those. The sheriff's department is is responsible for those, making sure we keep them safe and do the things necessary to help the people move about the county and live here safely. And as we all know, public safety is one of the reasons people move to certain areas.

All right. When the sheriff took office, well, 2019 was the last count for our rank in the state far as DUIs [clears throat] and the sheriff was not in under this. the first count here which Liberty County was eighth in the state and then in TW and these are done every two years and so in 2021 you see the numbers went down and as we go as the number get higher that mean the better we are doing within the state not being seven that we would be doing better. So on the B13 you could already see some progress and in 2023 after we uh implemented what is called the heat unit traffic unit there DUI enforcement and all of that you see we down to number 38 in the state. So the next numbers will come out at the end will end this year and then the report will actually come out in February. So we're hoping that number will be much less. will be a lot lower than what we are there. [clears throat] But that's just saying that the implementation of the heat unit really has helped make our roads safer. And here is what is our crime report. In 2024, we had these are the different crimes that we had which adult arrests was you can see the numbers 705 and 724. um juveniles, believe it or not, is not as high in the county. So, um I feel good about those numbers. Of course, domestics tend to go up a lot of times when when we have financial issues within the count within our economy. You tend to see sometime domestics go up.

So, that's our counts for domestics for 24 and up to now and 25. but aggravated assaults and probably the most important thing we [clears throat] had one homicide this year and um two I believe it was last year. So that's you I always feel good about that. The more violent crimes we really work to keep those low and keep our roads safe. officer contacts. You can see the numbers there. And um 2024 traffic stops was at like 15,000 and this year to this point we're at 13,000. [clears throat] Um you'll see the warnings. We issue just as many warnings as we do because we we don't we feel like trying to arrest everybody is not the answer to keeping your community safe. Sometimes warnings are good just to get that'll get a lot of people attention just as well that as that citation. So that's part of balance within the system. Um the criminal citations you see those numbers. Um the business checks, we really push that. the sheriff really want the guys to get out here at night and and if you look at the burglary rate and those type things, they are rather low because our presence out in the communities and responding when the citizens ask or or we alerted in in in that way. Here's what we talk about the positions that we have within the county. We have 171 allotted positions, 143 current employees. Matter of fact, tomorrow we'll be traveling to Savannah. We got five graduating from the academy. And [laughter] now when you see an empty slot, it takes so much longer because

the standards have been increased by the state. And so it takes much longer for officer to be prepared with the the graduation FTO and all of that. So that's why when you see an empty number, it takes longer to fill it. Part of that our SRO are counted in that which is funded by the um school board that is 100% f funded by the school board. The commissioners do kick in some from from the uh to the SRO program from red speed that type thing and the sheriff also um uh approved with that. So um with that that's the numbers you are seeing here our jailers transport officers. So, um, we are managed by three majors over those three bureaus. Here is our SRO stats. For some reason, I guess with so many schools, it's kind of hard to see that, but I hope you guys have copies of it, so you can really look into those numbers. And later, if you have any real questions about any of those numbers, please reach out to us. But the as you'll look through those numbers, you'll see the SRO program has been really successful and we're always looking to hire for our SRO program. And understand most of the time you can't just put any officer in that school system. You want to make sure that they will fit, you know, some people who may not have kids or those who may not work well with kids. So, we have to look into things like that. So, our schools we love and protect and thanks to the commissioners, the school board, and our sheriff for really putting that together. And Dr. Perry was big with the sheriff on getting started with our SRO program,

if you will. [clears throat] Today, I'm on the school governor's team at um Waldo Papert. They [clears throat] were talking about some new collaborations to help with a lot of our scores and they they listed responsibilities for the teachers and the students. My question was what are you asking the parents to do? So when I look at this for SR what what do parents need to know they can do at home to help with this program? What do what can parents do with Johnny at the house

when they hear of a lot of time their kids are talking about this kid threatening to jump on this one that kind of stuff. alert law enforcement because what we're finding, they'll hear this at night and that morning when a child already on the bus, they're planning to come commit a crime at the school and that's when they decide to call when they should have called immediately. I don't care if they called me at 3:00 in the morning. That's when we're going to start on it. We're not going to wait till they the buses are rolling because now you got other kids involved. So just reach out to the SRO's with any question because what we do, we handle the security aspect of our focus is what when crimes are committed. If it's something that is an administrative issue, we want the school system to handle that because we're not teachers, we're not counselors, but if the law is broken, that's where we we get involved. And but we we welcome any input that they can put in, give us to make sure we keep those schools safe because a lot of time they're going to hear about it at first or see stuff on social media. If you see something on social media, reach out to us. We're going to be on it. We're not waiting till the next day. We're on it that night. I can promise you.

Thank you, Chief. Good. Thanks, sir. Okay. And and that's pretty much the numbers that you see. And like I said, tonight was a little bit longer. Next time you won't get this much, but no. [laughter] But um we appreciate the opportunity and thanks for your all's attention to this issue. And we'll continue to serve proudly. Liberty County. Thank you so [clears throat] much. I'm sorry. Any questions? You said we'll get copies of that. Okay. Okay. I have one. Uh Chief. Yes, sir. Go back to the to that crime report. U whichever slide that was Um, [clears throat] and I know we have several um, municipal

police departments throughout the city. I know the sheriff um, maintains uh, Flemington through this through the sheriff's department, but uh, Midway, Hinesville, Walville got their own police department, right? and and when I'm looking at these um stats on that arrest and and all these other categories and and I know that y'all

come through Hinesville, you know, Hinesville [snorts] has their own police department. So, if something was happened in Hinesville, would that be um counted on this report? If the sheriff department stopped somebody on 84 doing something like that that would count toward the the sheriff's department arrest or if we initiates it. Yes. But if we if our deputy just riding through and back up was a um officer there at most we might do a stat for or something just showing that what we we stopped and assisted or something like because we would want something in writing in case some and and the same in the other municipalities. Um

right. So I I guess my question was this is not just um the the the cities that don't have a police department and uninccorporated. It could be somebody in Hinesville or somebody in somebody in Okay. Absolutely. If you initiated it though. That's right. Yes, sir. Thank you, Chief. Thank you. Thank [clears throat] you, chairman. Thank you, commission. Keeping us safe. All right. Department of Finance. Miss Samantha Richardson, are you ready?

Um, good evening, Mr. Chairman and Commissioners. Evening.

I'm here to report the first item on the agenda for finance is the county's September 2025 financial statements. Oh, you got it. Okay. Yes. Um, starting with the general fund, as of the end of September, we've collected approximately 10% of our revenue and have spent approximately 22% of our total [clears throat] budgeted expenditures. Um, it is still early in the fiscal year. Um, but we do have four months uh four months of operating expenditures in our unreserved fund balance. This is up from last year for which uh we reported three months.

Good.

And looking at the departmental expenditures for the general fund, there are a few still running uh ahead of schedule due to the timing of contract renewals and vendor payments uh required to be paid at the beginning of the fiscal year. Uh this is the case for it, superior court, the law, library, and EMS. Uh for the remaining departments that are showing variances, um there are none that are causing us any concern at this point in the fiscal year and we fully expect them to fall back in line as we continue through the fiscal year. Um the variance calculation uh in our financial report, the way it's set up is that it assumes that all departments will expend their budgets equally um over every month of the fiscal year. But this is really not the case for a lot of our departments. Um, and turning the page to solid waste here. Um, the end of September, the solid waste is showing a small net income of about 128,000. We have collected 19% of our budgeted revenue and have spent 16% of our expenditures. Um, there are currently no single departments in solid waste that are showing overbudget. through September. Um, and we do not anticipate any. Uh, but things always arise. Uh, flipping the page to the special revenue funds. Um, there are currently no special revenue funds exceeding their budgets, uh, for the month of September. And moving on to sales tax reports. Um, T-Spl. Yep. Uh for Teslas we received for the month of September 1,92,000.

Um since the inception of Tesla, we have collected over 58.7 million and our original referendum was 54 million. Um and we have spent uh almost half of that at 27.4 million on Teslas projects. for sales tax 7 September [clears throat] we collected 1,162,000 um another great month of collections to date we have spent 20.1 in SPLS expenditures and have collected a total of 33.1 million concludes uh my September report but I'd be happy to answer any questions

when when you report how much has been spent that's how much the county projects Those are those are all projects. I think I wanted to clear the audience would understand that tlos and splass divided among all the county entities. Correct. So when she says spent that means projects that could have been done anywhere in Liberty County. Yes sir. Okay.

Any questions for Miss Richardson on the financial report? I don't have a a question, Mr. Chairman, but I do want to Samantha. I'll give you um I'll send you email tomorrow. Okay. I'll um I want to go ahead. I'm just looking at my report and I got a couple of questions when Mr. Long come up. I want to go ahead and allocate some um some funds to the I think it was the trails that we identified that we were going to [clears throat] um you hear me? Yes, sir. Oh, okay. What was the last thing I said? No matter the trails we have identified. honest even even Trent was not in his head. You I was looking at Trent.

I know I was speaking to the mic, but she [laughter] But yeah, I um I want to go ahead and allocate some that's the first um subdivision that we've um taken over that I want to adopt some funds and I got a question for Trent when he comes up. So I'll be ready to um I'll send you that tomorrow. I want Okay, perfect. Yes, sir. Okay. Thank you for that generosity, sir. Well, yeah, that was um that [clears throat] was a challenge to everybody else to join me. Um [laughter] that's what that's what that really I use to get my point. [laughter] You didn't announce it as such. All the supervisor that's all I have. Is that obligation going to cover the entire cost?

No, not not [laughter] maybe that's the question. Trent supposed to have something for me? I'll look at his report. wasn't on there, but I'm quite sure he'll explain that when he get here. Okay. Yes, sir.

All right. Oh, that's this is a good place. Um, right now I want to thank Sorry to let some people leave the Liberty County community for supporting floss uh and for supporting Floss. You know, man, it was awesome. [applause] Just just awesome. just thrilled to know that we had those revenues to assist us in this infrastructure project. We have several infrastructure improvements on the joint board and we could not do it especially if we just took it from property taxes but using T-spots especially is going to help us tremendously and of course you know [clears throat] floss is going to help you help all of us uh we we'll collect those funds all of 2026 and then we'll apply those funds to your property taxes in 2027. So thank you so much for your support. Um it was a a journey u but a journey that was worth it and I cannot say thank you enough. Thank you commissioners too for your support. Um I when I when I think about this commission uh and and how we sit [clears throat] and work with the well they allow me to sit and work with the mayors and and our finance team and we sit around the table. We put uh some things on the list and then of course we uh have a lotments to each commission for that commission district. But I cannot express enough how I appreciate your support and that that support certainly ties right on over into what happens in the county and today we all celebrate because of the unity and the togetherness and the vision we have for Liberty County. So thank you so much for your support. Yeah. All right. All right, we're going to move right into chair entertain a motion to go in the public hearing to discuss our village. So move all in favor. Show of hands. We're now in the public here. Thank our department heads for being here with us. Uh you look good out there. You look good. Thank you for your

support. Thank you Liberty Regional. Any other interest here? I know I see the mayor from the city of Wal. Good to have you here, mayor. Am I missing anybody? Thank you all. Um, yes. So, just to just to point out there is a signup sheet if anyone wants to speak after the presentation uh during the public hearing. It will be next year because

um I'd like to welcome everyone to our third public hearing for the 2025 proposed millage rate. Um this is the opportunity for us to receive public comments um before the board approves the resolution for the millage rate. Um, as a reminder, this presentation focuses only on the county's portion of the mill rate. Um, other entities, the school board, the cities, um, Hinesville, Flemington, and Waltharville new this year, um, hospital author authority, development authority, they're independent of the county and they set their own millage rates and have their own boards. Um, and let's see, I'll begin with just a brief overview of how the military process works at the county. Um, each year the county is required to adopt a budget by June 30th for the upcoming fiscal year beginning July 1st. Uh the assessor's office uh works hard to finalize the property values of all the property uh real [clears throat] and personal in the county um and issues what they call a consolidated digest. Uh using those values from the digest and the county's adopted budget. Uh finance and admin and the board of commissioners work together to determine uh what the property tax revenue is needed to fund the county's operations. Um this includes public safety, law enforcement, recreation, uh many of the services that our residents rely on. Once the calculation is complete, um the board of commissioners adopts the miller and then the tax commissioner and his team prepare uh along with their vendor and mail out the property tax bills. Uh this is truly a combined effort for multi multiple departments here um and elected officials at the county. Uh our

board of commissioners, the chief assessor, the tax commissioner, um the county administrator and um finance. This slide shows the countywide digest over the last several years. Um, in 2026, the net digest, which would be the total values less any exemptions that apply. Um, but the net digest grew 8.17%. Um, this is an increase of $213 million to our digest. Um you will also see digest changes for the city of Hinesville and the other uh unincorporated and other areas uh both of which had increases for this year as well. Um this is uh breaking out the digest growth into two components. the real growth and reassess growth. And the real growth is the actual new construction, new buildings, new homes, um improvements to ex existing structures. Uh this comprised 57% of the the uh the digest growth for the year. The reassess growth is the increases or decreases um mostly increases lately but market increases market adjustments to uh your values. Um and this is governed by the the state um and Keith and his team um have to abide by certain they have to be within a range of uh the state's valuations um each year. But this gives us a clear view of what's driving our growth. And this year it's it's almost split down the middle. The actual development versus um the property value changes.

Um another key factor in the county's uh millage rate process and calculation is exemptions. Um the countywide exemptions increased 13% um this year from last year and it's now a 734 million total versus last year's 652 million. Our three largest exemptions uh for the county include Freeport disabled veterans and the KDW local freeze. Um these three alone make up 80% of of all exemptions. Uh these exam these exemptions significantly reduce the taxable base um that we are able to tax on. Um these three apply only to counties. So the cities uh the hospital um all those other taxing entities within Liberty County uh do not recognize these same kind of exemptions. Uh this graph just shows that the exemptions have been just steadily rising over the past uh 10 years. Um that trend is continuing upward into 2025. Um this continued growth in exemptions reduces our overall tax base and affects the millage rate that's needed to support the county's um operating services. Yes. Um, next I want to highlight duplicated services. Um, state law requires that taxpayers not be charged twice for the same service. Um, because the county and the cities that are taxing entities, Hinesville, Flemington, and Waltherville, provide or contribute some of the same services. There's o overlapping services. um the county must adjust its millage rate down for those duplicated services and that's in order to prevent that service being taxed

twice. Um let's see this slide is uh just showing examples of duplicated services um planning, library services, senior citizens, fire protection, um engineering. Um, these shared services, like I said, are backed out of the county's millage rate for those residents who live in in the cities. This is our general fund budget history over the last five years. Um the FY26 budget increased 5.17% over uh our previous year's [clears throat] budget, but it's less of an increase than our previous few years. Um but as our population and service demands grow, the the budget reflects growth as well. This chart shows how the general fund is allocate allocated across county functions. Um, but as you can see, which has has been for many, many years, um, public safety is the largest piece of the pie, it's about 50% this year of the total general fund operating budget. Um,

and let them know what comprises public safety, please. Oh, yes, sir. It would be um the sheriff's department, fire, EMS, animal services, um, EMA,

and 901. Yes, sir. Uh but other other um functions the general government which is going to be our board of commissioners, finance admin, um those kind of ancillary services, uh the courts, the judicial services, um they follow second and third behind public safety. And I think it was two years ago, we started showing our millage rate uh broken down by segments. And um this many of the counties present their millage rates in this manner. It helps to um inform the residents what they're actually what their tax dollars are actually going to support. Um just kind of breaking it down and Um, did I leave that in there? Uh, for the unincorporated and other areas, the county is proposing uh a decrease in the millage rate. Um, digest growth was strong enough to support the adopted budget without increasing our millillage. Um, however, if we have if you if your home received um an increase in value through reassessment, then we're not saying your property tax bill is not going to increase. It's just not going to increase because of the millillage that's being set. Just kind of want to point that out. Um, but this is also true for um city of Hinesville as well. Um and well Walterville and Flemington there is a new tax this year so there wasn't um it isn't being increased because it was zero last year. Um but for Hinesville we decreased that millage rate for those residents as well just slightly.

Um now I'd like to address a question that I know comes up frequently. Um, why is Liberty County's millage rate higher than many of the other counties across the state? Um, one of the largest contributing factors is is something quite unique to Liberty County, but we are home to Fort Stewart, the largest army installation east of the Mississippi River. Um, we are we are proud of that partnership and proud to support our uh military community. But from a property taxa standpoint, it creates a uh significant structural challenge. Um that that federal military property is completely taxexempt. Um which means that nearly one-third of our entire land area um in Liberty County we cannot tax. And um additionally, where do I say that? Um, another another factor in our land area is we're a coastal community and um a large portion of our uh of our area is uh covered by water or marsh land or we can't build homes and businesses and that kind of thing. So that that really restricts us as well on um property taxes. Let's see. Um so while our service responsibilities can Yes sir.

Let's go back so we can be very clear. Yes. Another factor is we're the home of the third infantry division. Uh and we are a community of uh I think there are more I know there got the number there are more military retirees in our area than most other military installations in the state of Georgia. That's correct. And a lot of those people who are military qualify for disability the the sometimes 100% Yes. disability and and the the the way we um appreciate them is by not taxing their properties unless it's over a certain value. So that's also a major factor for Liberty County that other communities would not. Very true. Yes, sir.

Absolutely. Um but yes, as I mentioned earlier, our service responsibilities continue to grow. uh public safety, courts, emergency services, uh infrastructure, but the taxable land base available to support those services is dramatically smaller than other counties. Um other communities simply do not face this uh this level of land exemption. Um let's see. The result is that the cost of those services uh what the county does um uh is must be supported by a smaller pool of taxable property. Um it's a it's an imbalance that pushes the millage rate higher because there's less people to assess the tax to or less businesses or industry. Um the good news is and Mr. the chairman mentioned it a minute ago is that with the with the recent passing of floss um beginning in 2027, a portion of our operational funding will shift from property taxes to sales tax. Um this provides real and measurable tax relief to our homeowners. Um and our millage rates will decrease as a result. Um, another reason that I uh came up with u why our millage rate is so high compared to other counties um is the tax base composition and um this is something that affects count the country nationwide um multiple counties but growing communities like Liberty County uh are expens experiencing excuse me continued residential growth Um, and while neighborhoods and subdivisions are positive indicators of growth and opportunity, they also bring with them um a higher demand for county services.

Um, and on average, for every dollar of uh revenue generated by residential property, the county spends approximately a$120 to provide the services they they rely on. Um so our public safety, EMS, 911, courts, roads, um that means residential growth by itself does not pay for itself. It cost us more um when our when our residential property outweighs our commercial and industrial. But on the flip side, the commercial and industrial development has the opposite financial impact. For every dollar of revenue generated by those properties, it cost the county 60 cents. So um this this this helps to stabilize the inefficiency of the residential compared to what it cost um and also um stabilizes the military. But certainly um there is a benefit to having the commercial industry coming to Liberty County.

The catch 22 is commercial follows residential. Yes sir. Absolutely. As

they see more rooftops, their interest can come to your community. Um let's see. Uh to maintain essential services, respond to [clears throat] growth, preserve our quality of life, uh the county must ensure it can fund the high cost of residents services. uh depending on daily uh particularly public safety which represents half of our general fund budget. But taken together um reduce reduced taxable land base, the high residential service costs, slower commercial growth, uh these factors explain why Liberty County's millillage is is higher than the state average. And that completes uh my information for this evening. Just let me add that a um the Liberty County Development Authority in collaboration with Liberty County is um sponsoring a study. You might want to just go ahead and finish that, Mr. Mr. Mos.

Uh Mr. Chair, members of board and general audience. Uh our development authority is sponsoring a study that would look at the costing of services as Samantha talked about how much does it cost um for a dollar in terms of service delivery. uh they're looking at and specifically they're looking at certain services to to cost them out. What does it cost us to provide those services? Uh we think that'll be good data to share with the public uh in terms of you know why things are the way they are. I don't remember the timeline but I know it's in progress. Um she came and met with our department heads at the November meeting. I believe uh she's trying to get the data

tomorrow. um tomorrow. Okay. She she wants the data pretty soon I think first of year. Okay. That's [clears throat] good. And that was Georgia Tech uh economic re research that was doing that. Did anyone sign up to uh Yes, sir. We have Mr. Glenn Burch and Burch is here. I didn't see him back there. Hello, Mr. Riley. Miss Riley. Yeah. Mr. Mr. Burch is first. Yes, sir. Okay. Come on, Mr. Burch. How you doing, Commissioner?

Good. How are you? Um, I don't usually talk from notes, but tonight I'm going to just in the interest of time. Okay. Liberty County's property taxes are 38.6% higher than the state average. We're second or 19th, depending on which metric you use, on property taxes. We're in the top 35% in the nation on property tax. At the same time that we've gone up a 100% in spending in this county, the household median income has only gone up about a third from 46,000 to just under 60,000. I I just don't see how we can sustain how the taxpayer can sustain that. you know, maybe we need more commercial work that, you know, one of the things is we the population growth. I I got that with the with the uh the commercial growth, but we need to bring in more commercial growth. Why would anybody come here when you tell them their taxes are going to go up? The Fort Stewart piece, I don't understand. What What how amount I I got the you can't tax the land. You never have been able to. So, how much do they cost you? I got you can't tax the land, but how how much money is the county spending on Fort Stewart? I was the chief there. I don't think we were drawing money from the county. It's just a chunk of land you can't tax. They're not costing you anything. In fact, they're contributing billions to the local economy as are all of those

disabled veterans. When [clears throat] I talked, I think you said 80% of the exemptions are commercial. Is that correct? Yes, sir. What was the 80%. The 80% was the three exemptions. Freeport, KDW.

Okay. I went downstairs in April. I talked to to the assessor's office. They [clears throat] gave me a figure in April, it's changed by now, I'm sure, of 2129, I believe it was totally disabled veterans. It comes out to about 7% of of who pays taxes. 7.7. That can't have that big an impact to cause the millage rate to go up that high in a budget and a tax base. That's There's 20 I'm just short of 24,000 tax notices sent out according to the office downstairs. I mean, I just when when is it enough? Because you can't we're not going to tax our way into prosperity and pave that road with raising taxes. Not when the median household income in this county is $60,000, which is $12,000 below the state average. Recently in the newspaper, the Alice threshold came out and 54% of the county is below that threshold. That's 54% of the people that are working. That's based on people being employed and they're below the threshold. Part of that is because our commercial base I I would categorize a lot of what we have are starter jobs. It goes back to that Alice threshold. They're not making enough money to get over it. To be stable, according to the United Way and that threshold, a family of four needs to have $121,000. That's twice the income here. And to continue to raise taxes isn't helping it. Maybe we need to reook at

how we do services and get that price down as opposed to bringing the taxes to it. And I fully understand nothing I say here tonight's going to change anything because the real decision to raise taxes or not cut the millage rate enough was done back on 3 June when we passed the budget and it was 5.1% increase which is 1.5% over the inflation rate. So I this this path this path that we've been on for six years I is it's just continuing. When does it stop? What what's being done for the financial situation and the tax situation of the families in this county that have a median income on average of $60,000. I'm on the old guy plan. I don't know how a family of four that's under 65 is making it.

Thank you, sir. Just for the audience to know, we've had conversation with Mr. Burch prior to this time. So, full conversation. Who was the Who was the second?

Maybe they left. Call the name one more time. Looks like Riley Riley here is not to be here, sir. Are they [clears throat] are they? But if if it ain't Riley, is there anybody else here that signed up?

No. All right. All right. We'll move on. Come back to Mr. Richardson. Thank you. Um um audience just know that come on our all of our information is public. Uh our budgets on the website. Um information that we'll do tonight. If it's not on the website, we'll build on the website and certainly if you want to come and sit as Mr. Burch has done with us, just make an appointment and we'll sit down and and go over u this information in more detail if that's your desire. just just come to the office and talk to uh the receptions and they will schedule you and we'll be happy to meet with you. Mer.

Um yes sir. So if there are no additional public comments uh I believe we Okay. Chair obtain a motion to go out of public hearing back to regular session. A move, Mr. Chairman. Second. Second.

All in favor? Show hands, please. Back into regular session. Thank you. Um and the the next item would be for you all to entertain [clears throat] a motion for um the five individual pieces of our county military. Um so the first would be the 2025 tax levy resolution for the unincorporated area of the county. Um this is 20.9 mills. Just do I need to read all of that for everyone? Okay. I'm sorry. One resolution at a time. Um,

yes, ma'am. The uninccorporated is to pay the expense of administration of county government, to pay principal and interest on debt, to build and repair public buildings and bridges, to pay the expense of courts, maintenance and support of prisoners, to pay the sheriff, coroner, and for litigation. to build and maintain a system of county roads. [clears throat]

uh for public health purposes and for collection and preservation of public records and vital statistics to provide for payments of old age assistance to age persons in need for payment of assistance to needy blind and to dependent children and other welfare benefits consistent with laws as created by the general assembly. To provide for fire protection of forest lands and for further conservation of natural resources. To provide medical or other care and hospitalization for the in indig indigit uh sick. To acquire improve and maintain public facilities. To provide for workers compensation, retirement or pension funds for officers and employees. To provide reasonable reserve for public improvements. Um yes that the unincorporated millage rate as proposed is 20.9 mills. Um the the school board has um adopted a 14.114 mills millage rate. The hospital authority 3.789 um the industrial authority 2 mills um for a total combined millage rate for the unincorporated area of 40.803. Um, it is ordered that the above and foregoing levy for the tax year 2025 in the amount of 40.803 mills be spread upon the minutes of the board and be published as required by law. [clears throat]

The uninorporated commissioners uh 20.9 and we so chair entertain a motion. Mr. Chairman, I make a motion that we accept the resolution in the unincorporated area 20.9. There second motion second we accept the 20.9 for incorporate every liver county. Any further discussion?

Yeah, just a question. Mr. Chairman, um I wasn't able to make any of the um the hearings. I was out of time most of the week and um I think the last meeting that I was able to attend to discuss this we we [clears throat] met with Miss and Miss Richardson office uh Commissioner Thrift and I and we we had looked at some some options like one two three and four and um this um this rate right here was that um in line with with which one of those options? Option three. Three.

Yes, sir. And option four was the one that would have um would have had to make some adjustments. That was option four. Option four would have um reduced it all the way back to the roll back rate for all of our pieces, but would have required us to put in fund balance from previous year and that was not the case or get the money from somewhere else.

Yes, sir. Absolutely. Yes, sir. because I know there were some um a list of um requests that you know that included that that if you didn't use fund balance balance you would go back to that request and maybe get something from that. Okay. Yeah. Um so three was the one this is the one that we talking about. It added back to fund balance but not um at the rate the number option number two did. Yes. reduce. Yeah, but that was my question. I just wanted to know um because I again I'm sorry I I missed those meetings. I had that one and then um

I just want to know did we go one, two, three or four and you said three. Number three, M. Richardson. Yes, sir. What is our fund balance now? Uh for September, we're at four four months of operating expenditures, and we're running between five and a half and six million a month. So, it's over 30 million. Okay. M uh I mean before we I guess before we vote on these uh resolutions, um if we could go back for a second to the um to the slide that Miss Richardson put up with the one that um showed the general fund history.

Yes, sir. Up on that on that screen. Um, let's see. I think it was like the last five years. Yes, sir. It's like in the middle of this. Yeah, I think that's it. And and and we all know this. I know that we we've um I mean Commissioner Blunt wasn't here, but we um over the years we we kind of bit the bullet as a county um because we we had to take over um I think was

EMS EMS and then we we added u a lot of firemen a lot of firemen under the under the public safety heading and you know to to to do that to make Liberty County a safer place and and taking over that EMS, we um we really had no choice but to um increase the budget. And if you look at those those numbers, um that's 2024. Yeah. And it was a big insurance premium that came.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. That came to I mean you there were variety of things, but the um the EMS and uh standing up the fire stations, you know, that that that was a big part of it. and and and and we I mean we we got beat up pretty bad, but but we did that. And if you look at look at it now, the the change is I mean it's it's is going south, which is a it is which is a good thing. And I've always um said that, you know, when we if we do zero budgeting and we um put all our employees in and make sure that that they got what they should get um

and the the longevity the cost of living, the merit, everything. If we we get let's put that in. And then if we got enough nickels and dimes to buy a new pickup truck or get Clinton a new tractor, if you know, he likes riding on tractors and stuff, then then we can put that in. But let's take care of our employees and and and I think we did that. But, you know, and then hiring I'll just throw this out 15 or 20 firemen. That that that hit us taken over. the EMS that hit and and we moved on. But but we did have a we did have a a smaller percentage change, which is a good thing. And the citizens of Liberty County were um last week um gracious enough to um renew the the splash and

splash. Yes. Your T- splash. Yes. Because we're still on splash and and floss, but um T- splash, you know, came back and people when they when they vote to to do these things, they they want to get something for the for the money. And you know, so I'm glad that we're not um not raising taxes, even though with the um um taking option three as opposed to going back and, you know, and making some more cuts. But, you know, I'm I'm not for raising taxes. And I I do I think um the gentleman that was just here I think he said that um nothing is going to change because we made up our mind back in June. That's not

that's not totally true. We we put a budget together and uh but we've met on the budget several times since then and um and nothing talk about change nothing has been voted on tonight. So you know changes can still be done. So, you know, what we did in June, we did in June because we had a deadline, you know, to make that happen and and and we did that

and we'll tonight and we'll make that um make that happen one way or another. But, um I I just wanted to say that I know that we have um and this is an exemption county. Um all that has to be considered. and um talk about going south. Um that the exemptions that percentage um if it moves it won't be south. I I don't think it that there's no way it can there's no way that it can never going south.

And um but we we did take care of our employees and and I was happy that we did that. But um you know we're all us that stuff that we didn't have three or four years ago. we have now. And you know, unless the bottom falls out somewhere else or something else comes up, we should be able to either hold the line since we have everything and um maybe continue to try to um go south a little bit. That's that's just my thoughts on that. So, I wanted to say that, Mr. Chairman, before we um before we go further. All right. Thank you, sir.

I just have two quick questions. Uh Miss uh Richardson uh one of the questions I don't even know why I didn't ask this other meetings but uh how much do one mill collect? So it is it depends on which mill rate you're talking about but it's well right because because we have two different ones incorporated in in what city

we have um yes and now there's two additional cities so it's two more than that but yes sir it's so it would be um like the 20.9 would be 209,000 it's a divisible by um a basis of 10 so it's one one mil is it thousand 209,000 yes sir Okay, that was in my other presentation at the um the last workshop we did for the millillage. Um but I can certainly send it. Okay, just no problem. And it broke it down for all entities,

right? And and then uh another question uh and like you said since we have uh two more cities coming online and I know we were talking about duplicated services. Yes. So are so so both those cities Wtherville and Flemington are the list that you gave us are they putting in to all those services as well? No sir. For example, the library. Uh, no, they don't they don't contribute to the library. That was city of Hinesville's duplicated services. Yes, it was just I was just verifying. Yes, sir. No, no, no. They don't share the library cost for them as well. Yes, definitely. That is all.

All in favor of the motion as stated? Show of hands, please. Motion passes. 20.94 uninccorporated. Um the incorporated combined other areas um is also a millage rate of 20.9 um and it has the same uh school 14.114 hospital authority 3.789 industrial authority 2 mills um with the same as the unincorporated area for a combined total of 40.803 803 um and it is for the exact same uh use of services. Should I repeat all of those each time?

I don't think those [clears throat] and um yes. So the uh 40.803 which includes a county portion of 20.9 uh mills for the incorporated combined other that are the incorporated areas that are not taxing separately. Okay, just to clarify, chair entertain a motion.

20.9 if y'all need to. Chair, I'll make that motion. Okay, somebody second that motion. Second.

Motion in the second for the uninccorporated combined 20.9. Everybody clear? I want to make sure. All right, show of hands for approval, please. Motion passes. Thank you. Um the third is the incorporated area for Hinesville. Um it is a millage rate proposed of 18.314. Um the same school rate 14.114 hospital authority 3.789 and industrial authority of two mills for a total combined uh 38.217 for those residents in Hinesville. Uh but again the county portion for Hinesville residents that live in the incorporated areas is 18.314 for 2025.

Chair entertain a motion to I move chair. Is there a second to that? Second motion to second 18.314 for incorporated bill. Any further discussion? All in favor show hands please. Thank you ma'am. Um, incorporated Flemington. The proposed millage rate is 20.353. Did we ask them to be here? I'm just asking. We might might have missed that because it's new to us. Next year. All right. Next year. Okay. Yes, sir. I spoke to them this morning. Does that count?

You're probably watching online [laughter] watching live stream. Um the proposed mills rate for the residents uh living in the incorporated areas of Flemington is 20.353 for Liberty County for 2025. Um this is less than our unincorporated area which was 20.9 and it is rolled back for uh duplicated services. The other um millage rates for the school, the hospital and the industrial authorities are the same as proposed on the other pages. for the city of Flemington 20.353. the chair entertain a motion that we allow that city to do its first I think it's the first yeah first time first

chair entertain a motion so move second motion second 20.35 for the city of [clears throat] Flemington helping them to get on their way any further discussion all in favor show hands please motion passes thank you um the last one is the incorporated area of Warville and they are present Yes. Um and the proposed uh millage rate is 20.353 with all of the other rates being the same um school, hospital and industrial authority.

Okay. Chotion that we might accommodate city wal first time also in living second. Motion a second. Further discussion all in favor show hands. All right. green [clears throat] light for qualifi Mr. here. I'd like to say [clears throat] Yes, sir.

There's one thing I think that we overlook and when we were doing budgeting and I think the general public needs to know about it. Uh when we have these state election, special elections, the state sends us no funds, [clears throat] none. But the taxpayers of Liby County have to pay for it. And M. Samantha, right off the top of your head, what does a election special election cost go? Just roughly.

Um, roughly at least $50,000. I mean got to it depends how um how many you know the advanced voting requirements and the staffing and locations and it's so you have to have the same amount at each poll on election day as if you were having a one big election not just a special election. Correct. Yes. Those have to be adequately staffed. Um and that is governed by the state I believe. Yes, sir. Right. So, I just wanted the public to be aware of that and this has happened several times lately that um we get no funds from the state, but we must hold these elections.

Um, one other issue is that I heard what Commissioner Gillard said [clears throat] about fire service and EMS also. Um the budget that we have for Liberty County Fire Service, I think they cover over about three 300 square miles compared to what Hisel budget is pretty well basic about the same and they cover 25 square miles. So I think we're doing a whole lot good with what we have. Thank you.

Has a whole lot of people in that [laughter] 25. They have a whole lot of people, but the rural area you got a whole lot of road to get to the people. But [clears throat] population fire that that many people 70,000 the sheriff said in the county. Um way over half of that 70 is right here. Y way over half. One more time. in my neighborhood. Mr. Chairman, I [clears throat] did want to uh more people in um Griffin Park than it is in the city of W.

Yeah, me me and Commissioner from second district represent that area and they are growing out there. If you hadn't rode back there at Ribbon Wells Road, those homes are almost ready to be sold. Wow. And uh then they're going to start hopefully on the apartments there across from Live Oak Church if the city approves. And so our district is growing. But on the other hand, Mr. Chairman, I want to uh commend the hospital authority. They're here tonight and they've kept their millage rate the same from last year to this year. They actually rolled it back. Roll back. I'm sorry. Roll back a little bit. Yes. So, [laughter] y [applause]

I'm so proud. Thank you. [laughter] and also our um our department heads that are here in attendance tonight. For those we the budget has it's going south like Commissioner Gear said and I commend our department heads for um reviewing your budgets and looking over and when we send it back to you that you you only get you know or ask for what you really need. And I do appreciate that so much. We're all taxpayers and it really hits home when you have to sit up here and approve a millage rate. Um, but I too appreciate the floss and the t- bloss and the splash whatever we can we can approve. Liberty County can approve to get that burden off the taxpayers, property taxpayers. So, um, we are rich with um with our disabled vets and and uh and uh I appreciate them being in our community. My father was a disabled vet and uh we retired here many many years ago. So, but anyway, thank you all so much to our department heads to Liberty County Hospital Authority and our CEO finance directors here. Thank you. Thank you to our veterans also.

Okay, I think that's it. Unless you got a minute. I think we have one more item on the agenda for moving past mill. Let me say this [laughter] before get I'll be very quick. Um Samantha kind of alluded to the budgeting process. So you know I hearing Mr. Burch just echoing my ear. Uh many of these department heads who you see sitting here tonight were denied things that they asked for. They say they need to to function in their department.

So we don't just give away or just spend money loosely. Many of the folk that sitting right that section you're sitting in have been denied uh requests that they've made. And why should I not trust them when that's what they do for us every day? I could call names but I won't. So I [laughter] want to for commissioners I applaud you guys too for working with less doing with less. We even asked the fire department we put them on hold. Am I right Mr. Mosley? Brian don't ask for anything now. [laughter] In all fairness, fire reduced their budget. Yeah, they did. Yeah.

So, so those are the kind of things that go behind the scene that you never that you never see. So, when [clears throat] you see this number, just know that in in that whole process been a lot of conversation, you know, the in back in school, they use the red pin. A lot of red pins been applied to a lot of the things that these [clears throat] people have have asked for red pins and highlights. And we appreciate you all. Um I'm looking at faces who I've had conversations with said, "Can I let's get a part-time person? Can a part-time at least?" because we've been the county is growing uh managing more employees with the same amount of people right you know for years.

Yeah. Yeah. So those are the uh not issues those are the concerns requests we have to deal with and and and sometimes it's making tough decisions. It is it's making tough and and they'll like put it off until January or well maybe I can wait until next time. They've done several things to help the county out. So, and guess what? They are taxpayers, too. Yeah. Yep. Mr. Chairman, and they do a great job, you know, and but I do want to remind them that the budget is, you know, the budget is approved and just stop by VIP and get you a box of red pins because you're going to need them again next year. [laughter] They use them every year. All right.

Amendment, Mr. Um the last item on the agenda for finance is our budget amendment for fiscal year 2026. Um in your packets this evening, uh you'll find a recommended amendment to the general fund operating budget. This amendment is driven by the updated or the the finalized tax digest uh which we received um last month. As you may recall, during the June budget adoption process, uh the board elected to defer action on several personnel related items, um including uh new positions, um the longevity bonus that is provided to our employees based on how long they've been with the county, um merit pay adjustments for employees. Um, this allowed additional time to make sure the digest was going to come in um and be able to to fund any of these uh special interest items as we call them. Um, as a result, a very conservative FY26 budget was adopted uh without these these items. Um, however, with the county's overall growth reflected in the digest, uh, we are now confident that the general fund can support some of the requests. Certainly, not all requests were, um, were proposed to to be approved. Um, but they were the these were the specific ones we tabled in our workshops um, back in the spring. And uh let's see and there were other uh items on that required revenue and expenditures um that required uh additional uh looking into I guess for um to to just things that have arisen since we adopted the first budget. Um but I am happy to say that the

projection of property taxes with the millillage that has now been adopted um and the list of needs including those special interest items for our merit longevity um etc. We still expect to bring a positive 636,000 back to fund balance. Um so it's um and this was our semiconservative nature when we were adopting the millage rate but this uh budget amendment reflects it. So we have discussed these um in detail yesterday's workshop. Yes sir.

Chairman board [clears throat] we know we had one issue and we did try to reach out and help them as much as we could and that was the library. Uh so we did give them amount and which is going to be split with Hindsville, right children? Sir, so we did reach out to help the library. It's not as much as what they asked for, but we did reach over and help. Yes, sir. And like M go ahead. Go ahead.

Like um Mr. Chairman, Miss Richardson said, these are some that we did defer for that sixmonth period to wait until we got the digest funding would be available. Yes, ma'am. So the amendment is 636,748. [clears throat] Am I looking at the right sheet? Yes. Well, the amendment is actually a total increase in revenues of 2.9 million. The 2.2 million in expenditures. That would be the motion to amend. Yes. Let's see. I think I have a what the amendment. Is that the resolution? I'm looking at that. resolution

636 for 740 right here. Okay, there it is. Okay, just a motion to approve the resolution presented. Yes, Mr. Chairman, I make the motion to approve the resolution. Yes. And Samantha, you you certainly free to state the amount for

um Yes, sir. uh an ordinance to amend the budget for the fiscal year beginning July 1st, 2025 and ending June 30th, 2026 for the general obligations budget of the board of commissioners of Liberty County pursuant to title 36 chapter 81 of the official code of Georgia annotated uh and for local laws of Liberty County appropriate appropriating the amounts shown um in the budget as expenditures adopting the item of anticipated funding sources allowing the finance department to make technical changes as necessary. Um prohibiting expenditures from exceeding actual funding sources um and for other purposes. Uh but this um the the detail for the revenue expenditures is exhibit A to the resolution. So uh but the total increase uh increase in revenue would be $2,916,50 and the total combined expenditure increase would be 2,279,42. Um so that $636,748 difference would be um an anticipated uh return to fund balance which we'll show as an income item. the wrong version.

I was just looking [laughter] at the numbers. Okay. All right. Uh got a second. Did I get a second? Second. Okay. Second. All right. Uh I'm sure M they'll chisel down that. Yeah. But basically said the the the growth in the digest will cover the revenue. Oh, absolutely. Yes, sir. Yes, sir. Without and that doesn't change our millage. Okay. All right. for discussion. Just one other. Yes, sir. Last night when we had our at our meeting, it was discussed that tax bills may be a little slow or late.

Go ahead. Go ahead. If you got something else, you got some good news. Yes. So, got good news. I spoke to that lady at the state that I was trying to get a hold of um this morning and

she confirmed that um yes, city of Flemington does have to redo their millage process. Does the advertising, the public hearings, the adoption um in order I mean they can do it for budgeting purposes, which is why I believe one reason they did it back in August. Um but to be included in the county's digest submission to the state um they have to adopt a budget based on the 2025 digest. Um so that was she was just clarifying what we thought we knew and Flemington knew as well. Um, but the best part is the lady said that as long as the school board and the county have adopted our millage rates, um, then we can go ahead and send in our documentation, uh, all of our signed forms and everything that Keith and Jaime's offices provide and finance, um, and go ahead and get in line with the state, okay,

and receive our collection order. um even if it's before Flemington has their [clears throat] final adoption on December 5th for their millillage. Um so it's it should not delay us. Okay. As I as I was worried about yesterday. Yes. Hot off the press. Good. That's good. Yes. Some good news I could share this morning. But don't let us leave without signing those papers. Tomorrow morning, correct? Morning. Yes. 8:30. Yes. Okay. All right. All in favor? Show your hands. Motion passes. Thank you. Good job, Mr. Chairman. Um, Commissioner Stevens brought up a good point about the library and you know doing this budget here and we and in other meetings we we did take kind of a hit about that. Oh yes we did. Yeah. I mean a pretty big hit.

Pretty big hit. But but I can remember I've been here for a minute on the board and um the school board did support the the library and and then um one day out of the blue and I'll say out of the blue. It might have been out of the red, but they um they said that it weren't doing it no more with no further explanation than just we ain't doing it

now. Um the largest high school in the county is right across the street from the library. And um for them to be for us to hear a lot of talk throughout the community from a lot of people, not only elected officials. Um I don't know if and you said that you're on the board of governance, Mr. Chairman, or something with the school board. What whatever board that was. Oh, no. That's that that's that's for a particular school. Yes, sir. Yeah. I mean, um where Mr. Mosley served as an advisory role to the library? He has But Mr. Mosley u is anybody on there that you could talk to to see if they want to come back and and join? Because I mean I I just can't imagine

Oh, I'm sorry. He's on the advisory to live vote, not to the not with the school system. But we can certainly approach the school system. That's I mean uh if they say no, then we at least we got another then we got another no. But I I I never fully understood why they backed out. Why they backed out let's say 10 years ago for for whatever reason that was. I mean, you know, we talking about school school. You're right. And um and I I don't count that money, but but I I see it spent Yes sir. We will certainly make that communication around 8 in the morning. Engineer Mr. Long, are you ready?

Good evening. Hello there. So, uh, one thing that I did forget to put on the agenda was, uh, St. John's area, um, for Alenhurst. Okay. I told you I was going to do it and I didn't. Yeah, I texted him when he said something but I forgot. So you told me if if you would Trent [clears throat] don't I mean just add it on here so that I can know and and the reason for that um I mean we did get um Toss renewed and I I do want to help all the municipalities Wavville I've talked with the mayor

Hinesville I've got a project on the board with them and I'm trying to get whatever it is that mayor Willist want and I'm and then I want to help the the county project down um uh in unincorporated area of the county you sir you knowing that that we got T Floss again when they gonna be coming in and I want to go ahead and and um alligate it. That's also sent Samantha to the I want to go ahead and and and do that. So, if I can get that number for Allen and I'll follow back up with um Mayor Hayes. Yes, sir. I I will pull those numbers and send those over to you because I do have the numbers. I just don't have them with me. Okay.

I'll [clears throat] try to send that to you tonight. And I do apologize that I forgot to have that on there. Um, one thing that's not on my agenda tonight is the trail subdivision and we're applying for Omeg for those and trying to get those plans uh underway. Um, couple things. Uh, the the state patrol park and resurfacing that's out for bid. It showed up on in the paper today in case you saw it. Uh, we got some plans together for that. Try to get some prices to get that parking lot uh refurbished. Um, it's been 20 plus years so it's got some good wear on that stuff. uh the Islands Highway drainage improvements which is uh from Fort Morse Road back to Trade Hill Road in that general area. Uh we did have a meeting with some citizens um this month and uh Mr. Wells is working on cleaning out some pipes and ditches and getting that going. Um the Kings Road drainage area um I do have some plans on that. Uh I would like to sit down with you sometime this next month and kind of go over that. That way you can kind of see what's going on. And we have a couple of easements that we need to get

um to [clears throat] make that drainage work. And uh I want to talk about those easements as well. Now, one thing that we'll probably need to do on that is we're going to need to get a a Coastal Marshall Protection Act permit because where we're discharging, we're increasing the size of the discharge. So, uh we'll probably have to go ahead and get uh Libara Environmental to help us with that. They've been helping us very successfully with our other permits. What is that? 18. That's 18 going out to the river now. It Well, there's a 18 now. It was bigger. They somebody slid a smaller pipe through it and, you know, kind of blocks it. And we're going to end up having to put a 42. So, it's a pretty different large difference in size that's going on.

So, we're going to have to put some rip wrap and, you know, some big stone to protect that uh bank through there. Um, so, but I do need to get with you this month sometime. if you'll just kind of let me know what's good for you, I'll get with you on that. Okay.

Um, [clears throat] Butter Blunt Road, we're about 90% finished with the plans. Uh, we're going to be going out for those uh, rightway letters probably in the next two weeks and then you'll be getting phone calls. Um, the pecan lane water system extension. Uh, a lot of materials there. The boring contractor showed up today. One of the adjacent neighbors wasn't happy that he was there. So, we're kind of make trying to make sure that that's smoothed over and working out for that to get that bore underneath Highway 84. Once that boar gets under 84, then we'll be able to uh get that water line down that road pretty easily. Um, we also have in the paper today the Freeman Roadway improvements. That's greatly paired down uh with that. We're just pick uh fixing some of the lanes where we got a lot of roots that are growing up and pushing up the edge of the asphalt. We're going to go through and we're going to cut the roots and install some flowable fill. Try to keep those blocked. So, we'll kind of I don't know that you ever get rid of the roots messing with the edge of the road, but you know, you can slow them down. So, that's that's out in the paper now. Um, Bacontown Road. Um, the layer of asphalt that's down there now is the base course. There's another inch and a half to two inches that's going on top of it. So that's not the finish course. Uh they will be running electronics on it so that it will be smoother and we are going to make them pre-market before we get a wayward driver in the paint truck. So if you drive down there paints like this,

it's wavy. So but that's all what's out there now is going to get paved over. Okay. So if you getting any complaints, we're aware of those and you know we're trying to keep up with that. Uh we still have a problem with the light pole at the end of the road. Um I spoke to uh Jennifer Ppple today. 17, right? The light pole at 17. Yes, sir. Okay. Yeah, I [clears throat] saw I spoke to Jennifer PPP today. She's going to help me try to run down. She went higher up in the uh lighting group to try to help me get some help to get that because we we've paid our $1,200 fee. We signed everything for like two months ago to get that light pole moved. And

well, you know, as I'm going from Bington Road to 17, the pole on the left corner right there. Yep, that's right. Right next, it's right next to the big pine tree and I got a pipe that's like right at it. It stops. I can't do all my drainage right there until I get the pole moved. So, we're we're all trying to reach out to them to get them move it. The contractor's calling regularly. We're calling regularly. Where's the contract at on expiration date? [clears throat] you know, we have they

December 2nd is completion date. So, he'll need to get a uh uh time extension. So, because he is out there, they were out there today uh looking to install some guardrail where I've got a pretty where that big pipe crossing is underneath it. We got a little bit of guardrail going in there. um they had to go back and order some longer post cuz weird where it is it's not going to the short post that they got weren't long enough. So they'll be putting that back. So you know my Georgia Power poll is really starting to lay us hurting us. So and they've been calling regularly as well. So they're not just sitting around. [snorts] Um but anyhow we good? Good. Okay. Sunshine Lake Road. We're going to be talking about Sunshine Lake Road in a minute because it's an action item. So, I'm going to leave it to the end if that's okay with you guys. Um, so the uh Jones Creek Park, Susan King Taylor Park. So, that's coming along pretty good. Uh, the sidewalk walking trail is mostly in. I got a few little small things that I got to put in and I have a couple of places that I may depending on where I am fundwise the uh alignment got a little too sharp. Um but for the most part we walked it and adjusted it to meet the trees and make it look really good. And so all in all it looks really good. It still looks like a little mess out there until they get all finished. But uh if you follow the walking trail it looks nice. the buildings getting close to finished and so um I I think we'll see some see that part coming to close pretty soon. [snorts] Um we did get u some stuff on the raised platform that's going to go through the wetlands. Um our wetland consultants got

everything done out there. We got all the plats done and that's at the core. So hopefully uh we'll have that permitted and then soon as we have money we can go with that because that's uh part of what we submitted on the uh outdoor stewardship uh grant. So we're just kind of waiting to hear on that the mix striping list. So we went out we went out measured everything. Um they pulled up all the reflectors that they painted over because they had a crew come out and put all the reflectors down before they striped it. And then they came and striped it and painted over the reflectors. And they had several places that uh every time they got to them, they kind of did a little wiggle. And there's not a lot we can do to fix the little wiggle. Um but several places we got things cleaned up and dressed up. Uh several places that they didn't clean the edge of the roads correctly. They got them cleaned and gotten them repainted. Uh now we're working with them to get some of the wind rows that they left from the cleaning on the edge of the road knocked back down because you know when they clean out the edge of road that dirt just gets piled up and they're supposed to get that knocked down. So we [clears throat] were out there with them kind of riding that making sure that that's all taken care of as well. Um and Commissioner Drift I got the uh um proposed agreement from the uh consultant to help us purchase the rightway for Mary Todd Road.

Okay. I got it today, so I don't have it on my agenda tonight and I haven't had an opportunity to read through it to make sure everything's covered. So, I'll get that to you uh within the next couple of days so that you can kind of be making a decision on that. Um the last thing I wanted to talk about is Sunshine Lake Road. Um well, nope. I do not want I want one more time. Uh, Commissioner Frasier, we did take bids for live oak vote draft. They came in at $2.4 million. We had two the two low biders were within 3% of each other, which I thought was very close. [snorts] So, we are going through these uh making sure that everything's right on the uh proposals and making sure we got everything and checking all the funds for you, making sure everything's there. And then we'll be bringing a recommendation to you on the second. too cuz we took these Tuesday.

So is that the number you will Well, I think we were around two. Commission get you looking for number south of that? Oh, definitely south of [laughter] that. Yeah. Yeah. So, we were I think our budget was 2 2.2 and it came in at 2.4. So, it's a [snorts] little bit over. I was figuring it Well, I was figuring it was going to be a little over because when we did our budget, I didn't have all that dang water line in it. So, I'm I'm I'm going to have to Well, is there any city participation that I'm But also, you know, uh I'm looking at putting some uh sidewalks on Vardo, Paul Caswell, and Honey Ridge. Uh yeah,

that part of um live vote, Commissioner um I mean, Mr. Chairman, is um I think the city took it to the city limits, but it's Oh, it's all county. Yes. Yes. County from that little piece. And then as soon as we spend that money, they're going to pull the but but what I'm telling you, you know, with all the money over the years that I've given Commissioner um Stevens, don't worry about it. I got you. Once I once I split it up and quietly, wait no more. Tell Samantha where to allocate my money. I got you. I appreciate you, sir. Thank you.

All right. Um, so the last thing I have on my list tonight is Sunshine Lake Road. We did get uh proposals on this one. Um, JD Oliver was the lowest bidder with a price of uh $390,617.90. As you'll recall, we uh bid this thing out about 6 months ago and the price came in at $980,000 and uh I just couldn't in good conscience recommend that to you. So, we made a few adjustments and uh feel like this is a much more reasonable price for what we need to do out there. Um JW Oliver has not [clears throat] done anything for Liberty County before. Um he is a young contractor, but I've been we've been working with him on different jobs for the last 10 years or more. um he is uh doing a couple of uh roads and developments in the city now that he's doing a re very good job on. So um we've been kind of following behind him on several subdivisions that he's got and kind of looking at his construction work and uh I I feel very comfortable recommending to you to let him do this roadway. um he was able he does have his bonding capabilities and uh able to do the work and he has hired some quality people. So uh what I would recommend to you is that you enter into a contract with JW Oliver Construction Company for a price of $390,617.90 plus a 10% contingency.

Whose district is this? It's my district. Timmy, because I remember you used to put like the districts on the on the road. Sunshine Lake. Sunshine Lake. There you go. Got it. Okay. All right. Um, please state your recommendation again, please, sir. I'm sorry. Okay. Recommended that we enter in a contract with JW Oliver Construction Company Incorporated for a bid price of $390,617.90 plus a 10% contingency. And how are we paying for this? Um we have this uh some of his uh sales tax and T plus funds. T+ Commission Blunt, we will hear from you, sir. And

I make a motion we accept that just Trent Long Engineering just stated exactly dollar figure he stated. Let's move forward. Second it second we approve the bid for $39,617.90. Um JW Oliver Construction Company for this project in Sun Sunshine Lake Road. Any further discussion? All in favor, show your hand, please. All right. Thank you. You have a timet you guys have discussed time.

Well, so the the next step is to issue him a contract. Um, so we'll get contracts out to him u before Thanksgiving and then he'll have 10 days to get the contract docs back to us. So I don't anticipate that we'll start work on it until mid to late January, probably closer to February time frame. Kind of looking at the temperatures and what's going on. You know, I'm not sure how expensive it is, but I do think those um electric uh sign road signs that says Oh, yeah. The roads closed. Yeah. I think it's I just think that's a great thing, but I'm not maybe not sure is it costly how costly it is, but Well, they're built into our traffic control pricing. They're they're

they save a lot of lives. Biggest trouble is that, you know, in a few days this road going to be worked on, however the terminology is. Right. Well, my biggest problem is we were kind of having to stand on our head today, get them out cuz, you know, the road is not closed anymore and they were still there this morning. So, but they they [snorts] are now gone. Well, they help. They help. Thank you, sir. Yes, sir. Thank you. Trent, Trent. Trent, before you leave, go ahead. Just just real quick. Uh uh Mr. Chair and my fellow commissioners. Oh, okay. Trent. Okay. got to wait on it. Sidebar conversation, Trent.

Back to the mic, Trent. I appreciate it. Uh just just going back looking at these uh bid tabulations real quick. Uh of course I know isn't it's state law that that we have to take the low bid though, right? Yes. Okay. Okay. But but but you have most responsibly. Let me most responsible. There there we go. There we go. That's right. And I remember years back, you know, we didn't put the 10% contingency and then, you know, we was like, I mean, they're coming back asking for the 10% anyway. But I'm not the smartest guy in the world, but I'm I'm looking at the difference in these bids, right? And if you put that 10% on the low bid Mhm. is higher than the one that came in second.

Yes. But what I'm saying is it did the one in second already have make sure that he put everything in in place where it wouldn't be a 10% contingency. No. So if I had been recommending Apac for a 421, I'd be recommending Apac with a 421 plus 10% contingency. That's the point that I'm saying. Yeah. Whatever it is, whatever it is, I'm going to ask for a 10% contingency. And that's just for things that we don't foresee. I I I I get it. I get it. But but what I'm saying is we used to not have the 10%. They used to have to come back and request the 10%.

We've been asking for 10% for a while. But but let me tell you this. I don't just I can't just give the 10%. It's not in my discretion to do it. So if if the contract comes in and he says, "Okay, this is going to cost me $2,500 extra or my my contract is going to run over." I still have to come to you guys to get approval. Now, there's a certain limit. I don't remember it's a small limit that um Joseph can do for incidentals, but we do try to bring all those back. But what I'm saying is, am I wrong? Y'all understand what I'm saying, right? You're not done saying it yet.

Okay. 13 years ago. Let Let me break this down. And I And I know Commissioner Gill remembers this, too. 13 years ago when I first got up here when Trent came to us, we didn't already approve the 10% in the contract. Yeah. And then eventually because he kept coming back over and over and over again asking for the 10%. We started doing it this way. The point that I'm saying is with this bid 390, if you add 10% to that, it's over the 421 for that came in the second. Y'all follow me? No. Yeah. But you don't add your Yeah. You don't add it. It's not adding to the contract. Did the guy that the second bid guy

Yeah. Did he bid correctly where we might not have to give him the 10%. They bid the same thing. They bid apples to apples. Am I sense? So the 10% is So the 10% is not added to his contract. Okay. Do you understand what I'm saying? So okay, let me break this down. Whenever we when when we approve these, how many of them come back and get the 10%. Very not many at all. Okay.

And and and whatever amount out of that 10% I come and ask your permission for. It's not just we give them 10%. What you're doing is you're telling Samantha to set up her budget with the the amount of contract plus 10% and we're setting that money aside so that we can finish that project. That' be another 40,000 if you use it. That's right. The second the second guy came in at 421. Yes. And if I was doing here, he would do be doing another 10% on top of his, too. So, apples to apples. All right. Is Is there any way possible we could pull a report on on how many of of the bids that that come in that utilize the 10%.

There we go. Yeah, I can see that. Yeah, I can take every one of We we kind of give you a tally and actually we do a a reconciliation change order at the end of every contract, right? So that you know how much and um a lot of our contracts come in under under instead of over because these are all unit price. Okay. So no problem. Yeah. So so that everybody understands all of our contracts are unit price contracts. So, you know, we pay for what is installed, not

just what it's not a contract, you know, if they come back short. So, if I'm putting down asphalt, I'm paying by the ton. And so, we're trying to make sure that we've got enough in there that we've got our tonnage covered. If I'm paying for water line, I'm paying for it by the foot. If I'm, you know, paying for fire hydrants, I pay for them each. When if I'm paying for striping, I'm paying per foot. I mean, I see I see the breakdown. Yeah. Okay. and and we're very uh our pencils are very sharp. We tell our contractors that our minus sign minus sign is our job. Trent. Yes, sir. One last question. Where's my sign for Highway 84? Which ones?

Fire station. Fire stations. They have not responded to me on those at all. No, I hadn't I hadn't talked to them. I mean, I tried to call last month but didn't get a hold of the girl. They think we owe them a a rightaway or something that we don't owe them. Oh, I I don't I'm not understanding. And then we're going to we're going to see the uh district engineer in two weeks and I'm just going to try to have a conversation with him on it. So, had you not requested the sign, there would have been no rightway discussion

that came up just because you requested a sign for fire station. Well, they said they said we were trying to close out our old permit, which is not even open anymore, and saying that we owed them some rightway. So, you know, I made sure that whatever rightway they wanted on the fire station, we gave them the little 10ft strip. But they wanted us to give them a 10-ft strip on that piece that's next to us where that little trailer is. Really? And we don't own that. We don't own that. Yeah. I have a question for TR when you get I'm done. I I can't It's hard to believe, but I'm done.

On this report, then we'll let you get out of here on this report on the third page where it says uh the new jail and I got some email from Mr. Mosley and it says Liberty County Jail and the bullets say that um the project is for site evaluation for a new jail. And then it's the second bullet says that um um evaluation of the current jail and for the new jail and and and that those funds, your engineering fees or whatever it is that that you're doing for this evaluation comes out of SPL 7, you know, that's what Joe and Samantha,

but um and I guess my question is um and so that's that's covered, but but we we haven't um decided yet what the funding source for a new jail. Have Mr. Chairman? No, sir. No, sir. This is just preliminary work and um and the funds are there for what Tren is doing and I guess we'll decide down the line. We will um how we'll fund that if at all. Yes, sir. That's right. And and we haven't charged very much to that at all. It just it does show up on what we're doing because it's part of my report.

It wasn't about um how much we charge. is the fact that it's being charged for the new jail and we hadn't really not saying that we got the cart before the the horse, but we we hadn't decided how we're going to build a new jail. Most definitely. No, we we still have a long way to go on that. That was my question, Trent. And happy Thanksgiving. Well, thank you. I I thought I thought we had a committee for that. What? Yeah, there there is a committee for the new jail.

I thought I was on it. I'm not. So, I think this meeting that we had uh last month was um to Lamisha was there and it was kind of one of those things. It was kind of bring her up to speed and kind of go over where she is because she hadn't really been involved with that project. And so, what we kind of had to do is go over what we're thinking and what some of the plans are. Brings her up to speed. I think we were there about two hours. It's not It was not a big I [snorts] didn't not a big meeting. I didn't know we had a jail committee. I I we had No, it was it was the sheriff and uh chief deputy asked us to come over and uh kind of showed us and kind of brought Let me show

I saw some presentations. I met back here with um Chief Hagen and u the guy with the beard Sasha. Yeah, Sasha. I met with them, but that's been three or four months ago. And but um all the preliminaries. Yeah. And it's it's it's basically at the same point that you were back then. So nothing's changed. Well, I guess but again, I'm not on the committee, but when the committee meets, they would I don't think this was considered a committee meeting, was it? Where this 100 million is coming from? No, sir.

No, we had made it that far. when when they met, they just um wanted to basically have they they coordinated the meeting so I could hear from Trent about the site and about low areas, about where the water utilities located and about layout and different options for the property. So, it wasn't um any detail about actually building. It was about um just Trent informing me about the layout of the the property.

Yeah. Yeah. I mean, he he says that right here in his report, but I was just saying when you read these bullets and it says new jail a couple of times. Then I my question was um have we already decided where the funding would come from? I think the answer was no. So that's um that closes my question. Okay. Mr. Mosley is asking me to tell you um the bridge, Lewis Frasier Road bridge is coming along really good, right? Um they're hoping to open it up before their deadline, but their deadline is December 6th to have it open back up to traffic.

Um we think that they'll have it done well before then, but um that the December 6 is the deadline. I went out and looked at it and uh Commissioner Stevens has been out there several times looking at it and they've done a really good job. Yeah, they have. They really have. a lot of asphalt on that bridge. Yeah. But right now, they're just lacking the the guard rails and the striping. And from what I understand, the guy from the state said he would like to see some green grass in November, but I think they went out and bought some grass that might turn green real quick.

Well, one of the things that they're also uh kind of trying to get [clears throat] in is the rumble strips. You know how you they they dig the little rummer strips along the white edge, right? And they couldn't call for those until after it got paved last week. So, and those guys are two or three weeks out. And I that's kind of one of the holdups is getting the guys to do the rumble strips. So, they will hold of the opening until that's done or they would open and then install the rumble strip. Well, DOT is making that call. Okay. It's they're pretty tough. They they they are discussing letting it open. Hey, two more weeks or whatever. Yeah. [clears throat] Yeah. It only cost the county just a little bit little bit of money.

Yeah. Thank you, sir. Thank you. Oh, there you are. Yes, Marty. How are you? Bloomington Forest Revised Subdivision layout. I'm trying to remember that. [laughter] Uh good good evening, commissioners. Yes, this was I believe it was two years ago you all approved. It was before the water man even started construction on um East Oglethorp.

So um Flemington [clears throat] Forest is a subdivision. The developers Smith family homes uh Trent is the engineer for it. It was 111 lots for single family dwellings with the standard R12 zoning. It was on Macintosh Lake Road. So, Ogulthorp here, the railroad tracks, Macintosh Lake Road comes up here and then cuts over and then and then um you know parallels the the railroad tracks to this community back here. So the um the Smith family is requesting um they are considering reconfiguring the layout of the subdivision and they um the subdivision will be provided water from the county and then we'll have an individual septic systems and the proposed layout is a simple reconfiguration as they say leaving room for additional development when sanitary sewer services become available. The new plan shows a variety of lot sizes. The first phase will include the halfacre lots with county water and septic systems. They will be estateized lots on the north and west of the development. The lots preserved for future sanitary sewer service will be smaller in land area, but will have comparable style homes as the rest of the development. The new plan will include amenities and large open areas suitable for a quality residential neighborhood. The developer at this point is just requesting feedback on the proposed project from the board of commissioners and they are appreciative of your comments and questions.

What's the definition of estatesized lots? Bigger,

larger lots. I mean, I know with some of their these PUD developments, they consider the state lots 8,000 square feet, but I think, you know, in R12 zoning, they have to be at least 12,000 square feet. And then if they're on septic system, they have to be at least a half acre. So, um once they get on public sewer, then that can be down to the 12,000 square ft. This was the original uh preliminary plat that was approved. Uh this is Bright's Lake here and Macintosh Lake Road here that they were going to connect into the existing Macintosh Lake Road here. And then this is what was proposed. And then this isn't quite as detailed. This is just kind of a conceptual preliminary site layout, but uh you can kind of see a little bit of Bright Lake right here. And this is Macintosh Lake Road here. And this is how they have it divvied up. Um they I don't they have farmstead farmsteads, eight dwelling units. Trent can go into a little more explanation about this. And then they have another pretty picture of kind of the concept layout where Macintosh Lake Road is here and they have these tracks reserved for um some larger lots. They got a I think there's a park or playground in here and some open level. So the kind of in comparison the preliminary plot that's been approved has a road coming off kind of right behind here. So the what butts up against Bright's Lake is houses and not this area here. Um and then they also provided what they call inspiration imagery of some of the amenities that

that they propose to have for this community and I'll leave the rest to Trent. Okay. So, um, just for so refresh everybody's mind, this is a project that we were worked on before

I took the review responsibilities back on. This is one of the last ones that I can kind of do anything in the county uh, without a conflict. So, that's why Marty does a lot of reviewing for it and trying to make me make sure we're all covered. Now, one of the things to answer your question about the estate size lots. Um, so these are big 10. They're they're they're big 20some acre lots and this is a big almost 50 acres back there by itself. So these are difficult to get to. There's like a little roadway through the wetlands right there. So, you know, you really can't develop a public street back in there, but it will be very nice for large tracks. And then plus uh this little area back here to get the this little track of uplands because a lot of this what you see green there's a lot of wetlands that are mixed in there, a lot of flood plane, you know, just not great developable land. So what we're trying to do is set these up as larger estate lots. Um the development that um we had this well one more this one was tucked more into this area right here is where it was mostly. Now, what he's trying to do is back out and leave an area for a little bit more density here and a little bit more density on this side. Um, where the Macintosh Lake Road kind of cuts off to the right toward the railroad track. Um, we've got our water here now. Um, the the soils out there are not very good soils. So, we got a lot of places where the soils have the water table less than 12 in or very slow perk rate. So, you're going to end up with um a good bit of [snorts] uh septic systems in here. Now, that we do have this already permitted

for 114 uh lots on sanitary sewer. We went through that whole process last year to make sure we had those. So, they're want to keep the same number of lots on the septic system so they can go ahead and do that. And then they're just going to hold these lands until we're able to get some kind of sanitary sewer available, which you know would be several years away, but uh it would be something they're interested in doing. Now, they still meet the same drainage requirements. Uh still meet the same roadway requirements. Uh they know that we now have uh new roadway requirements with the eight and the two for the uh asphalt and the thickness of the stone. Um, so a lot of good things on here. Uh, and they're just kind of looking at a a little bit different layout. Now, all these lots you see in yellow will be halfacre minimum lots. They'll be halfacre of usable area. So, when you get a plat, they will look like some of them will be one, two acres because they have a lot of wetland in the back, but they only have a half acre of usable land. So on average, you'll see that they'll pan out to be about 3/4 of an acre because when you're counting usable area, you cannot count a 50-ft strip along the wetlands because that's the state health department requires that you not count that.

And then we usually try not to count the 5-ft uh easement along the front or drainage easements along the side. We can't count toward those usable areas. So that kind of reduces it and makes you have a pretty good size lot. Um and the houses at uh Smith Family Homes on here, they're trying to put some upper end houses and trying to make it a nice community. So um I do not remember the the value that he was saying, but I know they were 300 and up. Yeah.

Yeah. Um, and we did talk to Commissioner Walden a couple of months ago before his procedure. So, he he knows kind of where uh Smith Family Homes is looking and and we're not looking for your approval tonight. We're just kind of getting your comments [clears throat] and to see, you know, if if this is a direction you don't want him to head, then, you know, he needs to kind of re-evaluate. But if this is something that is you're open to and I think you may try to consider it a little bit more. The So this is being presented again because of the reconfiguration but mostly because of the septic. Yes. Yeah.

So you want to know how we feel about x number of septic systems? Well, no, sir. Because we already got the 114 that are set up on the septic, and we're just going to keep those same 114. We want to They're not going to be in the same location. They're just going to be reconfigured, but he's going to save some area for higher density. You know, they'll probably be 10,000 foot lots, maybe 8,000 square foot lots, somewhere in that neighborhood. But try to keep a similar size house out there. just you won't have to have the half acre. That way he can get a little bit more density in there and kind of make it worth his while. And on the back side, people could have their own little island kind of thing. [clears throat]

Yes, sir. The the the big outside lots would be like stateiz lots. But those in the back, would that be like a dirt road going back there? Because you said it was Yes, ma'am. Some wetlands like so through here. Yes, ma'am. There's only enough room to get through there. There's a there's already a road through there. It's a more of a driveway type road. This is a single lane. How can we um visit that or when will we visit that as far as a county maintain? Well, we won't be maintaining that. That'll be a private access. Okay. Okay. So, the property owner would maintain

Yes, ma'am. They would have to maintain that access to all these lots and that's why they're 10 acres and up. They're big. I say 10 acres. Go ahead, Mr. Chair. We probably need to, if y'all approve it, put something on the the plat saying that will maintain. Yeah. Right. And and that would be fine. That was something would be fine to put that on there. I see all these and I always get it confused. Retention or detention ponds? Which one are they? What?

So these most likely will be all retention ponds. So everybody understands a detention pond means it's dry most of the time. A retention pond means it has water in it all the time. All right. So I see several here. Uh and and I'm concerned you talked about the wetland. So these folk about in the area that has a lot of wetlands um and if we have August rain are we going to get phone calls or will these ponds take care and and mother nature the wetlands take care of the drainage?

So mother nature and the wetlands should be taking care of the drainage. So, the houses will have to be built up. Um, and what we generally do with for him is we make sure that the roads are up, you know, a good bit above the wetlands. Let me back up and do a little bit of engineering. So, in order for me to make [clears throat] the storm water work, so I've got to make sure that the post-development runoff does not exceed the pre-development runoff. So if my roads are like at the same level as the wetlands, I don't have any storage volume in my ponds and I got to have some depth to have storage volume. So I've got to build my roads up so that I have I can get my water to the wetlands.

And then from that we go up anywhere from a foot to an 18 inches above the back of the curb. So those houses are couple of feet or more above the wetlands level and usually it's closer to three when we're said and done. So the current design and the way we have to do things it kind of forces it to work that way. But will people have some water in the backyard? Yeah, you probably will. But do one more one more Stephen. I'm coming to you. Oh train of thought. Let me Mr.

So, um, once the subdivisions are done, turned over to the county or he's it's going to be private. Private. Um, he would turn it over to the county, the public roadways for, uh, maintenance, but he's going to leave the priv they will have amenities. They do amenities all their subdivisions. So landscaping amenities and stuff like that they will maintain. Well, you know, I'm probably I think it's gonna be your inspiration picture show nice looking but my concern is the whole drainage thing and and they got two ways to get in and out. Macintosh Lake and uh what's the other? Rice Lake. Rice Lake. So because sometime that's a complaint too.

Why are we back here? One way and one way out. You bought it when it was one way. So So it's good to hear that. But I'm concerned about that drainage now. So somebody need to make sure that that drainage works. Yes, sir. Who? Who? I thought he Okay. I heard you. Now the septic system. Mhm. And the wetlands. Mhm. And the rain. Mhm. Bring all three of them together for me. When you have a big rain and the septic system, is the septic system going to be a elevated type? I call it a ant mount. You know what I'm talking about.

Or what? Because if the if you got water coming up in your backyard, where's the septic system going to perk at?

Yes, sir. That's a very, very good question. That's something that we struggle with to try to make sure that we balance and make sure we have it right. So, that's one reason that the health department won't let you put your septic system within 50 ft of the wetlands so that you're up a little bit. [clears throat] Plus, we have to look at what the seasonal high groundwater table is. So, the closer you get to the wetlands, the higher the seasonal high groundwater table is and the higher it makes your septic system. So, you do end up with a mound system which is which the antills um that you're talking about in the backyard to make that happen. Now there are a lot of times and one thing that he's considering I think I may be stepping out of turn a little bit but trying to put these systems up closer to the house so that they're built up and the house is up and it's looks like a nice yard then it goes down

instead of just having a yard and then sitting over here you got this antill in the backyard. So, but yes, we we try to make sure we keep them away from the wetland and we don't want them to work. We don't want them to not percolate or not work.

So, so the septic tank could be very close to the back though to the patio. It could be very close to the patio because a lot of times and there's some places we've done in some nicer houses where you build the house up and you build the septic tank right off the back so that it looks like a nice elevated yard then it dips down. So it makes it look plain

and by law you can't discharge into the wetlands. No, we cannot discharge in the wetlands and we have to have a 100% replacement area on each lot. So, not only do we have the primary drain field on each lot, we have to have a 100% replacement area, but you're talking right now less than what right at a half acre. Mhm. Yep. We do it all time. That's mighty close. add a couple things about about the road. So, the subdivision [clears throat] regulations do require that you have to have for this size subdivision with the potential for 120 more 120 or more lots,

you do have to have two accesses to an existing road. That's a good rule. Yeah. So I mean it in this case because Macintosh Lake Road is itself only the only access out

um beyond Bright's Lake but the original approved layout did have those two accesses. So I don't know how I mean this is just a concept plan but that is one thing that we'll be looking at when we do review of the plans. Um, and the other thing is too that road, that single road, private dirt road going out to the back, that may have to come back to you for some sort of waiver or variance because we don't allow even private roads to be dirt and things like that. That's I'm not clear on exactly what the subdivision rules say on that, but that may, just so you know, may have to come back to you. How how do we factor in the public safety factor? I see my driving back here in case fire engine got to get

right. So those are the things once they have a design more for that road we'll have we'll know more about what will be required. Yeah. Okay. So I just wanted to point that out. Say that only commission. Yeah. Uh Tren if you'll back up to where you showed the the lots in the the green and the brown area. Right. There you go. Right there. And you use the term I'll try to get real quick. You use the term you put the lots on all usable ground in the yellow area. um in the green area, this wetland, is the developer going to retain that, you know, he keeps that. You're only selling the lots that's in the yellow is what you're actually selling as a home site.

So, a [clears throat] lot of times what we do, um it depends. There's big variable on that. So, it's not an always kind of scenario, but in a lot of cases where you have leftover land like this that you really can't get to, you can show them how you Yeah, that's a good idea. Thank you. So, and this is the approved plan. So, take this lot for example. See, this is about a two or three acre lot. This area that's kind of grayish is all wetland. Mhm.

And so what we do is we extend property line back to the boundary so that there's not just this piece of wetland not that's stuck out here with one owner that you know kind of becomes a little bit more problematic. Everybody owns the wetlands. [laughter] So they're kind of they're purchasing half acre of usable ground but they're purchasing two and a half acres only with a half acre of usable ground. Well so this is scenario that we had happen a while back. There was a push for a long time to try to put all these wetlands in a single ownership in an effort to try to save it. Well, they were putting a single ownership and then the developer decided after the trees got up that he'd cut all the trees cuz you can timber in the wetland

and he came in the back and he timbered all this instead of it being, you know, Yeah. being an isore instead of if you give it each individual homeowner, you know, it's not going to get timbered and they can't do anything with it. They the lot's going to cover the whole area. Yes. You know, and they just the usable land was just a little

Yes. Sure. And and you know, in a lot of cases, a lot of times what'll happen is like you got these big areas here and you see how their property lines don't go all the way back. They will put a lot of this to the POA or something like that because they'll put like walking trails through it because in this area there's a lot of upland in this area right here. So they they'll save some upland for personal use. Not personal but community use stuff like that. But Marty is actually right very true about the the you know the number of accesses and how that all fits. So, and and this is presented to us for um

just your comment like what we're having right now. This main thing we're looking for. I I think it's good concept. I like it. Good concept. But commissioners, I what does come to mind? Nothing to do with it. You you you building another big subdivision on on Hinesville I 95. or that traffic coming out to 84, we have got to have water, sewer. Yeah. Water, sewer, and we got to have relief for the traffic because that's, you know, 8 in that area near the high school and all that. It's already, you know, at certain times of the day, you know,

yeah, if you're on that, if you're on the east end of the county, you don't want to come back into 84 at 3 in the afternoon. Got to get that bypassed in. Yes, sir. So, all righty. All right, Kelly Rain, bring that back to us. Uh, well, I'm going to take all this information from tonight to him and he's got to decide which way he wants to go and he's got to take down he's got contracts to take down some of the the land and I made my comment. Y'all want to make some comments on the concept? I went I went down that way today. Friend of mine, Tra, you know, Ray Ray kind of been talking to you about it. So, I'm familiar with it.

All right. [clears throat] Commissioner gonna say he's good. Commission find out about the dirt road in the back. Yeah, we're good. Okay, we're good. A lot of thought been put into it. All right. Well, thank you very much. I do appreciate your help.

Thank you. Okay, you have seen this before. You had a reading last time. You've actually technically had two readings. Um, and you've had the public hearing. So, now we are here for action on the amendment to raise the freeboard for the base above the baseline elevation from 1 foot to two foot. I can go through this um if you'd like, but you've seen it all before. So, if you have any questions, Trent or I are here to answer them.

I think we've seen it. We know what we're doing. Commissioner Gill, you good? Okay. All right. Commissioner Blunt, I make a motion we accept. Second. Motion and a second. We accept the ordinance amendment to raise the base elevation in whatever language Mar just put in. Ordinance 2025- that's an effort to help us with the [clears throat] times and we have I go back to the August range. Everybody remembers it by that way. So, our lowlying areas will have u I guess increased protection. Any further discussion? All in favor? Show a hand, please. Great. This is effective January 1. Yes.

How do we notify our builders? Yeah. And it has that caveat that's highlighted in here, you know, except if you're already in the preliminary review process already, right? We don't want to do that to anybody who already has plans. Yeah. My my desk is clearing out. Senator All right. Uh member to lease agreement with the Colonel Island Sports Fishing. Okay. Thank you, ma'am. Appreciate you.

Chairman, commissioners. So, I'm coming for you tonight to ask for a amendment to a current existing lease and to enter into a new contract with the Colonel Island Sport Fishing Club. Colonel's Island Sport Fishing Club is currently the fire station for the far east end of Liberty County. We've had this building for as long as I've been here. um and if not longer. Uh the current contract started in 2020 and will run out December 31st, 2025. Myself, a couple of the commissioners, uh Mr. Mosley did meet with the committee of the sport fishing club to dis re redis negotiations on this contract per their request. uh their request and changes are that rent or the lease agreement, let me rephrase that, the lease agreement is to go from $1,000 a month to $2,000 a month. That would go into place on July 1st, 2026. um in that effective January 1st. And there are some things uh I need to get with Kelly uh that were last minute recommendations from the other party uh that will be changed in the contract pending your approval. Our services for lawn care would cease uh on January 1st of this year or coming year of January 1st, 2026. Pest control would cease December 1st. Those are things that currently Liberty County pays for at that facility. So, we would have a reduction um on services that we are renting to the facility, but an increase for the overall lease agreement. This lease agreement will not be a renewal for 5 years. It would expire on June 30th, 2029. So tonight before you, it's an an extension of the contract, allowing us to continue for six months, paying $1,000 a month, which is what is already

authorized in budget, and then starting a new contract July 1st, 2026, running to June 30th, 2029 for $2,000 a month.

Chief Chairman, [clears throat] what about the uh when the uh fishing club down they have events? So, when the fishing club has events down there, um, uh, Robbie Parish, Grady Parish, reach out to either myself or the Islands Fire Station staff that is out there. Um, and normally will let us know, hey, we've got this event coming up. Can you pull the fire trucks out? Fire trucks do get pulled out while the event's going on, so that way they can use that space uh, for whatever event that they may have going on. And then when it's all said and done, they'll either reach back out to myself or the staff there at Highlands Fire Station. We'll drive down there, put those trucks back in the facility.

In the past, have they been real cooperative in doing this? Yes, sir. Okay. Mr. Chief, is that um that facility is not staffed, is it? It is not. This is a volunteer location. This one station services about 3,900 homes. Um, if this station ceases to exist, that's 3,900 people's ISO rating going up. So, so tell me one more time, uh, the the short term and the long. Give me that again. Short-term, $1,000 a month running from January, which is already what we're doing,

January 26 to June 26. Okay. long-term renewal contract will be from July 1st 26 to June 30th 29 for $2,000 a month. So currently we budget $12,000 a year. We'll be budgeting $24,000 a year. So this would cause an increase to next year's budget already minus the lawn care and the pest control. Yes, sir. You have any numbers on that?

Yes, sir. In fact, uh worked it with Mr. Mosley. Currently, as we speak now, we pay $12,000 in lease payments to them to occupy the space. And overall, I believe between electricity, uh, pest control, and lawn care, uh, it was just at $21,000 is is what we expend for that facility a year. Very close to break even.

Yes, sir. Now, the electricity will still continue. We will continue to pay the electricity down there. That was part of the agreement. But uh we pay a thousand or $100 per cut and in the offseasons they cut once a month. In the in the peak seasons they cut twice a month. Pest control is about $83 a month. So there is some some balancing [clears throat] to it. Parishes are going to assume those costs. Yes sir. The the sports fishing club will assume that cost. Yes. Brian, do we have uh gas or electric heat?

Uh out there it is electric. And so we I have gone through it part of the analysis. I've gone through it, looked at it. Our electric bill is higher because during winter months, we do have to run the bay heaters to keep those pumps from freezing. They're they're not heating the building to keep it nice and warm and toasty for the average person. The bay heaters are set uh right at 38 degrees, just enough to keep the pumps from freezing. Thought about that, right? Yes, sir. So, this this is a privately owned fire station.

Uh, yes, sir. So, quick backstory. This was owned by Joe Martin um back when Eastern District Fire Rescue. When Joe Martin decided to um retire, he sold this fire station, this facility to a group of people known as the Kronos Island Sport Fishing Club. And at that point, we entered into an agreement with the Sports Fishing Club. Um, a little bit quick, Joe Martin was getting $40,000 a year under our agreement when he did exist um in the fire service and then now that was reduced down to $12,000. Um, so this is just an increase of another 12,000.

And we we we paid a sports fishing club to allow us to do our trucks for for a garage. Yes, sir. a storage facility that meets our ISO requirements. It gets inspected by the state every year. Um it's part of our ISO evaluation. Um and that's where this this one station allows and I not not 3,900 individuals, it's 3,900 vertical improvements that it supports.

So, and I guess when we um when we decided to do a countywide fire plan, this facility was part of that. We we the county never had a plan to build our own station down that way

there. That has been a topic of discussion. Um, but there was fire stations that needed to be placed elsewhere that took priority. So, it is on a back burner of possibly needing to do something out there depending on growth and development, but the sports fishing club has been gracious enough to allow us to be in this facility. And and I guess in to close this, the sports fishing club was they're getting $1,000 a month and then they decided say, "Hey, we we need 2,000." Yes, sir. for protection that we're providing for utilizing of their facilities um taking up their occup occupying their space.

They they thought they were being too cheap. So in the long run, in the long run, the county, we need to be looking for to possibly build another onman station down there. Correct. So that we can come from under their umbrella. You you could 100%. So by no means are you needing to build a a staff location. I mean, obviously, if you're asking me, I'm going to tell you yes, it needs to be a staff location, but we can build another facility that is just taking place of this at some point. But it's yeah in the building business. I guess what I was saying um I mean compared to

compared to what Joe Martin was getting this is a good deal but I still don't I I don't know what comes into something like that. You said Joe Martin was charging the county 40,000. Uh yes. Joe Martin's agreement was before my time but I I do know I captured it towards the tail end of or at the beginning of my time. Um, there was an agreement of $40,000 a year for [clears throat] him to provide fire service to everything east of I95, not just the Kronos Island area. Brian Brian, I think that 40 that Joe was looking at was for the two stations. Yes, sir. The one on uh Fort Marsh Road. Fort Marsh Road and the one at Colon. Yes, sir. Yeah.

He had a boat, too, though, didn't he? He had a boat down there. Yeah. Where's the boat at? Uh so we were in myself myself and and uh and Chief Martin were actually in negotiations for that boat. Um there was a due process to bring it before you because it would be a capital purchase. Um and I was just it was able to go to Bryant County a lot faster than me getting to you. I remember hearing that. Okay. All right. [cough] Okay. That's all I have. Thank the motion. I make that motion that we allow them uh we enter an agreement for $2,000 a month up until the year of 2029.

Motion Commissioner second. Commissioner Bl. [clears throat] All in favor show your hands please. I I did hear you very well that you said um Commissioner Blunt. Uh your preference will be at man station if we're going to do something down there. So yes sir. Just make sure that I'm just waiting on us to be excited about building something for the kids. Mr. Chair, I agree. I didn't vote for that. You didn't vote for that? I didn't vote for You didn't vote at all? Okay. No, you said all agree. Uhhuh. And I didn't raise my hand, so Okay. I voted no. You vote no. Okay. Yeah. All right. Okay.

Brian, can you in the course of getting to 2029, I'm sure you'll have a plan maybe possibly to make a purchase to where we could look at a fire station on that end that the county could own? I can absolutely I'd be more than glad to find out whose district it is. I know there Okay. And um and have some discussions and bring some plans forth. Yes, sir. Brian, Chief, uh while you're at it, can you find some land for family entertainment center? I do. Absolutely. I can. Um I'll give you a call tomorrow on that, sir.

Thank you. I I will. Um so on on it uh chair commissioners uh again the presentation of the contract before you tonight needs to tweak a date and the responsibility of lawn and pest control. Do I have the approval to make those adjustments as stated tonight and then get that contract to you? Yes sir. Okay. Thank you all very much. Have a good night. Thank you. [clears throat] Uh commissioners annual calendar.

Mr. chair and [clears throat] board of commissioners, you have before you our annual calendar for 2026 lays out the uh dates of our commission meetings, holidays, and staff meetings.

November 19th, 2026. I'll be here for that one, but we'll see. [laughter]

All right, we need to approve this at least tentatively. We have to change some dates. You know, we can [clears throat] move, Mr. Chairman. Is it November 3rd, isn't it? Election day. I believe so, ma'am. Yes. Right. No, let's let's change that now. where we should not be meeting on election day. Please any election days on here? How about May 5th? That sounded like election day, too, though. [laughter] It is. The 19th. Oh, yeah. That's a Tuesday. Yeah, we should be good on that one. November 3rd. I don't think anybody has any opposition.

Well, let's let's let's plan for it. No, no, no, no. Let's Let's knock it out anyway. It's so disrespectful for us to be having meetings on election day. Just period. Disrespectful to who? Okay. All right. Let's Let's wait. I've done it. I know. But is Okay. I guess my concern would be if is anyone on this board running for election? Yes. [laughter] I have any opposition then we can change. Okay. Right. We'll make it tenative sir. Yes sir. All right. No problem. Tend the motion to approve this tenative calendar for 2022. Move Mr. Chair.

Motion second. We know it's tenative. We can certainly change the dates. Any further discussion? All in favor show hands please. The question was is there um an election next year? I was looking at that list of projects Trent got. When I the minute I saw it, I figured somebody was running for office. [laughter] All those got to see him through. Somebody [laughter] uh administrator report sir.

Mr. Chair. Uh interesting. Y'all should talk about that. Maria [clears throat] and I are working with um Miss Walt uh to bring before the body in a couple weeks either the next meeting or the uh following in uh December which will be the qualifying fees. Um we want to present to them to you guys to approve for districts one two and three and also for uh schoolboard districts five, six, and seven and the chairman of the school board. So uh we're working trying to clean that up uh to bring it to you guys to adopt. then it would go for advertisement and then the process will begin. Um, it's just a matter of a percentage of the salary, right? Am I Yes. Okay. It was.

Yeah. Okay. So, we're we're we we have the school board, so we're trying to make sure we get you guys uh district salary. Uh make sure that's in line with the legislation. That would be like the base salary, would it? Uh, Mr. Chairman, I mean, it would be individual, you know, because some of us been on kind of like a base salary for that district C of the individual,

right? It it's the base salary in some places we're reading is saying supplement. So that's what we're trying to make sure. I'm hoping it just strictly the base and we can we can stay right there. Um building maintenance. I'm uh excited to share with you that uh David's been working hard. Um we'll have installation of the twin air conditioning units at the Riceboro Youth Center. That's going to start on Monday. And then the other thing is exciting is uh the hood suppression system at the um Liberty County Community Complex was supposed to be complete today and fire marshal uh Rooney is going to inspect that. If it meets inspection, then we will have a certified kitchen in the LCCCC. So, um we're excited that project's about to come to a conclusion. Uh Trent mentioned to you earlier, [clears throat] we have a meeting set up with um um our district engineer to go over several projects of significance to talk about [clears throat] moving forward on on a couple projects. So, we're excited about that. Uh on yesterday, our work session, uh some of you asked about the EMS policy on call [clears throat] but not transported, how those calls are calculated. Uh you'll notice on the back of the sheet, uh Crystal uh explains how that works. So, um, if you'll look there, you can find that information. And last thing, chair, is we have a an appeals hearing, uh, for a personnel matter, and we need y'all to set a, uh, date for that, and that's a personnel appeal.

Y'all going to poll us or um, we have talked to the personnel attorney. The dates we have that we can work with y'all is the 3rd, fourth, uh, and 5th of December. Mhm. Uh that would be a designation that y'all would uh provide for us. Number 345. Yes, ma'am. And while y'all pausing, we want to recognize uh Commissioner Gillia celebrated a birthday on yesterday. Um happy birthday to you. Commissioner Stevens will celebrate a birthday on tomorrow. Commissioner Blunt will celebrate a birthday on next week. So, oh man, it's way too [laughter] That's right.

Hey, on on my birthday, I mean, I had such a good time. I'm uh I'm going try to do it again and again. What did you do? But u Mr. Chairman, before we go into executive session, uh I I just want to mention a couple things if I could. Uh Mos, I sent a text or email one to you. Could you come up to the mic a little bit? Yeah. um to discuss impact fees.

You did. I'm sorry. That didn't That's fine. I know we've already uh decided on that, but I um I don't have a um really a dog in the fight, but I I have been talking to some people about it and um again, I I I do know what the the purpose of impact fees is, and if we've already um decided on that, I I just need to know right now that we we're not going to revisit it. [clears throat] It is what it is, and we move forward. But I, you know, I I focus on the on the word new, you know, new developments and, you know, that's I would believe that that's what the the whole intent of it was. I don't think it's for existing. I mean, you know, like a person could um could change the color of his house. That's an impact somewhere like a a person that um gets a a 16 year old boy with a brand new convertible. The impact on that is his insurance is going to be higher. Um but in an existing development and even if you move a new trailer in there, he's already done cleared 50 acres. He just hadn't don't have trailers in there on all of it. And if you move one in there, the impact has already been felt. Uh and that's my thought. Um, but if um I know we voted on it a couple of months ago and if if that's the way it is and if um we're not going to revisit it and if we're not going to um um you know do anything with it, it just stays what it is. And if that's the case, um then um the people that had contacted me, I just let them know that that it is what it is and you know, life goes on because I I know it's not a state law. It's a it's an ordinance that that that we adopted it.

That's correct. And if it's ours, we can not to say do what we want to do with it, but we can amend it, right?

We can even allow varicuses. We can do this and we can do that. We can take it take these issues on a case-by case basis. But if we are not um if no one else is willing to do that, then it stays the way it is. And when I run into the people that I have been talking to, I just let them know that that that's it and it's the case is closed. So, that's I wanted to bring that up and um and I guess Mr. Chairman, the only other thing I had on here is um and I guess the answer to that is no, we're not changing it. Okay, we're not chang Okay, I'll take care of that first thing in the morning. Um and um I know we do have public hearings that and and public comments. Um is there a a time limit on those? I mean, because you could just let anybody come up here and just go on and on and and be a spew of fountains of misinformation and um but you know, let them say what they want to say, but is there a time limit on that? Because I mean um and if it's not, I think we could have still been here out of out of agenda number three. But I mean, do we I I know we gonna let them voice their opinion, but do we have any is there any rules to that game?

You know, we we have not enforced a time limit, but there's a clock here that it's been here, I guess, since John McG was here that we we have not, but we can certainly use it. Uh I thought about that today. I I just I I just I just think we can because I mean, you know, city has it could turn into a filibuster if if if you don't. The old time saying was lag time and if the information is the lag time was 2 minutes. If if the information is informative, you know, it still need to have a time limit in it. But when someone comes up here and say just about anything that they want to, I think the time limit cuts that out a little bit. That's that's just my thoughts on that. Um,

long long as it's clockwork, we can use it. Okay. Good. Okay. All right. That's u that's what I that's all I that's what I have. Thank you, sir. Okay. Thank you. All right. Back to those dates. Oh, yeah. [laughter] Those dates. You want date? Didn't you fill us in on the time? Yes, I'm available every day except on the 4th. It' be better if we did it afternoon. Okay. On the fourth. That was dates. So what? Third and fifth. a personnel hearing. I'm out of town hearing. I'm out of town on the fourth. On the fourth of um what day they looking at? December 3rd, fourth. That's the fourth fourth [clears throat] is a Thursday. Be three hours.

What time you want to do that? Cuz that's the that's the day of the par of the tree lighting or the parade and the city council meeting. On the fifth or the fourth? The the fourth is the the tree light and the city council meeting. Okay. Let's Let's Let's don't do the fourth cuz chair being out. The fifth is the parade. Y'all want to do the third? I I think we need the third. Morning. Morning. Afternoon. Okay. Just tell me time. Four o'clock. We we we meet with DOT at 1:30 on the 3. So long as you work around that, then we're good.

Yes, sir. That's uh might do about 3:30 then. Okay. I like I like morning meets myself, Joe. I mean, I'm going to do the sleep this time of night. We we we going to have a attorney coming in town. So 3:30. Yes, sir. Okay. 3:30 on the third. Third. All right. Send the invite. That's for the personnel hearing on the third. You'll send the calendar invite. Yes, sir. I will have some coffee up there. He will. I will have you some coffee and donuts. Okay. for them birthdays is getting a I know it's catching up with uh we have session. Yes sir. Chain a motion to go second

for for real estate for real estate. All in favor now the executive session. Thank you all for

Yes sir. Second. Okay. All in favor go back into regular session. Second. [laughter] [snorts] You need a All in favor? Raise your motion Steven back their times. I'm not saying doing that. They do that. [sighs]

Mr. Chair, members of the board, uh we got uh resolutions of the board of commissioners of Liberty County. Basically, you're certifying the election results for the transportation salesp purpose tax. Uh this was sent to us by our bond attorney which is Mr. John Panell and he wants you guys to certify it. Uh I think it Ronda has to do with our bonds as if we move forward on bonds and tlo. So you want us to certify the results? Second.

That's it.