Commission Meeting Agendas - Regular Meeting

Good morning, everyone. It is July 16th at 9.30, and I call this meeting to order. Could I ask Chief Dyer to come up here and do the catch, please?

I'm so glad I'm not in this. Let's pray. Dear Heavenly Father, Lord, we come to you again today in humble prayer. Lord, we want to thank you for all the things that you give us, all the blessings that you have for this day, for this wonderful facility we're in today, this morning. Lord, thank you for our community and our county and all the people who work very hard to keep that county running and operating smoothly and keeping it the way we need it. Lord, we ask that you be with us today here in our meeting. Give us wisdom, give us strength, your protection against the evils of this world, protect our country, protect our county and all the people who are trying to harm it, change it, or destroy it. Lord, we ask you, please, to bless everybody here and keep them safe. Keep our public safety safe. Keep us healthy. Keep us safe. And also, bless our military and keep us free. In Jesus Christ's name I pray. Amen. Amen. Please stand for prayer.

Thank you. Thank you, sir.

I approve the minutes for June 18, 2026, county meeting. First on the list is presentation. John Hibbins, the Boy Scout Troop 101 is here to provide you all with information on his community project at Meeks Park. If I'd ask the other man to come up and describe a little bit of that.

Good morning everyone. So for my project, my initial project, I'm going to be building my gaga wall at Meeks Park. So, gaga wall, I'll explain the rules if you guys don't know is there's a pit and this one's going to be 14 and a half feet wide and it's going to be made out of 2x10.8 pressure treated wood with brackets and it's going to go up against the park next to one of the pavilions and how you play is there's a ball and you start with your hand on the wall you throw it up you say ga ga ball on the three bounces and then whenever there's you can have about like 15 people that really isn't even long but whenever you play the moment the game starts you hit the ball and the goal is to hit everybody else with the ball under their knees and you can only hit once unless it hits the wall which I'm not supposed to do and it's pretty much just last minute standing so This will be a great recreational activity for all ages. The only thing left is to fundraise for it and build it. And the building will probably be in DC's park. And there's already been a value here planning this already. Any questions? Yes. Yes. Yes.

Will the balls be supplied for people to get?

The first one will.

Okay.

I plan to go to businesses and they will sponsor it and make their business on the block. Any other questions? Yes.

How much are you planning on raising for your fundraising?

The total cost is $1,000 and I can cut the cost down if the wood is donated. which is about $500 of it, and the brackets are $500 as well.

Any other questions? Yes? How can you donate?

I have to give a fundraising form. It's almost done. But once I get that done, I'll be back to you. Any other questions? Yes?

My last one. Can you have those forms for us at the next meeting, the next commissioner's meeting?

Yes, I will have them. Any other questions?

Thank you. Thank you, sir.

Next on the list is Paul Mason. On July 7, 2026, I signed the Friends of Union County Library 30th Anniversary Recognition Day Proclamation. The Friends of Union County Library were formed in 1996 and celebrated their 30th anniversary yesterday, on July 15, 2026, which is their recognition day. The organization has ready and continues to raise money for our local library. These funds have provided resources for special events and additional programming throughout the year to help purchase wish list books, articles, and equipment. Their fundraising also provides funds for the children's summer reading events and prizes. Friends of the Union County Library, remember to understand the importance of well-funded libraries and advocate to ensure our library gets the resources it needs to provide services for all people. The members of this organization have set an example for how volunteering leads to positive civic engagement and the betterment of our community for 30 years. I was invited to their celebration month yesterday held at the Torres Stores Schoolhouse and enjoyed meeting and talking with many of the volunteers. I appreciate everything they have done for Union County, especially the children's program, which I hear about often from my spouse having children. Number three is an agreement. I hereby accept this agreement between Geohydro Engineers and Union County, Georgia, for the subsurface exploitation and geological engineering related to the replacement of Spidey Coal Bridge. The total cost of this agreement is not to exceed $8,700, with an effective date of June 18, 2026. This work is one of the first stages in engineering to make sure the ground is stable for the new bridge. For the engineers to know what is under the ground for construction will be taking place. Number four is the agreement. I hereby accept this agreement between Hyderabad County LLC and Union County Board for Human Resource Management and Over-the-National Development Services in the amount of $2,700 per month for up to six months and $1,800 at a flat rate option for revision and review of Union County Employee Handbook. The effective date of this agreement is May 19, 2026. In order to save on the employee college, I have decided that current employees of the commissioner's office will assume the functions of human resource for the county employees with the assistance of Iowa County attorney. They will provide training and complete review of the employee handbook, along with the assistance of any necessary division to set the handbook. with automated systems in place and the function of the human resources is not a full-time job moving forward. If we see this is not working and putting him under stress on the existing employees, we will adjust accordingly. Number five is an agreement. I hereby check this agreement between the food incorporated in Union County, Georgia for football video analysis software to be utilized by the Union County Recreation Department in the amount of $3,675, with the cost being covered by local business contribution. This is a three-year contract with an effective date of July 24, 2026. The coaches for the football within the Union County Recreation Department requested this specific software. It allows them to video the football games and then allows them to analyze equipment to help their players improve how they play the game. The coaches had initially requested a one-year contract, but once they began seeking sponsorships, they were able to ensure a three-year contract at a reduced rate with the funding raised. Number six is business license. I hereby approve all business licenses issued in Union County from June 15, 2026 to July 13, 2026 for the purpose of operating the fourth turnaround in Union County. A list of business licenses issued is attached to your packet and will be made part of the mix. Number seven is a lease agreement amendment. I hereby accept this lease agreement of amendment and renewal between the Union County Chamber of Commerce and Union County Board for the use of all the space located at 129 Union County's Directorate of Education and Union County Community Center. The original lease dated July 1, 2022 contained a yearly view option along with that amount per year being $52,878.60 with $40,074.60 being considered in cash. The lease is now amended to $1,067 per month with the lease period extended to June 30, 2029. Number eight is a resolution R-2026-32. I hereby adopt resolution R-2026-32 re-appointing Brett Orme as an ex-officio member of the Board of Directors of the Union County Development Party with said terms starting relatively on June 1st, 2026 and expiring on May 31st, 2027. Number nine is the resolution R-20026-33. I hereby block resolution R-20026-33 to re-appoint Eric Greene as an ex-officio member serving on the Board of Directors of the Union County Development Authority with said term starting on June 1, 2026 and expiring on May 31, 2027. Number 10 is a resolution R-2026-34. I hereby adopt resolution R-2026-34 re-appointing Tommy White as an ex-officio member serving on the Board of Directors of the Union County Development Authority with said term starting in its directory on June 1, 2026 and expiring on May 31, 2027. Number 11 is a resolution. R-2026-35. I hereby adopt resolution R-2026-35 calling for an election to continue the new county special purpose local option sales tax, or SLAWS. This is a continuation of the imposition of a county one percent sale and use tax as authorized by part one of article three of chapter eight of Title 48 of the Official Code of Georgia. This will be placed on the ballot for the election that is taking place on November 3rd, 2026. I would like to express to everyone, this is not a union tax. At this time, I'd like to turn it over to Mr. Tony Hughes to come up and give some info on the county progress.

Thank you, Mr. Collins. I don't have a whole lot this morning to talk about. I'm going to start with the rec department first. Right now, we've got adult league going on three days a week. That makes a part of having a great turnout for that. Doing real well. We've got football, great football, cheering and all that's going on as well. The rec department is slated to be busy as always. All the departments are really... busy doing oil from the campsite to find our grease. The rods, he's doing the pits, hikes and things now, you know, the campsite with him. Staying really busy. Farmer's market, the, this opens up, I can't ever say that a few days, a few days okay, pretty good, but then Saturdays, of course, you're busy as usual. Trash and treasure on Friday. Good attendance, rode through last week, good attendance there. Go to the road department. Good and fresh. It's very busy as always. Maintaining culverts, ditch lines and all this. Someone come through, take three turns. It's kind of a non-stop thing for them. We did have two culverts, one down and out, third through. I was in a gumball 10-foot culvert that went into a concrete liner halfway up the net, the bottom was gone in. Did it last week, and the week before they did one over a mile down the same thing. Concrete lined it through, and that prevents having to cut the roads in two with the major utilities that go through. You don't have to dig your closed roads down at all. It worked pretty great. They, here again, the road department, they're so busy. It's unreal. I mean, there are roads, a lot of roads, and a lot of them need repair. They're doing the best they can to get as quick as they can. That's pretty much why I have Dave Lincoln.

At this time, I'll adjourn the meeting, and I'm going to open the floor up for questions and comments, and if we've done a little different this time. You'll state your name when you come up and ask a question. My secretaries, they're going to be taking your question down. There'll be no answers given today. The answers will be in my hall in the newspaper with your name attached to it. So that's what we're going to do initially.

So at this time, you're welcome to come up and ask any questions or comments you want. Are we asking questions here or here?

I've got a very short question today, Harold. I would like to know when we can expect to see the annual financial report for 2025. In past years, it's been in June. We're now in July. Apparently, we won't be able to get

My name is Owen McDonald, and I have a couple of questions. The first question is for Mr. Hughes. If he could provide an update on the work that is going on at Dog Park number two behind Nunn's, and also if there is an anticipated date that it might be ready.

I'll answer that. Wonderful. Yeah, I'll give you an update on our progress on this. What we're doing is our maintenance department and road department is actually doing the work down there. And what we do is we've been working, I don't know how long it's been since we've been, I did see down there one day, I don't know how long it's been since we've been down. But we've opened up the ditch line down the right-hand side, sloped the bank, cleared out an area to make more parking, got the bank IVC, we've got the ditch line put in. get ready, we've got bathrooms for them, get ready for the bathroom and concrete, get plumbing in for those. Maybe like a walkway kind of going down into the creek that you have to access the creek for the dog and the lake. What our plans are, when we get the new chain link pings into airplane ready, we'll go over to the existing dog park and bring the items out and move them over one by one, get them set up before this one, the existing one is down so that can be off the wall. Thank you very much. I have one more question about

I apologize, I was unable to attend last month's meeting, but the intergovernmental agreement that was referenced in the minutes, I believe I saw that the portion that was agreed to with the city of Blairsville had changed from 8.5% to 9%, so their share went up. The city of Blairsville went up 1.5%. So my question is what was the driver of that change from the 8.5% share to Blairsville to 9%? Simple question. That's all I had.

Thank you. Thank you.

My name is Christy Sharkey, and I also have a question concerning SPOS. Now that it has been approved to go on the November ballot, I would like to know when the town hall will be for SPOS, and if we will get a line item in detail on how that money is expected to be spent, since it is for capital expenditures. And legally in Georgia, you do have to take your capital expenditures and you have to depreciate them, which basically helps you know when you should be spending money on capital expenditures. So that's definitely what I'd like to hear about. is about the view. This may seem minor, but to some people it's important. I did have some emails with the person that's currently managing the view. It was very nice for him to get back to me. The bottom line, if you go on our Facebook page, there's been no update on when the view will open. I think people would like to know that, especially when you still have signs at the bottom going in showing the view grill and i know tourists tend to go to the chamber and pick up information and then see wow there's the view grill but when they get there it's not open so i really think it would be good to think if it's not going to be in the next month or two cover those signs and send that update to everybody so they know just fast thank you

My name is Marcus Honobar. Bear with me, this is going to start sounding like a technical issue, but I think it has importance for everybody. When I moved here a few years ago, I received a text to sign up for the Code Red emergency alerts, and I did, and I used to receive them. Sometime over the last year, I started receiving Union County emergency alerts for rain, thunderstorms, and hail, usually about 30 minutes after They arrived at my house, and upon a few of them, I discovered that they were for Union County, South Carolina, and I was no longer getting Union County, Georgia emergency alerts. I attempted to reach them, but having signed up via text, I don't have an email or user ID to access. I tried to find them online by going through our county website, and the link from there to Code Red did not work, it led to an error. I was able to find our own website, tried to find a link through there, it also did not work. I attempted to call them and was directed to what appeared to be a foreign, Indian or Pakistani site where the person that answered the phone had a very poor grasp of English and I chose not to go that route. I finally emailed them and they told me that the link that we have on the county website is no longer the proper active link. and they investigated my account and found that I was signed up for both South Carolina's Union County as well as Georgia's Union County. But I have since had half an inch hail fall on my roof with no alerts. And I'm not proud of the email I sent them. It was on Chris and I get to seek forgiveness for that, but I need to. Being as the situations we saw over the last years with Helene, Being with some of the concerns I have with some of these weather events are not entirely natural. Having a company that uses a foreign-born service, sending our tax dollars abroad to foreign call centers, in charge of the life, notifications, and safety of people in our county. If this is more broad spread than just me, I would like to make sure it's brought to your attention, looked into, and addressed. It is important that the citizens of our county receive the proper emergency and weather alerts in these pretty crazy times, and I would like to see that this gets corrected for all of our stations.

so what's happened here back in november if y'all have been here since then you know we have been searching and we started trying to use code red and that was our system and COVID failed us, and it also had a data breach, and so we shut it off immediately. We tried to work with them for about six months, but they promised and promised and promised that we'd fix this, and they never did. So we have cut them off completely. We are now working with a new system called RAIN. We have not got that system completely up yet because we are still working on the databases to figure that out. Again, COVID will not share your stuff with us, our information, so we're still fighting that out. If you have a little patience, we got the contract signed a couple of meetings ago. We're still working on the databases, and we're in the next month or so. We should be jumping off the campaign to say, if you want these alerts, sign up for RAID, and you should be able to get any kind of new panic alert out there. If you have any questions about that, you can always contact my office, and we'll be glad to answer any questions you have about any of the emergency alert systems. Yeah? Thank you.

My name is Marcia. Right now, I have, um, my recurrence is impaired, and I'm very old, and I can't hear a darn thing. And so, I hope that the Secretary will go ahead and send me a written copy of what's happening on the comments section of the Commissioner's meeting. Thank you.

I'm Dory Sasso, and I would like to know why there are no recyclable things at Meeks Park, especially when they have the, like, Butternut Festival.

All that plastic goes in the trash. Everything goes in the trash. We don't need more trash. So they're not that expensive, but there's little things, and they have plastic in them.

So that's my question.

All right.

Mr. Commissioner, I would like to thank our road department for the work they are doing on restoring the under road covers because the method you're using has saved us a lot of money.

They do an excellent job. I'm not taking credit for either or whatever work they're doing. We look at this stuff and we find out how we can save taxpayer money, better out of tax. I want to thank you all for coming. It won't be in next week's paper, but it will be in the following deadline. That way you can get all your questions and answers in my hall. So look at that. Thank you all.