Board of Commissioners Agendas and Minutes - Regular Meeting

like to call the meeting to order. Please silence your cell phones and other electronic devices. The meeting of Mary County Board of Commissioners, April 28th, 2026 at 6:00 p.m. Please stand with the invitation given by Commissioner Adam followed by the pledge.

Lord, thank you for the opportunity to come together and do the works in the business of Marwa County. Thank you for the rain that we're receiving and we ask that you bless this board and the county employees that we will work together in unison and civility to further the improve the lives of the citizens of Marwood County. We ask you to guide us in every decision that we make and we glorify and honor you. In Jesus name we pray. Amen. I aliance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic which sustains one nation under God. Indivisible with liberty and justice for all.

Like to adopt the agenda. Are there any changes to the agenda? No, sir. Mr. Chairman, I'll make a motion adopt it. Second. All in favor? Presentations? Will Deserus Malden and Jenkins fiscal year 2025 annual comprehensive financial report.

Good evening. Thank you commissioners for having me this evening. Uh so my name is Will Ders. I'm a director with Malden and Jenkins and uh here to share a uh presentation on the county's um September 30, 2025 fiscal year end. My presentation will be based off of the auditor discussion and analysis which I believe you all have copies. Um, all right. So then I'll I'll jump into things. Uh, on page two, excuse me. Yeah, page two. This is um a a graphic depiction some information on Alman and Jenkins our governmental practice. Um just just a just a graphic for your information along with the engagement team leaders which uh for this year including myself and Meredith Philips on page three there's some additional information other services and some other things involving Jing page four things I'll touch on here regarding the audit report so um financial statements are ultimately the responsibility of management Our responsibility as the external auditor is to express an opinion as to whether or not the statements fairly present uh and provide reasonable assurance rather than absolute assurance. Um and I'm pleased to share uh in our opinion we did issue an unmodified report which is a clean opinion. Um again just means that the statements present fairly the operations and state of things as of September 30, 2025. on page five, a few um items under the overview of financial statements. So at the governmentwide level, which is the fully consolidated um full of cruel presentation of the county's funds, uh just a few highlights I'll touch on. I don't get into the

weeds or anything, but total assets of the county are approximately 46 million offset by liabilities of approximately 5.8 million. And that results in equity uh net position or you can think of as equity at the end of the year approximately 40 million. A substantial amount of that is comprised of net the county's net investment capital assets. So all the roads, land, building infrastructure, other uh other capital assets that are covered and and any amounts that are financing those assets, bonds, notes, outstanding payables that totals about$ 18 million. Then there is restrictive resources imposed by external creditors, legal means um grant agencies that amounts approximately 5 million. And then the end result is what's left is considered unrestricted generally available for use net position of approximately 17 million. on at the bottom of page five, the statement of activities. That's just the income statement at the full acrual governmentwide level. And that shows that there was a positive or or net income of about 2 2.9 million uh for the year ended. On page six, uh there's a graphic depiction on the general fund. That's the primary operating fund of the county. Um no surprise, taxes comprise about 70% or so of total revenues the year. uh followed by charges for service and intergovernmental revenues. Um and then there's a bit of a drop off and is kind of follow rounded out by licenses and permits contributions, interest, fines and forfeitures and other miscellaneous revenues. Total revenues of the general fund were about 23 million and that's an increase of about 2 million from the prior year. Page seven, a graphic depiction of the expenditures in the general fund and public safety, general government and

public works round out the top three categories of of expenditures. Um so along with the revenue increase expenditures also increased within the general fund this year uh to about 20 from about 17 million up to about 20 million. fund balance which is again is the equity um of of the general fund not all the funds at the governmentwide level but just that fund um is about 16 million that's an increase of about 1.7 million from from prior year and again certain amounts of that are restricted non-spendable but about 86% is considered unassigned and available for use at the end of the year on page eight uh You can read up on the footnotes that accompany the statements. They provide a little bit more of a narrative behind those behind the schedules. On page 10, this discloses there is one compliance report that accompanies the statements this year. That's the yellowbook report which is required for all governments and issued under government auditing standards. Some other required communications on page 10 and page 11 uh for me to communicate to you all charter of governance. Um, we encountered no significant difficulties with management over the course of the audit. We had no uh disagreements at the end of our audit. We request certain written representations from management. We received those with no issue. Um, there was one emphasis of matter within our opinion this year and that relates to a new uh a new accounting standard issued under Gazsby that was applicable. There were no other uh or excuse me, there were some audit adjustments proposed that posted to the countyy's general election. We're on page 12. And uh and we did have one there was one past adjustment related to an uncorrected misstatement that would have altered the beginning net position. It would have changed

prior year statements, but it was deemed not material enough to do so. And so it was corrected during the during the current year. And then lastly, we're independence we're independent of the county in all in all related respects which is of an effect. On page 13, we do have uh three findings that were reported um reported this year. One of them is a repeat from from the past and uh concerning segregation of duties across um within water and sewage authority IDA industrial development development authority and then several of the elected officials departments. So not directly under finance but across the uh within kind of the umbrella of of the county as a whole. um the details there when we review journal entries within the IDA within the water and sewer sewer authority uh we know there's there's not as a as a due to a function of small staffing uh we don't see an independent review and approval for all those journal entries um within magistrate and probate board we don't see an independent review of all the bank reconciliations so again I think um these are are typically just have been a a function of small staffing size and just not um not enough members, not enough staff on hand to uh implement effective controls. Uh a second finding this year related to capital and and right to use but capital asset completeness. Um, so it was determined there was there was some land that had not been reported uh dating back many years ago, but some of it was sold this year. And so, um, so we had to, uh, determine what historical acquisition value would have been for that land and reported on the county's capital asset ledger. Uh and then during

our review for completeness for for newly added capital assets um we picked up uh our testing discovered a couple additional adjustments were were required this year. And then lastly the other finding related to um tipping fees or or operating revenues reported within uh the water and sewage fund on page 15. Um and so that just was a um a year-end entry had been omitted um that that was needed in order to record um the fourth quarter for the water operations. There are also some recommendations for management referred to as management points. Uh these don't rise to severity of a binding of of a material weakness or significant deficiency. Um, one relates to relates to um a recommendation for probate court to make timely deposits and not hold cash on hand for any longer than is necessary. One relates to or a second relates to uh the sheriff drug forfeite fund that has to be reported under the county. Um but there's no budget adopted for that particular fund. Uh, one relates to review of expenditures um for the industrial development authority and then on patient lastly one related just to a reclassification entry um required within the airport authority this year for its capital asset. Um but on that note that that pretty much concludes my presentation. Page 16 discloses just some other matters, some some final thoughts, new and upcoming Gazsby pronouncements. Uh they keep all us very busy and always new standards either coming into effect this year or down the pipeline in a few years. Uh and then in the back of the ADA just some

additional services uh that we've that we offer governmental advisory services for enhancing operations day-to-day uh that type of thing as well as um IT cyber security services that that we also offer. So um but with that said I'm happy to discuss any questions comments anyone might have. New recommendations do they require correct vaccine submission and by a certain date or anything or No, that would just be for recommendations, right? The recommendations are just recommendations for improvement ultimately. Any other questions? Good sir.

Thank you, Wade. Thanks. Finance reports given by Miss Tammy Lackey. Yes, sir.

Commissioners, on the first page are the bank balances as of this morning. Uh we have also received the tipping fees for W from waste management for the first quarter of 2026. Those have been updated on sheet. We should receive the loss loss and tease loss distributions at the end of this week. And I've also given you a copy of the credit card statement. We have received the new credit cards from Colony and we will be transitioning to the new cards. On the second page, the SLOs balance is 97,96272 and the TLOS balance is 825,98939. And that's all.

Thank you. Any questions? department heads. Don't think we have anyone here to speak, Mr. Chairman, but I would like to introduce Jeff Fisher as the new deputy county administrator. He joined us last Monday and he is transitioning into his old. Welcome aboard. Welcome aboard. Glad to have you. Citizen comments. I have one citizen comment, but I don't think that she is here. Miss Tammy How? I do not see her in attendance.

Minutes uh approval of the minutes of April 13, 2026 work session at 4:30 p.m. Anybody had a chance to read them? Look over them. Approve the minutes. Second. All in a favor. Minutes. April 13, 2026 regular meeting 6 p.m. If there's no changes, I'll make a motion to adopt the accept the minutes. Second.

All in favor? Public hearing appointment to the Lake Mayweather Advisory Board, City of Woodbury appointment. This is one-year term. It was filed on January 28, 2027. It was tabled at the April 13th meeting. And I think we have a We do. The city of Woodbury did send us a letter confirming that they have appointed Mayor Dustin Hawkins to the Lake Marweather board for their appointment. I just need the board to confirm that.

That need to be put in a motion. I'd like to make a motion to approve Mayor Dustin Hawkins to the Lake Mayweather advisor board. Second. All in favor? Then discuss discussion of property taxes tabled at the April 13th, 2026 regular meeting.

Commissioners, this item was tabled at the April 13th meeting to allow Commissioner Thurill to ask any additional questions. This matter has since been researched and discussed with the chief tax appraiser and the tax commissioner. Currently, tax bills are issued in October and taxpayers may begin making payments as soon as they receive their bill. A statement can be included on the billing notice to clearly communicate this information. Tax bills are issued in October and taxpayers already had the option to make payments prior to December 20th deadline. This timeline is determined by the county's fiscal year, which ends September 30th and the requirement that the tax digest be submitted by September 1. Taxes cannot be calculated until the military is set and digest has been approved by the Georgia Department of Revenue. Chief appraiser William Harris III and tax commissioner Dian Cruz both should be on Zoom if you have any questions for them.

And I don't have any additional questions. It was brought to me at a public meeting that people would prefer to have it broken up into two uh payments per year that some other areas have done it. We have multiple people throughout the county that own multiple properties and when you pay that at one time, especially right before Christmas, it does put a burden on them. So, that's why I brought it forth. Um, there's a lot of things to look into. It would cost around 30,000 per year now to mail this out. So, it would be double that amount. Um, then you have the uh assessments going out. That would have to be done um corrected. I don't think we can probably do it this year, but between now and next year, I would like to look into the possibilities of what we can do to get the taxes to not be paid in full or due in full around Christmas time just to help the citizens out.

Yes, sir. We can look at that. Right. Approval of digital law library contracts probate court. Commissioners, I request that this be either table or completely removed from the agenda. Um, Judge Palmer is meeting with Judge Resnik regarding law library until we get another request. I just ask that this be tabled or removed from the agenda. I make a motion to remove from the agenda until we get um approval or notice from Superior Court.

Second. All in favor business request for funding from the city of Manchester for their Fourth of July Chief Ben Williams. Commissioners, Manchester Fire Chief Ben Williams is present to request funding for the Manchester Fourth of July celebration.

Good afternoon. Thank you for allowing me to speak this afternoon on behalf of our mayor, uh, city council, and city manager Mark. Uh, this year's 4th of July fireworks celebration will be on man in Manchester at the meal as usual on Thursday, July 2nd. Uh, from 5:00 p.m. to 10:00 p.m. It is the 250th anniversary of our great country. So, we're expecting a larger than normal turnout. Uh last year we estimate between four to 5,000 in attendance. Uh this year we expect some more. The city has already invested right at 20,000 in fireworks. The price of fireworks went up this year. Uh doing some research through a city clerk uh in the past. Remember the county has donated uh 10,000 on several years. Last year it decreased to a thousand to help us put on this event. Uh right now we have 20 plus vendors uh that is going to be there and also we're asking for different businesses to donate to help us offset the cost of this and we're just asking Maryland to help us offset some of the cost. Open questions

and you said they've already allotted 20,000 for we've already had to pay for fireworks. Half of the fireworks signed the contract. Half of it was due by a certain date and we'll pay the other half at the conclusion of the What about fireworks cost last year? 20 or 25,000. 20,000 somewhere in that range. No more than 25. I think last year we paid about 17 for fireworks using the same company also. But they doubled the price to around 40 this year on y'all. No, they were 20. Okay. I thought you said you came up 20,000. That was half. No, we have to pay half of the 20. You

paid 10 time's already been paid. We owe 10 more. They went up 2500. Went up 2500. I'm all for donating. I do think we probably need to have a discussion as to what we can do um and then get back. When is the deadline for you all to have everything in them? Uh we're probably hoping by the mid June that that's what we're telling business that are done. Give us a little bit of time to discuss it amongst them and we'll see what we can do. And you say y'all have raised sponsors already. We're I put out hand delivered letters to different businesses uh individuals in the community as big supporters of the city and businesses supporters for donations also.

Yeah. Because I think that's what we've done for the last two years. hasn't cost a taxpayer of a dime. We've got sponsored and raised every bit of it where the year before and last year and our intentions this year not spend the tax dollars money on our fireworks either to raise the money with sponsors. So, do we need to table this? Yeah, I just make a motion to table until the next meeting. May 26. May 26 meeting. That's a motion. It is. I'll second one. All in favor? Thank you all. Thank you.

Consideration and approval of moving the fire administration offices to 756 Woodsbury Highway, building A.

Commissioner staff has begun assessing vacant county buildings and developing scopes of works for bidding. One building identified for immediate use is building A at 756 Woodbury Highway, which could accommodate fire department EMS administrative offices. Relocating these offices would improve public access for fire EMS reports and con consolidate administrative staff into one location. Builder A requires minimal modifications, including installing an exterior door in place of an existing window and painting the interior. The flooring is in good condition. Most of the work can be completed in-house by maintenance staff, firefighters, and inmate labor. The primary identified cost at this time is the exterior door and paint material and supplies which can be funded through the general fund. Fire Chief Stevens is requesting approval to be preparations including painting and the door installation to allow administrative staff to occupy building A. Also like to note that we're evaluating building C and developing a scope of work to build for bidding. Additionally, a scope of work is being prepared to assess the repair costs for the former tax building located in the square. And Chief Stevens is here if you have any questions about his request to move into building A.

How much would it cost and how much work's got to be done to get the building ready? For building A is we just have the price out of the door for the window is very good condition inside. It just needs to be painted.

Currently, use the main entrance for the U tax. I mean not the tax the elections building where they come in they just make a left. I think the request was by commissioner three grill to put extra exterior doors go in the building a right to the left of their main entrance when we go in. Uh that's pretty much it. I mean we would move you know maybe some small IT stuff with uh extending what is over at at the building now for coverage in our offices to access internet. But that's pretty pretty much it. So, would there be any emergent vehicles at this facility?

Uh, occasionally, you know, they'll have classes or something up there and they'll come around and I actually talked with Patty and them yesterday uh just to make sure, you know, I was like, "Hey, do you have But we had a class, we got a class going on right now, um, and it's got some outside agencies and stuff involved." And I said, "Hey, where do you want us to park to where we're out of the way?" And, and she said, "Just park around back. It's fine with us." So, we've been able to work work with that. So, the the occasional flash or something in that back big room of the building a

Well, I was thinking is if there's a call then you have to take of the call coming around from behind that building is not that great of an area with those big vehicles if they're at a higher speed. We've we've dealt with that, you know, in in the prior class that we because we didn't have heat over at the school where we were doing the class that we do the fire recruit class over there and that type stuff. So, um you know, it's just a matter of being careful to go around the building and they usually don't activate lights and stuff like that till they get down to the highway anyway. So, um but we were able to navigate that on and you know, and just go around. Thankfully, somebody had the forethought to pave on the side of it, you know, years ago and all that. We accessed it a lot when the pathways was there and that impatient center was back there. We went back there a lot with EMS transfers and things like that. So, I don't really foresee that being a issue. So,

as much as this fire station right down here cost I haven't been in it uh my stop there but haven't been there but they didn't build that to where there's room there to do what you're wanting to do where they're not they was supposed to be done like that was it? It's supposed to be credit building, but there's not there's not anywhere near the room in that station. Or could we not use since all the stations aren't being manned until we get enough

labor force up, but they're all fully manned like we promises says it's going to be, could we not use one of those buildings? That way it's being used and that way there's somebody always there. And uh I'm currently I mean we're currently in a build. We just felt like getting everybody under one roof into the one building at 756 Woodbury Road would be, you know, be optimal for us. But I mean, I've got I've got a training chief over because he's got classroom space and that's something that I don't have even in the news stations. There's just a small living quarters. Um I could turn a bedroom into an office um and have two people there, but I've got that already over on Hill Haven Road, you know. So, I mean, we're being the center of the county versus being outside, you know, down in Duran or something like that. We're in the center and that's what we do. We respond from there, you know, during the daytime. We respond from there and go to trucks fires or cardiac arrest or whatever. And I just think it's optimal to be located in the simul county with those individuals. But, you know, I guess there's a lot of options on the table.

But, Hillaven is not a station, is it? Uh it has a compliance number and I have a truck out there, but that's mainly the maintenance shop. Yeah, I got a response uh it's an old old response truck and a tanker there uh for either Chief Eric or myself to drive if we have a structure fire or something. So

So we have a work session set up from May the 11th for exactly this type conversation. Can we table this to there? And then give you guys a time to, you know, get us some information that we'll need, what staff is moving to there, what kind of infrastructure you going to need, a timeline to complete that, what kind of costs we're going to have, and maybe we can expedite some things. Maybe we we can't, but I mean, that's already set up to exactly what this conversation is for. Yeah, that's fine with me. We can get some more information built up for that meeting and make it go quicker. Yeah. set up for level. No, they we can add this. Yeah, we just add I mean it's it's a work session.

So we got Yeah, because it's a work session with the the additional funding exclude. Got different from the L. So different next project list we were going to attack and if this needs to be one then we we need more information what we got right now. between that time I'd walk through with John come up with a plan as to what you see for the inside that

other than housekeeping. I mean I you know we're we're like I said we're doing that class now just intermittently I'll call say hey can we use that class then yes uh and other than mopping the floors and stuff it's it's ready to go other than some plugging in for the internet. Yeah, but we we're elevating the status level of Mara County image and and everything in it. So, want to walk it and see if we're going to move and set up and spend taxpayer money on it, what do we got to do to make it state-of-the-art and the finest fire building that we can instead of just making do with something. I think that's your point, is it? Well, no, just a layout of what you had in mind, where everybody could be, what it would look like fully because when we did it before, and the reason I suggested the exterior door, it was a different entity of the government that we were looking at going there. So,

it would have been more convenient to take out that and have your own entry to the lobby because I do think that the tax I mean the uh election board has a buzz in buzz out door um coming in there. So, it would be more convenient to have your own access and people be able to come in there, but we do have to figure out what we're going to do with all our buildings and not just let them sit there. So, we may have to spend a little money and fix them, but we don't need to let buildings sit there for a long period of time. You have water issues, electrical issues, all kind of issues. So, if you can do that, bring it back for the work session for us to talk about, try to figure out how much it may cost, if anything, to complete it, and we'll have that information.

And what is the plan with the facilities you're using today? So, it not now, but at that time. So, we if we want to move staff, is that going to empty up a facility? What's our plan for that? Do we own it? Do we lease it? What needs to be done to it? Do we, you know, all in that discussion? Would we sell it? You know, we just there's a lot of questions that pop up with that and what we need to be doing. And I'm not sure how many square feet y'all need or how many square feet that building is. I remember we all walked a couple years ago went through it about 4,500 I thought.

And we've had a lot of discussion of what we're going to do with that building, what we're going to put there. So, I think that'll be good in the work session, too, is to make sure we're not fixing to move you all there and then realize, wait a minute, we really need to do this over here there instead. And now we're trying to move you back out because because we've talked about it for two years, what we're going to do with that building and what we're going to put in there. And uh and I think one of the bigger issues is we got to focus on the uh a place for the corner and uh upgrade all that too uh and where that's going to be located at how that's going to be done. So uh I think the work session might help us all. How long have you been at the current building out there?

Uh when I first come here, we were in a 911 center uh and it had limited access to us the same way. It's just fortified. Everybody can't just walk into your communication center. So, it's always a buzz in buzz out. Where I'm at now, I've probably been there maybe two years, you know, and all we done was moved into those offices and put to the internet, you know, just made up an office. Uh they were administrative offices probably 25 years ago maybe. Um and and and they were just added to back then. You know, they when I first come here and went to fire school, that's where my school was. But since then, they've added two offices in there between that time and the time now. And it's cut down. So, it can't be utilized as a flight because there's just not enough room in there. So, uh you know, that that it's kind of gotten cut up over at Hill. So, I've probably been up there about two years now. Now, the location you're talking about at Hill Haven or at the that the school board has that building. Which one are you?

I'm at both. Uh we got logistics and training at the school board because we don't have room for them in Hill Haven, but my office and operations office is at Hill, you know, and administrative assistant. She's over there at at Hill Haven. Um because that's where we tell people to come get, you know, reports or any corresponding information from an incident. Uh that's kind of our storefront, I guess. And that's what we're looking at with the 756 is we'll have enough office space to put to move the training out of uh uh the school, move the training over to uh 756, move administrative office such as uh Chief Grace, myself and administrative assistant, move all that up there. Uh I don't know in that building a if there's going to be enough square footage for the supplies and logistics uh because we have fire supplies and EMS supplies and we occupy two rooms at school.

How about the extension to the back of that side? There's a cement block. I think uh has some stuff in there. Yeah. Uh right now that would probably be big enough for what you need for both of those. I would it would it would help. Yes. Um you know to add that square footage to it, but Well, is there enough room at log where logistics is now to to put the offices in? No. You talking about over at the school? Yeah. No.

And right now we're dealing with it. We had no heat in winter. We got no AC right now. So, you know, it's and we we're at the mercy of the school board when we're waiting on them to repair that. So, we're just trying to trudging through it right now. Whereas, that's why we've had to move. I'm glad it ain't July, you know? I'm glad we're in April instead of July. So, well, look, I'll say this and then y'all can do whatever. But anytime you can have all of your staff in an administration building, you have a more fine-tuned system, there's accountability, there's eyes on, and people do what they're supposed to do more. Not saying that nobody does it, but it it's a much better ran machine.

We use dry erase board a lot, you know, and we just say, "Hey, this is what we got." you know, write this down, go over here, write this down, look at what we got, see where this needs to go and this, you know, so it is it it is a benefit to have everybody in one location. So, is your plan for Hill Haven for that to be just to shop and that way road for when they're working on the stuff?

You know, I had spoke with uh the corner u with that in, you know, possibly utilizing that at some point, but I don't know if that that's that's for him to determine if there's even enough room there. I don't know. Uh cuz it does have I think we spoke at the last commissioner's meeting. It does already Hill Hagen has a backup power generator, you know, for that station. Um it was installed years and years ago. So that may be beneficial to him. It may not. I don't I don't know. But uh there's a lot of options. There's a lot of options. I'll make a motion we table this until the May 11th work session at 4 p.m. I'll second. All

in favor? Discussion and approval of chassis purchase and ambulance box remount. Commissioner Fire Chief Stevens is requesting consideration for approval to purchase a new chassis for remounting an ambulance box. The estimated timeline for completion is approximately 15 to 18 months. Funding can be provided through SPLOS by allocating a portion of monthly proceeds over the next 15 18 months. The quote for John Magle for the chassis came in at 66,300. I just got that from Chief Stevens, I think yesterday or this morning. And then the remount from Custom Truck and Body Works is 127,800 127,837 for a grand total of $194,137. And this will be the fourth one that we remount, I believe.

Yes. Yes. Um, one of the first ones that's in cycle. I'm approaching 100,000 on it now. One of the red ones that we remounted. So, this will replace that truck and then we'll move that truck to U gave. It'll go to that gay station at station six that that higher mileage vehicle.

How many active ambulances will this give you now? uh the four front lines. It'll give me the fourth front line. Right now, station six is in like a spare or reserve we call it. That'll give me goal is to have seven. That'll be seven total with three of those. Four of those having high mileage on them. So, and the plan is those with the high mileage is gradually replace them and just keep cycling them, you know, cycling them around to the highest mileage of our spares or our backups. And the reason being with that the three spares is we have to bring up uh ambulances for special events and things like that. And with that it's the football games and with that we got three hospitals in the county. So those three backup trucks are used to

you know to to to go to those games and stuff on those Friday nights. Sometimes they get all three of them on the same night. So your your goal is to have seven to service the county properly. That would be number seven. We've got three with high mileage. Yep. So, we'll probably come and request to replace one of those at some point and rotate one of those lower mileage vehicles into the So, we need to plan over the next two years to get three more new ones and have those three. I think we can continue to do one like we're doing. You know, y'all done I think total. We did two the first time, then we did one last year and then we're doing one now. I think we can manage if we continue to uh down that same path. Do one a year. Yeah. But you can only remount those boxes so many times. Yeah. At some point we got to look at a complete truck, you know, a complete

You remount them what, like three times or something. Yeah. I think there's they want to remount it, too. So that gives it three service chassis. So it goes on the new chassis, then you remount them twice. Yeah. You get to the third if you do it a third remount, you got seal issues and leakage issues and Well, and you think too if you got a box at that point, that box is probably going to be 20 to 30 years old, you know? So, I mean, if you can get a 10 year service life out of it, remount it three times. Yeah, we know what vehicles look like after 30 years. What's the price of a brand new if we ordered one? Roughly, I don't have I don't have the exact on that. I would say probably three 350 to four

four that is with the chassis, the box, a customuilt box, everything, you know. So, well, we've talked about it in the past. I think we need to figure out a way to put on a rotation annual basis, maybe purchase a brand new ambulance every year and then as we come up and need a chassis, we can remount one. It's a lot easier to do that and have a brand new one there for service that's under warranty than it is to keep doing these that aren't Yeah. Maybe get in a cycle of a new one every year and maybe a remount every other year or something, you know? So, you get a a cycle where you get two trucks in that one year. So, y and just try to keep seven in rotation.

In the class that I was in this weekend, there was a lady that does she actually does transportation like with the school board, but she was talking about there's a site that you can go to with the state procurement where they can piggyback off some of the counties that are buying them. Have we looked into seeing like she is a very small county, but she can order the same time like Clayton County does and it cuts their price. I mean, it's a fraction of what they would have paid because they're she's just needing one of something and they're ordering 10 of it. Have we Do you want me to check in?

I haven't done that, but I have communicated with Harris County when they purchased that last brand new one we got. We got in a cycle with them and went through I think they built four of those trucks instead of three of them, you know, cuz we got a new one there. But, uh, as far as I wasn't familiar with the website, but yeah, I can try to find out. But she said, I mean, they they do that all the time for school buses. And I figured if school buses are doing it, then I'm sure firet trucks and ambulances are doing the same thing. But in the with the state, all the counties, we just need to be ready to go when we know either they're getting four and we're getting two, you know? Yep. We got to be ready to make that decision and say, "Hey, look, we can get on this, but we got to have these,

you know." So her order in, it still takes like a year, year and a half to get it. You just join in. So when they say all of them are ready, you're ready to pick it up just like you would have been. Yeah. I mean, if they I don't mind. So how many how many miles do you put on ambulance in a year? Uh let's see. I'd say about 90,000 roughly, you know, where's the cut off?

Where you where you saying I can't use it anymore? I mean about 250 to 300 we want to start trying to you know so you looking at twoear service life out of a chassis pretty much I mean we got some we got some that's got 400 but they've had you know substantial work done to them and things like that you know and I once you get over that 400 range and you know I rule roads and things like that I start worrying about chassis and these springs and just the normal wear and tear on a vehic

um that's why the van chassis won't fit us well is because of some of our roads, you know, I mean, a van, a front-wheel drive van would not last us a year probably just because of the the lighter duty suspension and all that type stuff related to it. We need a heavy duty truck u chassis to make it last. Those vans would work for functions because usually not on the roughest area and you could house those there. be a lot cheaper to keep those in place for those types of things. And they're ro they do fine on the road. So if you had to transport somebody into a deal coach

and if I you know if I if I had those in the cycle I guess it would be easier. But if we're cycling out high mileage, we can baby these three that are over here till we get down and cycle. You know what I'm saying? And just keep it in that cycle. So uh having two completely different styles I think in the fleet would really be an advantage. Yeah. But then if you get, you know, if you got one of them vans for transport and nothing's available and they could make a call, then that van's got to be used and it may go on road that Yeah. You just don't really know cuz if we got a truck down for service, that AC goes out.

I really got to pull one of those three to put in that place temporarily till that we get that AC. And I'm saying AC that's going to be a multiple day repair more than likely. It's not, you know, not like an oil change or something like that. We run those through and get the oil change like we're supposed to on those and it takes 20 30 minutes to do the oil change. But a se severe repair whether it's AC in the box or AC in the cab or you know whatever the situation may be then that's when we got a axle axle or something leaking or something like that. That's when it's down for multiple days and we have to pull that spare truck and put it in put it in that place. So John, you you're suggesting funding purchasing the chassis from current SPLOS and then the remount through the general fund to be replaced by SPLOS funds.

It'll be SPLOS because the chassis we're looking at probably a four to six month lead time and then your remount's going to be about a 12 to 15 month lead time. So you all the funds will be there. So we can allocate 10,000 out of a splice and just put in the LGIP to gain the interest and ear market for this project if approved by the board. It does says a RFP issue for the remount but I don't think we did RFP for the last remount because we only had uh I sent out the last remount and I only got one response. I think was from custom and then uh the chassis was the cheapest from this dealership and the dealership is on state procurement

and we can go ahead and earmark some splash funds to be earning interest correct while we're waiting on this to come through that's okay I think commissioner got a question yeah if we did order a new one do they make you pay for it all up front or deposit they don't make you do you pay for it when you get it but then we need it takes a year and a half to get one. Mhm. So, we should be ordering one right now because we're talking about doing it in the future. So, we're going to wait the next year, go, okay, we're going to do it, then wait another year and a half. If we don't take it, somebody be glad to take it. I don't know whether this board wants to do, but it sound like to me we need to have one in.

We have to issue the PO, you know, the purchase order saying that we want that truck. You know, we bring it before y'all. Y'all vote on it and then we issue the PO for it. I mean, everywhere I've called and talked before the other counties, you're right, fire trucks, ambulance, they're all a year and a half, some of them two years out. So, if we're going to anticipate getting one, I don't know if that's to be on the agenda or what the board wants to do, but I'm fine with I'll bring you a chassis back the next meeting if you want to. I'll say this, it's not the first time we discussed it. It's been discussed every single year and now it's just coming up. I mean, it's it's 15 to 18 months to get this remount. Yeah, I know. That's what I'm saying. We don't say he we ought to start getting focused on getting a new one coming in. So, well, I worked on that too. I did I did some compos together for

I mean I think we need to get a new one like in my opinion every say at least every two or three years get a add a new one in there with along with the remounts because you going to run out of remounts for if you don't buy a new one. It's another item to add the May 11th work session. Now on a new one, I speak out of term. I apologize, but on a new one, we do need to put it out for bid for Yes. Yeah. Yeah. So, at least start the process. Put it out the bid. Tell them to take two years to get it ready. Then we'll be ready. So, by May the 11th, you can have some information for us. Oh, definitely. Yeah. So on this item, I make a motion we to approve what staff recommends to proceed with ordering chassis issuing RFP for remounts from the final splots. Second. Go ahead.

Second. All in favor. Thank you.

Discussion of physical year 2025 financial audit reports fund balance. Commissioner, this item is for discussion of the annual comprehensive financial report also known as the ACT for spec specifically regarding the fund balance and identify surplus amount of the $1,829,483. This figure is based on the audit report and that's your annual financial report booklet. It's the thicker one that you have. It's also on our website so the public can follow along with what I'm reading. This is based off of government funds that end on September 30th, 2025 is found on page 12 of the PDF label page six of the audit report and continues through the statement of revenues, expenditures, and changes in fund balance, governmental funds on page 13 of the PDF, page seven of the audit report and the way it was calculated on page seven. Take a look. You see here we have an increased fund balance of $1,658,266 bringing the total fund balance which is back on page six because you're working backwards. So page six where you got unassigned deficit the 13 million 866144 is unassigned. The 16,74703 is the total fund balance and that includes restricted earmarked um not available for use. County ordinances require maintaining a fund balance equal to 6 months operating revenue. The current budget is 24,73,332. The required fund balance is 12,36,661. This leaves the 1,829483 and unassigned uncommitted funds available for use at the discretion of the board of commissioners.

Weighs how much? One point 1829 1829483. Yes. So you you got to look at seven to see what the fund balance increase was. Then page six is your unassigned is the money that you can use minus your six months um operating. So I just want to make that point. That's how I came up with the paving number from last meeting and for the public to view if they want to see the report online. They know where the surplus money is coming from and these funds are part of the May 11 work session conversation. Correct. So thank you for putting this out so it be on public record and anybody can understand.

Any more questions? No sir. report ACCG legislative coordinator.

So, now that the legislation is out of session, there's not much going on. I was just going to name a couple of things that they that I know did pass and then I brought a list with me of a the big stack of bills that did not pass in case anybody has a question on any. Some that we have talked about did not pass. But one that did was House Bill 1434, the airport affected area regulations. Felt like this was important in our county right now. This legislation requires local governments to adopt and enforce regulations by July 1 of 2027, limiting building heights and natural roads within designated airport affected areas consistent with the federal FAA standards. The airport sponsors must identify the affected areas and notify the relevant local governments by January 1st and then local governments that fail to comply will be suspended from the LMIG funding for up to three years. So we need to be communicating with the airport authority on the areas and make sure we're in with the FAA guidelines. The House Bill 983 clarifies exemptions for local burn notices for prescribed burning. This clarifies that prescribed burning from forest management purposes is exempt from local burn notices and ordinances. Such instances of forest management include burning for site preparation of land for timber cultivation, hazard fuel reduction, wildlife habitat improvement, longleaf pine ecosystem maintenance, etc. Um, House Bill 1277 increases the project cost threshold for public roads or airports. This will be effective July 1st of this year. The legislation makes several changes to the state's current environmental review requirements, including increasing the project cost threshold for environmental

evaluations for public road and airport projects from 100 million to 200 million and connecting the threshold value to the cost of inflation. It decreases the value threshold for property being disposed by the Department of Natural Resources. Um, it increases the value from 75,000 to 150,000 and authorizes the department to negotiate the sale of the property with an adjacent property owner for no less than 15% under the market value at the time of disposition. So that will delay implementation of new regulatory and taxation scheme for the commercial electric vehicle through department of agriculture. There are soil erosion and sedimentation permit procedures set. Senate bill 447. This will be effective July 1st of this year. It amends the current authority of local issuing authorities for various permits. This requires local authorities to publish clear requirements for a completed application. Once completed and submitted, local authorities have 45 days to issue or deny the permit. If denied, the authorities must give a summary explanation with the reason. Um, and the 45day time frame will be told for state and federal inspection requirements. The um Oh, yeah, that's good. Oh, the Keep Georgia Forested Act. Sorry. This bill creates a tax credit against state income tax for forestry manufacturing facilities defined as businesses that use Georgia source virgin timber to manufacture forest products. renewable fuse, biiobased chemicals, bioenergy, and other value added products. It authorizes a $500 tax credit per eligible new full-time employee job created the first year when full-time employment is created on or after January 1st of this year. The bill provides additional locationbased terms

and criteria for eligibility. It also creates a tax credit in case against state income tax for certain forestry managing facilities based on the acquisition of property. Well done. Thank you. The port county administrative commissioner is president. I'd like to say congratulations to vice chairman commissioner snelson for receiving her certified county commissioner certification. Thank you so much.

We had deputy county administrator Jeff Fischer started on Monday, April 20th. I've been working with Mr. official on policy and procedures in Mara County. We have interviews scheduled tomorrow afternoon for administrative assistant. Working on getting building assessments completed. Should have the scope done and completed by the next meeting for the work session. Working on getting the vehicles on gov deals. We're having to take pictures. Get information on the vehicle operable and unoperable condition, mileage, etc. Gathering necessary information, request replacement titles. Met with Alan Pum and had a brief demo on new interest bearing accounts proposal. interviewed and hired a recreation director, Jamani Bronner. He will start Friday, May 1st. We had a department head meeting and discussed open enrollment for insurance and having lunch provided during open enrollment consisting of hot dogs, chips, and drinks for all employees on open enrollment dates. An email will be sent to everyone when states are confirming. We received one truck from the sheriff's office and two more expected arriving in the next two weeks. I'll send that one off to be painted. And then the courthouse exterior renovations by building is slightly over 50% completed. The scaffolding around the Koopa will be starting to come down next week as repairs are nearly completed on the Koopa. And then you'll notice the south and east elevations have scaffolding around it. So the whole courthouse now has scaffing around the entire building as the work is being completed on the north and west side. They're now moving closer to the south and the east. That's all I have. Mr. Chairman,

thank you. Oakland County Commissioners. Commissioner Threg, I don't have anything to add. Commissioner Worley, I just like congratulate Vice Chairman Snelson also on receiving the certification. It takes a lot of dedication to get that completed and done. It's nice to see all of us fully certified. So, it's nice achievement. Thank everyone for the job they're doing and hope everyone's looking forward to cotton picking fair, gay fair, whatever we call it in the county this year. Thanks for coming weekend. So, thank you. Thank you, Vice Chairman Snapson.

I just like to thank everyone for participating in the keep bare weather beautiful and to keep in mind that the true meaning behind all this is keeping the county beautiful and like roadside clean up and I appreciate those who got out and did that. I want to note that this Saturday in Greenville, um the Greenville Senior Center, the Greenville Senior Center is hosting a car show, fun for the whole family. It's from 12:00 to 6:00 at the football field. Um they'll have a DJ and truck vendors and stuff like that. And I'd invite anybody to come out and walk around and enjoy the car show. Mr. King

Adam already mentioned it, but right over there close to my house is the way they call it the cotton pair now instead of cotton picketed pair. But uh that is this weekend, Saturday and Sunday. Um maybe the rain will hold off is showing pretty good rain on Saturday, but there's about 30 some thousand people to come through there. It's a great event. Uh it brings a lot of attention to the county that weekend and and a lot of uh tax revenue to the county. So if you get a chance to go out there and check it out, if you never been, it's worth going to. and thank the staff. Uh I understand we got two more roads paid this week. Dallas Road and bring the other one. John, you remember what it is? Ah Steve.

Anyhow, last week this week uh did a beautiful job. So those are paid and going to continue right on to the next one. So we're still getting ahead here on some paving, in-house paving. And that's great that we got the staff and the workers in public works that can do that. And just thank all y'all for doing your stuff. Welcome Jeff again for being here. We appreciate it and congratulations on your certificate. Thank you. Thank you. Congratulations on your awards. And I'd just like to thank the staff and all the employees for the work they do. And I'd like to thank the constituents for uh putting their trust in us to try to do what's best for the county. And that's all I have. Report from the attorney.

Uh I have nothing to report. need for executive session.

All right, let's announce some future meetings. Monday, May the 11th, 2026, work session at 400 p.m. Monday, May the 11th, 2026, regular meeting at 6:00 p.m. Closed in observance of Memorial Day, Monday, May the 25th, 2026. Tuesday, May the 26th, regular meeting at 6 PM. Uh, and I guess we have a need for executive session for litigation, personnel, real estate, tax matters, and cyber security. I'll make a motion we go to executive session for all the above. Second. All in favor. Go back in region. Second.

All in favor? We need a motion to transfer council to new firm. Well, transfer council to the new firm. I make a motion to transfer the same. No, we need to clarify that so they don't think we're talking about you. I make a motion to allow the transfer of already special counsel to their new firm and allow the chair to sign. Second. Yeah. Go ahead. All in favor? Is that all right? He thought we was getting rid of he moved council. I measure we need a approval if we need that.

Yeah. I make a motion to approve four weeks paternity leave for discussed employee in executive session. Second. All in favor. I make a motion to adjurnn. Second. Second. All in favor.