Board of Commissioners - Regular Meeting

order. If you would please rise, I'm gonna call on Commissioner Marshall for the invocation and the pledge.

Dear Lord, I'd like to thank you for the day that you bless us with uh a day that we've never seen. We pray uh for our nation. We pray for those who came out to participate in their local government. We pray for those who wanted to come but couldn't and were not able to make it. And dear Lord, we like to continue to thank you for our great staff that work on our behalf and their behalf of the citizens as we continue to do our best uh for Loun County. And dear Lord, we pray that you for that you bless and protect our service members that are serving um here and abroad and bring them back home. All these blessings I ask in your son Jesus name we pray. Amen.

Amen. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Do we have any folks here tonight with leadership lounge? Recognize those folks if there's anybody here. All right, Commissioner Marshall, thank you for the invocation and the pledge. Commissioners, inside your packet, you'll find your minutes of the work session of April the 27th, as well as your regular session minutes of April the 28th. If there are no additions, deletions, or corrections, I'll entertain a motion to approve those minutes.

Motion to approve. Do we have a motion? Do I have a second? Second. I have a second by Miss Evans. Any discussion? Hearing none, I'll call the vote. All in favor signify by I. I. Any oppose? Like time like sign. Hearing none, the motion carries. Agenda item 5A was to be our first public hearing item. And Mr. Dillard, am I correct, that has been withdrawn? Yes, sir. Mr. Chairman, the applicant has requested to withdraw his application to reassess his potential for the property. All right. Any questions for Mr. Dillard? I If they reapply, will they have to start back over at the the process again or is there an amount of time before they could reapply or what?

Yes, sir. They will have to go through the full process meeting with the TRC and the planning commission for a new recommendation. Okay. Thank you. All right. Agenda item 5B is rec 2026-11. This is the Blackwater Development LLC and Web Fish Farm. It is located at 4130 Old Beamus Road. This involves 4.8 acres. It is currently R1 and R10 and the request is for CG and it will be supplied by county utilities. Mr. Dillard.

Yes, sir. Thank you, Mr. Chairman and commissioners. Good evening. Again, the request before you tonight is 4.8 donate acres to be reszoned for general commercial in order to allow the existing buildings to be repurposed um and speculative future commercial use. Property is currently access off of Old Bemis Road across the Cater Parrot Rail network. It's a countymaintained local road though new local roads and access points are proposed which I'll show in just a little bit. As you note here, the properties within the suburban character area and again the county utilities do promote uh recommendations for commercial general zoning in general. This map currently doesn't show any particular wetlands on the property in question. However, the applicant has provided an overall layout of wetlands adjacent to the property. To the east, you see they have been delineated. You see a retention pond just to the east of the property as well. And then that new access road that is being proposed uh as I mentioned earlier here. Back out to show you just a little bit of the more general overall of the neighborhood development and the proposed commercial area before you tonight. Again, these are some recent aerials. You'll note Old Bemis Road on the top of your uh screen there. You'll also notice a brand new culde-sac that has just been finished here recently and construction of homes have begun. This is the current crossing accessing off of Old Beamish Road. This is what the applicant is proposing uh to use temporarily during construction. And then again, as we look to the east on the existing building here, I'm going to try to pan around with some of the images that the applicant has provided for you. potential rendering of how they could be repurposed into multi-tenant commercial spaces. And again, looking through the south through possibly the access road. Moving around a little bit more to the interior looking west and again the existing cassate of the buildings again from the east looking west and again more from the northeast corner here looking back upon these renderings.

This is from the culde-sac looking south toward the buildings. Again, potential layout. And then again from Beimis Knights Academy Road, Caroline Circle, you see the buildings in question over to the right to the east of the trees. And this is a potential rendering or layout based on that access road and location. Again, with that being said, the TRC did analyze the request and the factors relevant in this case, including neighboring land uses, lot sizes, zoning patterns, availability of county utilities, the current and proposed access, and therefore recommends approval with the following conditions. One, no alcohol package stores, cemeteries, clubs, lodges, meeting or event facilities, car washes, gas stations, hotels, motel, or vehicle sales lots shall be allowed. and two, anyhoya ingress off of old beamis road shall require the property owner developer to pave the street from that point to the nearest paved street at their expense. The applicant proposed slight modification to condition number two here again talking about clarifying prior to the operation of businesses on any of those parcels that they have paid public access. And with that being said, the planning commission did recommend approval um with condition one and modification to condition number two.

Okay, heated questions from Mr. Dillard. All right, we'll move into the public hearing portion of the meeting. Is there anyone in the audience that would like to speak in opposition to this request? Anyone that would like to speak in opposition? Hearing none. Is there anyone that would like to speak in favor of this request? Please come forward and state your name and address for the record, please. commissioners. Uh Jack Langdale, 701 North Patterson. I represent Southern Forest Holdings. This is a company from Florida who's taken an interest in our area lately over the last few years. I've handled several closings for them and watched them handle several developments. They have liked to buy and remodel multif family and commercial properties and they I've watched them do a good job remodeling the properties and they hold them and rent them and their landlords. Um they have done some work in Loun County, Cook County and Albany. Today we are here for reszoning of two properties that JD just described. One's owned by TL Web Family Properties and the other is Blackwater Development and uh JD showed a rendering of what they are proposing to do for the fish farm. Right now you can see the empty warehouse storage type buildings that are sitting there and they are proposing to renovate them to be able to use them for office storage use. And the best example of an ideal tenant for them would be maybe a lawn care company that might have a need for an office or two for a bookkeeper and also have some equipment that they need to keep out of the weather. So they could go in and lease some office space and lease some of the storage building

and seems like a really good use for that property. Um, we talked to James Warren, the owner of Blackwater Development, which is the property on the south side of our property about access across that tract going down to Bemis Knights Academy Road. And that conversation led to the idea of reszoning three parcels on the west side of the road that's leaving the fish farm property. And the idea would be commercial being on the west side and then the residential's on the east. And the commercial use would be something that complements the neighborhood. Maybe an office use or maybe a daycare facility. Nothing that's wild and obnoxious, just something that would fit in well with residential use. Um, so we are here on behalf of both of these land owners to request reszoning of both of those facilities. And I've discussed it also with the builder who has most of the lots under contract, a builder named John Owens, and he thought it would be a great idea. And they are fully supportive. And we would request that y'all approve this proposed reszoning as recommended by staff and accept of the condition number two that JD just proposed up there, the revised condition number two. There any questions I can answer about the project?

Any questions? Right. Thank you, sir. Thank you.

Is there anyone else that would like to speak in favor of this request? Please come forward and state your name and address for the record, please. Hey, Mr. Chairman. Scott Alderman, 5273 Bethany Drive, Hayhire, Georgia. I represent Mike Davis and his wife Gay. They are the administrators of the TL web property and they are the sellers of the property and I'm their broker. But this has been a great example of everybody coming together to make an abandoned property better and more productive. And it's been kind of a challenge to put the pieces together, but everybody has done that, including J. Dillard and his staff. uh Jack the attorney and the buyer and the seller side. So, we appreciate your consideration. We think it'll be a good positive thing and a good example of everybody trying to work together to make something good happen.

Any questions? Any questions? All right. Thank you, sir. Thank you. All right. If there's no other folks that wants to speak in favor of the request, then we will close the public hearing portion of the meeting. Commissioners, I'll turn it over to you for your consideration. Mr. Chairman, I move that we approve with the condition one and modification of number two as presented. Okay, we have a motion. Do I have a second? Have a second. Any discussion hearing? None. We'll call the vote. All in favor signify by I. I.

Any oppose? Like sign? Hearing? None. Motion carries. Agenda item 5C is rec 2026-12. This is the McBura property located at 4909 Beimis Road. This involves 2.4 acres. It is currently R21 and R1. The request is for CG and it will be supplied by county utilities. Mr. Der.

Yes, sir. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. You'll note the property here in the middle with the R1 and R21 outlined in red. You'll also notice a plethora of county zonings around here. Uh this is a very unique area undergoing rapid changes especially along the bee corridor as we experience growth on the northeast side of the county here. You'll note that the future land use depicts this as a neighborhood activity center which does recommend uh commercial zoning as well as being in the beis corridor the supplemental standards that would help uh control any kind of design and access there. The adjoining properties, as we'll see in a little bit, um, again, low density, most of them are religious facilities, single family homes. However, there is recent activity uh to the north for higher density town homes and commercial development. Um, but this is a proposed layout of the building on the two properties if zoned or commercial general. Again, this is for a child care learning center, which allows for more than six children to be served at a time. Um, and again, this is just that proposed layout again next to the existing buildings here, uh, for some scale. And then I'll zoom out here at this last one to show you can talking about the recent activity, the subdivision to the southeast there, the proposed daycare here in the middle, the town homes just to the north of that. And then a new uh, Dollar General going there on the corner, Little Viking Road, Highland Christian Academy again to the northwest, the county collection site, and then again, you see a few religious uses uh, surrounding this with some lowdensity residential. With that being said, again, TRC examined the case, considered the factors most relevant, including the land uses, lot sizes, zoning patterns, county utilities, corridor overlay standards, and therefore recommended approval of the CG zoning with the following condition that no alcohol package stores, clubs, lodge, meeting, or event facilities shall be allowed. Planning commission, the applicants, engineers spoke in support. And again, the planning commission hearing no one speak in opposition, recommended unanimous approval with the one condition. Okay. Any questions for Mr. Dillard? All right. Hearing none, we'll open up

the public hearing portion of the meeting. Is there anyone in the audience that would like to speak in opposition to this request? Anyone that would like to speak in opposition? All right. Hearing none. Is there anyone that would like to speak in favor of this? Please come forward and state your name and address for the record, please. Bill Kent, Innovate Engineering, 2214 North Patterson Street. We're the project engineers for for this development. Um, this property is has adequate water, sewer, road access, drainage, etc. So, we developed the uh concept plan. It um as anything, it needs to be tweaked to satisfy all the development standards. So, are there any questions? Okay.

Any questions? Just one, Bill. Um, this is well needed here. You know, I noticed it said it can be a accommodate up to 160 kids and 20 employees. Yes. Um, when is the projected uh I guess date moving forward or opening the doors if I know Miss Burroughs is out there, but if you could tell us. Yeah, I don't know the answer. I'm sure as quickly as as possible. We're still working with Georgia DOT on the driveway access. We're just getting started on design and development uh for permitting. So, if I had to guess from today, you're you're probably looking at

3 to four months to get the plans in and then I I don't know probably a year really realistically to total a year 12 months probably before you get anything done. Appreciate it. Okay. Any other questions? Thank you, sir. Thank you. Is there anyone else that would like to speak in favor of this request? Hearing none, we'll close the public portion public hearing portion of the meeting. And commissioners, I'll turn it over to you for your consideration. Motion to approve. We have a motion to I'm sorry. With the condition number one that was stated. Motion to approve with condition number one. Yes. All right. Do we have a second? Second. We have a second by Miss Evans. Any discussion?

Hearing none, I'll call the vote. All in favor signify by I. I any oppose like sign hearing? None. The motion carries. Agenda item 6A is the 2026 local road assistance known as LRA, the administration funds application. Mr. Mloud.

Uh yes, sir. Thank you. The G DOT announced that the governor and legislature included the LRA in the amended fiscal year 2026 budget. The LRA funds will be dis distributed using the LMIG application system and will require no matching funds. The fiscal year 2026 LRA formula amount for Loun County is 1,668,145.32. If approved, the LRA funds will be used for re resurfacing.

Any questions for Mr. Mloud? Chad, I just want to say thanks for y'all's team's effort in ranking and scoring the roads of our county so that when the state dollars come down, y'all can jump on it quickly and get it get it processed. Yes, sir. Thank you. Any other questions or comments? All right, hearing none, I'll entertain a motion. Motion to approve. Okay, we have a motion to approve from Miss Evans. Do I have a second? I have a second. Any discussion? Hearing none, we'll call the vote. All in favor signify by I. I

any opposed like sign hearing? None. The motion carries. Agenda item 6B is the acceptance of infrastructure for the Cypress Lake Subdivision phase 5 section two. Mr. Mloud. Uh yes, sir. Cypress Lake Subdivision phase 5 section two is located at the end of Clove Drive. Includes the remainder of Clove Drive and Eucalyptus uh Drive. All construction and paperwork have been completed. Engineering and utility staff have completed their final inspections. The developer has requested Loun County to accept the infrastructure for this subdivision.

Okay. Any questions for Mr. Mloud? All right. Hearing none, I'll entertain a motion. I make a motion to adopt the resolution for acceptance of the infrastructure for Cypress Lake subdivision fi phase 5 section two. Okay, we have a motion to accept the resolution for the to accept the infrastructure for phase five and section two of Cypress Lake subdivision. Do I have a second? Second. Have a second. Any discussion? Hearing none, I'll call the vote. All in favor signify by I. I.

Any oppose? Like sign? Hearing? None. The motion carries. Agenda item 6 C is the Transportation Investment Act known as TIA. This is the local delivery application for Old US 41 North widening phase 4. Mr. Mloud.

Uh yes sir. Old 41 North widening phase 4 is on the T2 list for leting in March of 2030. The local delivery application starts the process by allowing Loun County to manage the project at the local government level. If approved, G DOT will send an approval letter and agreement to be approved by the Loun County Board of Commissioners. The the project will begin at Union Road and end at the Hiara city limits. Okay, any questions? Hearing none, I'll entertain a motion. Approve the application. Authorize the chairman sign. Okay, we have a motion to approve the application. Do we have a second?

Second. I have a second by Miss Evans. Any discussion hearing? None. I'll call the vote. All in favor signify by I. I. Any oppose? Like sign. Hearing? None. The motion carries. Agenda item 6D is a beer and wine license for VK Patel doing business as Eagle Food Mark, 4952 Bemis Road, Valdasta, Georgia. Miss Black. Um, yes sir. Thank you. Um, as discussed yesterday, this is a beer and wine license for consumption off premise and is just due to a change in ownership. Okay. Any questions for Miss Black? Hearing none, I'll entertain a motion. Motion to approve. We have a motion to approve. Do I have a second? Second.

Have a second. Any discussion? Hearing none, I'll call the vote. All in favor signify by I. Any oppose like sign? hearing. None. The motion carries. Agenda item 6E is the replacement of three servers. Mr. Vanar's Dale. Thank you, sir. Uh, the purchase of three new servers is requested to replace the current aging server environment. The existing hardware has reached end of support and can no longer be upgraded, making replacement necessary. Okay, any questions? Hearing none, I'll entertain a motion. Motion to approve. Okay, we have a motion to approve. Do I have a second? Second.

Have a second by Miss Evans. Any discussion? Hearing none, I'll call the vote. All in favor signify by I. I. Any oppose? Like sign? Hearing? None. The motion carries. Agenda item 6F is the industrial authority series 2026 bonds. Uh, commissioners, you heard from Mr. Elliott at the work session yesterday morning. Uh if there are no questions in regards to this issue, I will entertain a motion on the bonds. Make a motion to approve the resolution as presented. Okay, we have a motion to approve the resolution as presented. Do I have a second? Second.

Have a second. Any discussion? Hearing none, I'll call the vote. All in favor signify by I. I. Any oppose? Like sign? Hearing? None. The motion carries. Thank you, commissioners. Agenda item 7A is our first of two bid items. Our first is the 2026 local maintenance and improvement grant known as LMIG and this is the resurfacing bids. Mr. Mloud.

Uh yes, sir. The 2026 LIG application was approved by the commission on January 12th, 2026. The grant was approved by G DOT and Loun County received the grant funds. staff advertised the projects for bids and we received two bids. The low bid was the Scrugs Company at 629,67725. Rams and Sun Construction was the other bidder at $635,19184.

Okay. Any questions for Mr. Mloud? Yes, Chad. Do we anticipate most of them to get done during the summer times? Uh at this current time frame, we anticipate to start the bid process within two weeks with an anticipated notice to proceed of June uh the first part of June and be complete by November 28th. Okay. Uh but we would anticipate most of it being the end of the summer, beginning of fall. How does this Elme money compared to last? Is it pretty standard or has it been decreasing or increasing over slightly increasing each time? Any other questions? All right. Hearing none, I'll entertain a motion. Motion to approve.

We have a motion to approve. Do I have a second? Second. Have a second by Miss Evans. Any discussion? Hearing none, I'll call the vote. All in favor signify by I. Any oppose? Like sign? Hearing? None. The motion carries. Agenda item 7B is a bid for a debris hauler for public works. Miss Black.

Um yes, sir. Thank you. Um, as as discussed yesterday, we solicited bids for a debris hauler for public works. Um, this will have a dual trailer and grapple and used to um pick up large amounts of debris um instead of pulling other equipment off to do that. Um, the funding for this is included in Splast and we received one bid that met specifications from Fourstar Freightlininer in the amount of $375,814. Okay. Any questions for Miss Black? I think she answered it earlier. I was thinking so this is a claw basically. Yes, it's exactly like the debris haulers that came in. Okay. When we got reimbured by FEMA,

it's exactly like that. The citizens know that as the Paul Bunan haulers. Yes. And same hauler. That's the prettiest thing I've ever seen. Yeah. We um we you know we had the idelia we got reimbursed for that but then when Debbie came along we didn't qualify for reimbursement so we were on our own and we were cleaning up debris and we finished the same week Helen hit

so our guys have been cutting trees for and hauling trees for two years and what we had to do was because our equipment's smaller it's like 40 cubic yards And what we're getting is 165 cubic yards. So we had to cut our trees every like 4ft sections to use our dump trucks and stuff. And now we're going to be able to go with like 10 or 12 foot sections. So it'll cut our saw work in half.

Yeah. This will just give us an opportunity to better clean up when we have a smaller storm to where it doesn't reach the level uh where we call in basically the FEMA u disaster folks to come in. So this is u it's just a good opportunity for us to go ahead and have a apparatus that'll help us clean up for straight line winds and those sort of things speed the process up. It's exciting and public works deserves this with all the effort they've put in the last few years for sure. So thank you. Glad we can pull this off. Okay. If there's no other questions I'll entertain a motion. Motion to award the bid to Fourstar Freight Liner. Okay. We have a motion to award the bid to FourStar Freightlininer. Do I have a second? Second.

Have a second. Any discussion hearing? None. We'll call the vote. All in favor signify by I. I.

Any oppose? Like sign? Hearing? None. The motion carries. All right. Miss Dukes is out of town, so we really will not have a county manager report. Uh, I will add real quick, if I may, with all the rain, there's been a little bit of discussion about the our burn ban. The governor released all the counties in the state for the burn ban, but we're still in a severe drought. Uh we talked with the folks um at the National Weather Service and they said until we get an accumulation of at least 6 to 8 ines, it probably not going to move the needle from the drought situation. So, we're still locally going to maintain that no burn. Uh, and we certainly would request that citizens would adhere to that. Uh, we just don't need to. You know, I say this all the time, the brush pile, it'll wait. It's not going anywhere. It'll wait until we get the right kind of weather that we need and then we can clean up some of it. But that's where we stand right now based on the latest information that we just received today. All right, we'll move on now to our citizens wishing to be heard. Our first citizen is Mr. Michael Null. Please come forward, sir, and state your name and address for the record.

Uh, good evening. My name is uh, Dr. Mull. I live at 2305 Glindale Drive. Um, I wasn't actually expecting that uh, the county manager and uh, Commissioner Orinstein wouldn't be here today, so I can keep my comments fairly short. Mainly, what I want to do now is just simply thank you for the conversation we had after the last meeting. It's really important that we are able to talk to each other. And in the context of the conversation we had after the last meeting of the Lance County Board of Commissioners, you mentioned that you had visited two uh data center sites currently under construction. I'm assuming they are by DC blocks and um you also mentioned that you were going to visit at some point in the future also an operational data center. Um, at the time I asked the question whether or not you could share the exact location of these two data centers that are under construction. I've also communicated by email and have not received that yet. Would be really helpful for us to be able to verify, look into the kind of background, the permitting process and everything else. What kind of data centers are we talking about? What technology they're using just so we can do our own research and then we can share notes at some point later down the road. I also wanted to thank and then go a little bit more into detail the county manager as well as uh Commissioner Ornstein for meeting with Loun Citizens against data centers on May the 6th. I thought this was a was a good meeting, a good uh first meeting on a conversation on issues that are very important to us. So I'm hoping that we can continue that as we are working and I believe that is what you're intending to do on a data center ordinance that is able to balance sustainable economic growth with the interests of citizens that are deeply concerned about the negative impacts of data centers of various sizes light light pollution noise pollution air pollution and decline in property values whatever these might be. Also want to let you know so you don't have to hear this from anybody else but find out on social media. We now have a billboard

that is up and running uh on North Dust Road. So we are educating citizens in regard to the potential threats that exist with data centers. Uh so they can reach out to us, they can learn about it so that we all are basically an educated or informed uh community so we are what we know what we're dealing with. That's really all for today. I only took about two minutes or so. Thank you so much. Thank you.

All right. Next speaker is Mr. George Fischer. Please come forward and state your name and address for the record, please. Good evening. My name is George Fischer. I live at 5278 Hall Road in Hehyra. And I'm here to talk to you about the data center and particularly about the water. That's kind of what my focus is. I've spent uh a good part of this afternoon looking at old topo maps from topographical maps of elevation, old geology maps. And one of my concerns that I want to just lay out to you is the location of the center in regards to the topography. Now, I I am not a state certified environmental engineer. I have no real qualifications to say this. I do have 25 years of experience in the international petroleum industry where I located uh bottom hole locations but also I worked in surface locations. So I was often assigned to go around the world and to have meetings like this address concerns of citizens officials. I've worked in very um interesting areas. Uh, I drilled a well not far from where Winnie the Pooh was born at in uh Essex in England. I drilled a well on a helicopter Navy base in Portsouth. So, I have a lot of background in looking at things that concern citizens and impact the community, impact the businesses, and impact the government officials. Um, I had a package that I wanted to give you of maps and information, satellite photos. Unfortunately, my computers did not talk to each other today, this afternoon, and I was very frustrated

that I I can't present that. But what I have here is a a map from the Velor website that shows the location on Coleman Road in relation to the uh flood zone of the Wakuchi and the flood zone of the Little River and Franks Creek area. And if I'm looking at this, I can describe Coleman Road as being a spine. Uh, and the crest is right at that uh, red fireworks, what? Red oak or red something fireworks station there. Um, the site in question is just to the east of the road and that's that's a high point. That's 190 feet above sea level. And it's a spine. It runs right right down and it gets lower and lower and lower. The distance between the crest of the structure is at 190. The Wlakuchi River which is only 7/10 of a kilometer away is 120 ft. So there's a 70 foot differential of elevation there. Every drop of water that lands on this area goes into the with Luchi. It looks to me like it flows very close to um Foxboro. And you know, Foxboro has a problem. I've driven around there a couple times. I've looked at the the water there, the little canals that were dug. Um if you think about a data center, they're going to put it underneath asphalt and tin roof roofing. That water has no absorption into the soil. Right now there's a lot of water goes into the trees, the grass. A 100% of the water that falls on this site is going to go to the east to the Wikuchi River. The problem is your maps indicate that is an uptake for the aquifer. There's a there's a green blob. It's not

exactly in the river because it was probably maybe a different projection or somebody else did it somewhere else. But that is an uptake for the aquafer. So whatever you can spill a cup of coffee in the parking lot and it's eventually going to find its way into the aquifer into the drinking water and they do a really good job of protecting this. But you can't be perfect all the time. I had a kind of a nightmare scenario that what happens if that catches on fire that they do very good job that the fires in data centers are very rare but you're using lithium ion batteries you've got diesel. You've got backup generators. If there's a fire there, it's going to require a special response. You can't put it out with water. Electricity and water do not mix. You have to have chemicals, foam, chemical retardants. Um, you'd have to expand the fire department to respond to this. Uh, firefighters around these facilities are not particularly happy. Sometimes they respond to a call and they have to wait an hour before the security will let them in. These are very highly secure build buildings. Um, my goal here is to make sure that my grandkids have good clean water and your grandchildren have good clean water. Okay.

Thank you. Thank you, sir. All right, our next speaker, is it Amy Berman? Am I right about that? Please come forward and state your name and address for the record, please. I give you a hand.

Ma'am, please hand it to Miss Lren, please. My name is Amy Burnham and my address 5207 Abbott Circle. I'm speaking on behalf of animal welfare regarding feral cat colonies. As this handout shows, one unaltered cat and her offspring can produce more than two million kittens in just eight years. My group has been rescuing homeless cats for nine years. And through our TNR and rescue efforts, we've removed over 1,000 cats from the cycle of reproduction. The impact is staggering. Countless animals spared from starvation and suffering, neighborhoods relieved of nuisance issues, less workload for the shelter, and significant money saved for the county. And there are other groups that are also doing this work. This is the power of TNR and rescue. We have trapped, neutered, treated injuries, buried animals that did not survive, and fought every single day to reduce the suffering in our community. We have done this quietly without recognition, using our own money, our own time, and resources. For years, we have repeatedly reached out for help. We've called authorities and shelters, especially during severe cases involving abuse and cruelty. We were told that no one responds to calls involving cats. Every animal deserves protection and compassion and adequate care. We have worked with numerous businesses, trailer parks, neighborhoods, and restaurants to control overpopulation. After trapping and neutering, we work to ensure populations remain controlled. In recent years, the crisis has grown tremendously worse. animals being dumped are are are being dumped at alarming rates and the emotional and financial

burden on rescuers has become overwhelming. To give you an idea of the magnitude, we have been feeding and caring for over 20 locations and approximately 300 cats. I am a teacher within the Loun County school system. Many of my students are military families who have lived all over the world. And many tell me they have never seen so many homeless animals, so much neglect and cruelty, or so few protections in place. Hearing that from people who have experienced communities across the globe is heartbreaking. We love this community and want to continue helping, but we can no longer carry this burden alone. We desperately need support for TNR efforts for private citizens like ourselves. We realize you fund the animal shelter and the animal shelter does great work and we thank you for funding them, but we would love to work with the shelter and receive assistance in in this mission. Many shelters do provide resources for private citizens running TNR programs. These resources include veterary care for injured or sick cats, food and colony management. These partnerships reduce community cat populations, prevent shelter overcrowding, and lower euthanasia rates. This is not just an animal issue. It is a reflection of our community as a whole. The way we treat the most vulnerable among us says everything about who we are. I'm asking you tonight as a rescuer, a teacher, a citizen, and someone who loves this city deeply. Please help us. Help us create a community that shows compassion, responsibility, and humanity. Help us continue saving lives. Thank you for your time.

Thank you. All right. Our next speaker is Tara Parker. Please come forward and state your name and address for the record, please.

Good evening. I'm Tara Parker. I live at 4911 Timberwood Drive, Hehara, Georgia 31632. I've been a former director at a humane society. Served as a board of directors for another humane society. I'm a vice president for pause and play. I've co-founded Valdasta spay and neuter a census program and we have helped spay and neuter animals in the community from our own funding and our own time and we're 100% volunteers about 200 animals. Um, the prices have gone down. You guys probably know the Bissell Corporation is funding a program. You have a lot of people in the audience who do it that are doing spay and neuter through the Humane Society. It's now $25 per cat, $35 per dog. So, I'm encouraging everyone here, if you don't if you're not aware of it or even if you are, we need to take advantage of that. I'd like to talk very briefly about our animal ordinances. I know that we are getting a new animal shelter about $5 million. They deserve it. Again, the shelter is not responsible. Irresponsible pet owners are. Um, I would like to concur with Miss Burnham. I wish that we could work together with our budget and that we could support the women and some men who are doing the TNR work. They are controlling the population. They are doing it out of their own pockets. Uh, cats are considered an invasive species. We love them. But I would like to see and I would like to understand why our current budget does not allow for assisting the root cause which is overpopulation and TNR addresses that. There are never going to be enough adopters for the dogs and cats we have. We cannot adopt our way out of this problem. We can never I don't want us to I don't think any of us do want us to euthanize our way out of the problem. We can't shelter our way out of the

problem. It costs approximately 20 to $30 a day to shelter a dog in Loun County if I did my math correctly. Don't hold me to that. Feel free to correct me. So 20 to $30 a day to house a dog. With the Bissell Corporation and with the Humane Society, you can have a dog spayed and neutered for one day's cost of care. one day if it costs approximately $1,000 per month per dog, which is again my rough math is what we're spending. If we would focus on prevention, we don't have to rescue them and there will never be enough adopters. Fulton County spent $40 million on a state-of-the-art animal shelter. They now have 400 dogs and cats and they don't have enough adopters for them. The problem is spay and neuter. So now Fulton County is going back and they are spending on vouchers to Cab County. I have my notes and I'll hand them to you if I mix up counties. They just paid $1.8 million for 6,000 vouchers to give out to the community for spay and neuter. Cobb County meets twice a year to update their animal ordinances and to discuss cruelty, neglect, um abandonment. I really really wish and I know you guys have $150 million a year give or take, right? Way more important things than animals, but like Miss Burnham said, we love this community. Those of us who are volunteering, paying our taxes, and we're donating, we're tired. I wish that we could focus our 1.4 1.5 million a year that we spend on animal control and focus on the cause, which is overpopulation. If we refocus our efforts on avoiding overpopulation, if we address it where they are, I don't want us to have a bigger shelter. Again, the shelter

workers are not the problem. The shelter belongs to the community. Unclaimed animals belong to the community. The responsibility is irresponsible pet owners. And I know you're going to say, "We don't like government overreach. We don't want to tell people what to do with their dogs and their cats." But you tell us when and where we can't burn our leaves. You tell us where and when we can leave a car park too long or where we can and can't fish or how many fish we can per we can catch. You tell me that I have to wear my seat belt. So, I'm requesting that we look at some common sense u not big brother and not government overreach, but that we look at some ways to shift the responsibility to irresponsible pet owners so that we who are responsible don't have to carry their burden. Um, again, I have a copy of multiple uh ordinances ideas and they're all from counties within the state of Georgia who are doing it differently and it's based on data and I'd be happy to hand it to you and I'd be happy to talk to anyone after the meeting.

Okay. If you'll share that with Miss Lover and she'll be able to distribute that. All right. Commissioners, any questions, comments? I'll entertain a motion to adjurnn.