Board of Commissioners Agendas and Minutes - Regular Meeting

I'd like to call to order, Mayweather County Voter Commissioners, June 8, 2026, 6 p.m. meeting. Please silence your cell phones and any other electronic devices. Please stand for the invocation with your mind. Reverend Jonathan Fuller, Rainbow Baptist Church, followed by a pledge.

Let's pray together. Father God, as we come upon the 250th birthday of this great nation of ours, we just pause to give you thanks. We thank you, Father, for giving our founding fathers a clear vision of what this nation was to be, what it could become. And Father, I pray that today, from the federal, state, right here to the local level, that you would continue to pour out that vision for this nation. And that, Father, we would see it come to fruition, that we ourselves, our children, our grandchildren, and generations to come will enjoy it. all that we've been able to enjoy in our own lifetimes. So, Father, impart wisdom to these commissioners tonight to fulfill the vision that was created 250 years ago, we ask in Jesus' name.

Amen.

I think we'd like to adopt the agenda. Are there any changes to the agenda? No, sir, Mr. Chairman. I'll make a motion to adopt, sir.

Second.

All in favor? presentations. Mr. Lanny Rampley, Mayor of the County Cattlemen's Association, to speak about the community agricultural center.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Let me just start by saying we're happy to be here tonight and we want to discuss with y'all the concept and an idea that we had 15 months ago and come here tonight and talk about a concept presentation that each of y'all have in front of you. But before we get into that, I'd like to just bring everybody up to date because everybody has called us and texted us and saying, how'd the rodeo go? Well, the rodeo went great. I'm going to tell you that. If you count all the tickets were sold online, all the tickets were cash tickets at the gate, all the sponsor tickets that we collected at the gate and all the children. that was there. We had a thousand people there on Friday night and we had 1600 people there on Saturday night. So we're pretty happy with that. It was a good start. And you've heard a lot of people say, this is not my first rodeo. Well, I'm there to tell you that was our first rodeo. Okay. So I got with Scott Colombe. He is a landscape architect and he helped us put these plans together. Along with our primary architect was Tim Adams from over in Newnan and Atlanta. And he helped us with this concept that we're going to present to y'all tonight. There's a lot of things that we did in preparing for this. One of the things we went to Statesboro, Georgia and looked at down at Bullock County, what they built down there. We went up to Jefferson, Georgia. We looked at what they built up there in AgCenter. We've been to, of course, Coweta County and thereabouts, Franklin, Georgia. And we've learned from them all the things that they did that they could have done differently. So we've tried to take all those ideas and put them into what we're going to present to you tonight. And we think we've got together a pretty good presentation of what we're going to do. The concept is not about the cattlemen beside that. It's about the people of Meriwether County. And what we want to do is create this facility, not only for reparation purposes, but for senior caretakers. And what we want to do is help with the education, not only in high school, as most of y'all now know, we've now completed our first year of having ag back in Greenville High School. And that went very well. And we've got almost double the number of kids that's gone up to have ag next year. So that's a step in the right direction, in our opinion. So at this time, I want to introduce Scott Colom. He's going to walk through this presentation with you all. If you want to ask questions as you go, I'm sure we'll take them as you go. And we'll come back and try to answer any questions you have at the end, too.

Thank you. My name is Scott Pallone. I am a resident of Merriweather County. Also a member of Merriweather Calvin's Association. As I said, I am a landscape architect. This is for what I do for a living is plan out sites such as this. We partnered also with Tim Adams, another architect out of Atlanta, also a member of Merriweather Calvin's Association. So we have a lot of talent. together. As Fannie said, over the last year, we visited numerous facilities across the state of Georgia. Most of them were built as ag centers, but quickly evolved into something more. They became very community-oriented. They were planning wide ranges of events for the citizens in their area. We talked with them. As Fannie said, they told us what went right. They told us what went wrong. They told us if they had a magic wand, we can do it over. What would they do different? But the thing that was very interesting is they all said, build more than you think you need because it's going to be used. From those visits, we synthesized their comments into a plan. We started with a site plan, brought Tim in. He's developed architectural plans. That's what we'll see tonight. One of the things that we really wanted to focus on with this design is we want to provide recreation. We want to provide education. We want community strengthening out of this. And we want to do this while supporting the local agriculture that is historic to this county. And at the same time, look for opportunities to strengthen the local economy while we're doing this. And so what I want to do is kind of walk you through the site. Do I point in any particular direction? It's just that one. You're going to do it for me? Thank you. As my son would say, I'm too old to do this sort of thing now. So this is a site plan. It's a little bit hard to read at this scale. One of the things I wanted to point out is this site that we're looking at is the site where the rodeo was located just a few nights ago. It's located between Highway 27A and also County Farm Road, occupies about 28 acres. I'm gonna probably step away and talk a little bit louder and I guess I'll point over here for you to make it a little easier to see. So this is Highway 27A, County Farm Road. You see the darker areas on the site. This is our main building that we're proposing. This is the arena that we're proposing to have with it. That's where everything started, is with the idea of an arena. And it kept growing beyond that. We also have a third building, which would be a livestock barn up here. That would be something that supports livestock shows for us. And then also a maintenance facility where we would have a shop, as well as bays for storage of equipment and supplies that are needed for the site. We also are providing parking and loading areas to get into these spaces. tried to organize the traffic so that we have a means of coming in, splitting people into parking places, having to take some of them out on County Farm Road, and potentially proposing an exit drive that comes across from the Gay Connector so that we have a better means of getting people out onto the highway after an event. So this is the general site that we're talking about. It's an enlargement of that main building. And with that, you can see the orientation is slightly different. It's coming in off of the highway. We have a main entrance into this main building. The front section, we'd like to house a cooperative extension. And we'd like to provide enough office space there that in the future, as this begins to grow, Along with that, we're talking about having a meeting room that's part of this. That meeting room would hold roughly 150 people, which is probably the only available meeting space in the county of that size. You know, if you need that kind of space now, you have to go out of the county for that. And when we're talking about things like tourism meetings and things like that, I take people outside of the county to say, come to If we can provide space where these sorts of meetings can occur, we think it will help with things in the county. Additional to that would be a breezeway that goes out to a classroom of roughly the same size. That classroom could be used by the high school or cooperative extension or any other organization that had classes to hold there. And there are a variety of classes that we can really have in there that both benefit individual citizens as well as organizations in the county. Beyond that, that's one main portion of the building. Beyond that is a covered breezeway, a very large covered breezeway that we're calling a gathering space. I want to back up. I'm sorry, I forgot one thing. One of the things that's part, I'm sorry, I just fell on that one. I just went too far ahead myself. You can go back to that. Is it? No, go forward. I'm sorry. One of the rooms that we wanted to include in there is a demonstration kitchen. We're hoping that at some point we'll be able to have a family and consumer science agent with cooperative extension and be able to hold classes that revolve around health and nutrition and be able to tackle some of the issues in the county, help promote better education in what you can eat, what you should eat, affordable ways to have nutritious meals. along with different things like getting moving and exercise, which is something a lot of us have gotten out of, but I think you can start young with students and such. We probably begin to increase the health factors here in the county with something like we just need space. And then, as I was saying, we have that outdoor gathering area where in the whole complex can be used for concessions and such for events. Beyond that is an indoor arena for small shows and such. Within that arena, you know, we have the opportunity to do different classes and things, adult literacy events, youth mentoring, children's consignment sales, dog shows, banquets, trading car shows. One of the things that's really interesting is talking with these other facilities. Not that much of what they're booking is agricultural events. A lot of it are events that people are looking for places to host, and they come from outside of those counties and come in to host their events. And they literally have these shows that repeat every single month for training cards and dog shows and dog training events and all these things that brings people in from all around. they're buying meals. And sometimes these are multi-day events and they're staying the night. And here's an opportunity for us to have a facility that maybe aids in the local economy by bringing some additional business to us through this whole process, but at the same time provides space that locally we can do events that benefit our citizens. Beyond that indoor show arena is a multi- the same size and beyond that is something that is very important to the cattle and also to anyone with large animals, livestock, so we don't have a vet around here that we can use for a large animal. We're looking for facilities where if we can maybe attract a traveling large animal vet and have facilities where people can bring their animals, the vet makes one stop, it becomes affordable And so that is the main building. The second building to that is the arena that we have here, which is a rather large building. We're talking about this main building being approximately 37,000 square feet of air-conditioned space with an additional 37,000 under cover, non-air-conditioned. So we're talking about 67,000 square feet of space. We're talking about a large structure that we want to build here. With the arena, we're looking at another 54,000 square feet of covered space with permanent bleachers and room for additional temporary bleachers for events. And in between those, a courtyard that's large enough for outdoor events and the ability to pull up food trucks and other things that would be necessary to conduct these events. We have the opportunity here to run multiple events at the same time if we needed to. Small events or one large event that could occupy the entire facility. And I think this as a whole begins to show us what this could become in useful circumstances. I see this. They'll probably be a little more difficult to see. These are elevations and sections through the building. with our more agricultural field here, but at the same time, very well stated. You can see the building. This is the Cooperative Extension portion, the classroom. There's another outdoor classroom behind it, demonstration gardens to the side. This is the courtyard and ticket booth, and this is the arena with the bleachers built into it there. And then the next one is a view to that side a classroom, potentially the demonstration gardens and such. And what we're hoping is to provide beyond just the agricultural aspects, the livestock, the rodeo, things like that, entertainment and use of education and opportunities. So when someone wants to put on an event, we have a place that we can do that. So in general, that's what we're proposing at this point.

What kind of estimated budget did y'all put together? I go to a lot of arenas all throughout the state. My daughter, my wife, we all rodeo. Some of them have just a big arena with a building behind it. And it's pretty sufficient as this. This is more elaborate than any of them I compete at now. What kind of numbers did y'all come up with for that kind of facility?

We started with very reasonable numbers because we were going to do just a very reasonable arena.

What we saw here tonight, what kind of numbers have y'all got?

That's what I'm saying. We've got talked into something bigger, and we understand the need for it now. Our preliminary budget right now is $28 million.

And when you say your preliminary budget, $28 million, that's money that y'all have raised? We would need to raise that money.

We're committed to moving forward towards that. Obviously, there are changes that may happen and things change along the way, but this is where we really think we're going with this. We really think we can do a $28 million project, and we'd like to do that. We think it would be beneficial to the county for that investment. But I think Lanny would say the same thing. We're meeting the needs that you think we need.

Can we back that slide up one slide, please? So when we talk about $28 million, you can see that it's paving done. Everything is done. It's totally the drop. All the parking's done paving and paving and everything. And that's a complete project, okay? Now, could we step that along in different stages? Absolutely, we could, okay? But if we did the whole thing in the next two years, we're looking at about $28 million. One of the things we looked at is to try to come to you tonight and talk about economic development and what this might bring to the county. We tried to do that. We went to Georgia Tech and talked to people up there, and they said, you know, we can't help you because you don't have anything there. You don't have any hotels. You don't have any restaurants. You don't have a lot of stuff there that's going to bring in. But what you're going to think about is reverse economic development. If you could build this, you're going to get hotels. You're going to get restaurants. You're going to get stuff to come into Greenville, Georgia, because they want to be near this, okay? Because all these things that he's talking about earlier that happened, year in and year out, these facilities are up and running now, are booked a year out. Okay. I like that card show that he mentioned. That show runs for 10 days and they pay a large amount of money to keep that facility there for 10 days. Okay. And who knew about a card show? I didn't. Okay. I can tell you that. Okay. So. That's what we're presenting to you. We want to make sure that what we're presenting to you is what you've got in mind. Let me just say these are metal buildings, except for the front of this one here, and that's going to be like hardy planks type stuff. We're going to do on the front of that building.

Well, I talked about Ag Center the first year I was on board because that's my lifestyle, but I don't know about the rest of the board. I'm confused when you say... What do we have or what would we like to see? I'm still trying to figure out how a government and a private entity can't work together.

We're not going to be in partners together.

Right.

And either y'all are going to have to own this facility or we're going to have to own it, in my opinion, okay?

Right.

So that's where we're going with it, okay? So if y'all say we don't want to be a part of that, we want y'all to own it, then we'll go that direction, okay?

Well, I'm not accountable. I don't know what counsel would say. I don't know how... the county would be part of something that y'all are going to raise $28 million on, because if you're going to raise $28 million, you ought to own it.

Well, we're going to have to help y'all raise it. The money will have to come to the county if y'all are going to own the facility. It can't come to us, okay? The money would have to go to the county to be used for this facility to build it, and we will help raise it. If we can do it, if we can be that, we don't need a partner with you. We're just going to go help you find the money, okay?

We just see that there's a bit

like to step up and we'll manage a facility on a long term lease. If that's what we want to do once we get it built. But if the county says we don't want to be a part of this, then that's fine. We'll go our another avenue and try to go find the money. Okay. But if we do that, are y'all still willing to give us this property? That's the other question down the road.

I'm sure the board we'll have to talk about it, but the way y'all are going about it and the direction you're going, it'd be nice if we worked something out through the IDA board and so forth. And my opinion, and if that's the perfect location, maybe y'all have that property, you know, if it works out through the IDA and economic portion of it and build it and they'll come. I don't know. That's just my opinion. I like your idea and I like what y'all did this week and I really do. And personally, I would love to see a facility. I just, you know, I just don't know how The county could even go into a long-term lease and leasing government property to a private entity.

I just don't know how that would work. That's something we need to know going in. If not, maybe we need to do something else. I mean, I'm just... Did your attorney speak to that?

Yeah. I mean, there are ways that it could be done, most likely, but this is a much more involved discussion about, I mean, it's not going to be hashed out in here. Oh, I understand that. First of all, it's up to the board what they want to do, but all these things could probably be done. Yeah.

But it's going to take some looking at the law. Coweta County owns the fairground facility, and they run that, and now Kiwanis is not part of that anymore. It's all... Coweta County owns that property now. And they do that in conjunction with the Coweta County Cattlemen's Association. They've been doing that 34 years on county property. So I don't know what their agreement is. I don't know the details of that. They lease it every year.

Yeah, I think it's a good idea. And I think we need to not stop here. Let's talk further, you know, discuss it in further detail.

We just need some direction of y'all, which way you want to go with this, okay? I would suggest you schedule a meeting with Ms. Jane Fryer and the IDA board and discuss it with them as well.

All right, any last questions? Anybody got any more questions? Thank you. Thank you for your time. Thank you, Scott. Finance report.

Yes, commissioners. Listed on the top of the page are the bank balances as of this morning. At the bottom are the lost, splossed, and face-flossed distributions we've received for the month of May. On the second page, the splossed balance at this time is a negative $119,463.29. And the T's loss balance is a negative $149,804.16. The adjustments have been made for estimated adjustments have been made based on the discussion at the last meeting for the LRA funds and the bridge projects and red projects.

That's what I was going to ask. So that was a reflection of the changes we made in the last meeting.

Yeah, these are just estimated figures. Okay.

anybody got a question well I do have one so we were going to review that data in those figures that we went through I haven't heard anything back so I hate to assume that that means all of that's working out as it was outlined in the previous meeting okay okay

Thank you, Tammy.

You're welcome.

Department heads. Do we have any department heads here to speak?

No, sir, Mr. Chairman.

Citizen comments? We have one sign that to speak. Mr. Christopher Palton, please come up, state your name and address.

My name is Christopher Allen. I live in 661 Bexton Road over in Moreland. Good evening, commissioners and staff of Merriweather. I live right there in Moreland County, right across the line. But driving over this way doesn't feel like going anywhere new. Feels like visiting a neighbor with the beautiful land tracts and the Southern charm that Coweta County used to have maybe 20, 25 years ago. I served as the county clerk over in Spalding County for a time. And I just want to express my appreciation to the board and the staff. I know there's a lot of work that goes into running a county, the many boards and commissions that require meetings, the documents that need to be put to paper to push the policy and move the county forward in a positive direction. I am an applicant to the county administrator role that was recently made available. And I am looking for an opportunity to serve my local areas like I did in the Georgia Army National Guard for nine years. For now, I know it's just public comments, but I wanted to show my face. And I'll be sitting in the back listening to the concerns of the citizens of Merriweather and the efforts made to address those concerns. I'll be here, happy to make the acquaintance of anybody here. And I appreciate your time. Thank you.

Thank you.

Minutes. Minutes for the May 26th, 2026, regular meeting at 6 p.m. Minutes.

I've corrected all typos. You might see some typos, but they're evolving for random.

Okay, everybody have a chance to read over the minutes. Yes.

I'm not sure we approved the minutes.

Sorry. All in favor? Public hearing. We continue the public hearing. Well, I guess we can go right into the request to close, the county to close Hossbound Road. Anybody here to speak against the closure?

Well, this isn't public. Are we opening the public?

We didn't close it.

That's what I'm saying, sir. Thank you, Charlie. Yes, sir.

Yeah. Yeah. Well, we're going to give them 10 minutes on each side.

It's up to the board. It's up to the board.

What's normal? Fine with me, 10 minutes. 10 minutes is good.

That's good. I'm not going to take 10 minutes. I know you're not. That's what you're talking about. All right. I was just going to tell you all, you know, we left you in the other room. We're going to get folks on either end of that road to agree to everything. They had agreed to it, but they hadn't signed anything. I would love for y'all to type this for two weeks, and I'll have a document signed by next time. I've got the documents thrown. They're in everybody's hands except one landowner, and we just got to give them something.

So what do we do? You want us to take it for two more weeks? Just continue.

I would ask anybody else to sit here if they want to speak.

Yeah, anybody else here want to speak in favor or opposed? In favor or against?

You just put this.

I can't make a decision. I'll just, I'm Elaine Powers, and I actually live in Fayette County, but we have 96 acres that goes from Imlac Road over to the Pookrun Farm Road, touches on both sides. And when we bought the land, we had access to both roads. And my concern is we don't have direct access to 74 Highway. It's about maybe 50 yards off of the road to our property. And if you cut that road or do away with the road and close it, we no longer have the access that we have on the backside of the property. And so we're trying to find out. Nobody has contacted us. I only found out about this two days ago. So we just want to make sure that if you close it, that we get some type of an easement to continue to use the access that we have going in on the other side of the property.

That's what I thought the reason why we tabled this board, and maybe Mr. Todd will tell you, but that's what we were asking for is for that road. We may close the road as a county road, but he was supposed to get with everybody so everybody would have an easement on that road. Is that what you worked on? He talks.

Oh, I don't blame you. But like I said, I only found out two days ago, so I appreciate you letting me come up here today.

Thank you.

Thank you for coming.

Thank you all.

Anyone else to speak in favor or against?

So I'll make a motion to continue the public hearing until the Tuesday, June 23rd, 2026, 6 p.m. meeting.

I second.

All in favor?

Appointment. Appointment to the Industrial Development Authority District 2. This is to fill an unexpired term that is filed on January 9, 2028. This is a four-year term.

This is a District 2 appointment that was filled by me as District 5 representative because the District 5 representative was filled by District 2 sitting commissioner. And currently there are two district two representatives on that IDA board. So I discussed with Commissioner Snelson whether we wanted to get this back in the right seat of the right districts or we want to continue to allow district five to have representation. And she agreed to allow district five to have representation. So that's why she allowed me to make this appointment. And if the board pleases, I'd like to appoint Sean Lennon to this position.

Second.

All in favor? At some point, I'd like to see us get these back to where the appointment's made by the commissioner of the district, if they represent it. I don't know how we do that or if we can, but it's. I don't know if I don't listen yet.

Unfinished business update on trees at the courthouse.

Commissioner, staff is currently awaiting quotes from four tree service companies to trim the trees around the courthouse and to provide recommendations and pricing for any trees that may need to be removed or replaced. If the cost of the work falls within the county administrative spending authority, the project will be scheduled and completed as soon as possible. Due to traffic, courthouse operations and ongoing construction activities, this work will likely be performed on the weekend when the courthouse is vacant. Completing the work during non-business hours will minimize disruptions to traffic, courthouse personnel, contractors, and the public. If the amount is over the limit, the county administrator will be brought back to the board at the June 23rd meeting. I did receive one quote, and it is under my authority to approve that quote. We're just waiting for the other quotes to come in. They got the two oak trees on the Woodbury side. They are dead. And then it's the turn back on other trees.

We did the due diligence to make sure those were not planted in.

From our gathering at Greenville Historical Society, they were planted by Dan Branch's wife, took three times the prune at home. They were fine with the two oak trees coming out. I'm assuming they're oak, but the one in the center, we may get some pushback on that one, taking it out. That's why we're recommending trimming it back to kind of get the overall appeal of the courthouse. You're not going to be able to have a clear view of it, but that's at the board's discretion. Y'all own the property, so if you want it gone, staff will make it go on. So explain again, who planted them and why? Anne Branch's wife, the previous sheriff, from my understanding.

Pushed back from who?

Greenville Historical Society.

Greenville Historical Society.

Because it took her three times for those plants, those trees to actually take root. But they're fine if you take the two oak trees. They may not be oak, I apologize if they're not, but they look like oak to me. If you take those two out, they're fine with that. It's that one in the center. But the board owns that property. That's the one blocking the view.

The renovation, the flagpole and everything.

But the board owns the property, so it's at the board's discretion.

Have you spoke with them about trimming it?

Trimming it, they're fine with trimming it. But you're still going to have that block view of the courthouse coming off of Woodbury Highway. I think it was 109, if I'm not mistaken.

going out toward the gate. So we got to wait on more quotes coming in. Correct.

But if it's under, like I said, the one quote I got is to remove the two dead ones and to trim everything back, and it's under the $15,000 limit that I can approve. So I just didn't know that the board wants to have that middle tree taken down.

I'm actually okay taking the two out, leaving the one in trimming. I know it blocks part of it, but I don't want to take away something that is that much of history from Erwin McCann.

Are we going to wait on more quotes or are you asking for approval to go ahead with this quote?

No, more quotes have to come in by our procurement guidelines. I just need to know if y'all want that tree trimmed or removed.

I agree with Commissioner Threadgill that I'm fine with the two and trimming.

I agree as well.

If it's an issue at a later date, we can revisit it. See what trimming looks like.

Y'all can make that form of a motion.

I put it in form of a motion. Five seconds out of five.

You can take care of it.

New bid on it, 26, 47 state agency request. And allow chair, vice chair to sign the EPA county extension agent with contract renewal.

Commissioner Vaughn, I'm handling it as a zero meter comparison. That's not in your package. Let me just see what's the last year's request. Yes, sir. Question number one.

I said it will be presented Commissioners County 4-H Extension Agent Mrs. Ashley Harmon is present today to present her proposed budget which includes a requested increase of $650.91. This amount covers a 3.5% salary adjustment and the associated benefits. The 2025-2026 budget was $60,871.09, and the 2026-2027 budget is $61,522. Staff recommends approval, and the 4-H contract requires board approval and must be signed by either the chairman or the vice chairman.

I make a motion to approve and let the chair or vice chair sign. Second. All in favor?

That was easy.

I got one more question though. Where are we on county dates?

We have our second round of interviews July 6th. Okay. So we'll be interviewing five candidates.

Okay, well maybe we'll have one.

But I would like to say thank you to Meriwether County Board of Commissioners. Last week we traveled, we being 45 young people from Meriwether County to Rock Eagle 4-H Center. But Danny Stevens, fire chief, brought our luggage. So thank you for letting us use your trailer, use Danny's time. I could not have gotten 45 kids to Rock Eagle without him. So thank you very much. And next week, I'll be taking 28 young people to Tybee Island. We have the largest delegation in the state here in Meriwether Camelot. Wow.

Well, thank you for everything. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

Keep it up. 2026, 2027, state agency request, allow chair and vice chair to sign Pine Mountain Regional Library.

Commissioners the Pine Mountain regional library is requesting a budget increase of $10,000 over the previous fiscal year's allocation. The Cynthia Kirk Kelly is in attendance to present and discuss the library's budget proposal. The request is to increase the budget annually from 143,000 to $153,000. Yes, ma'am.

All right. Our budget, I'm asking for the increase because our health insurance premiums are increasing once again. I'm getting the distinct impression this is just going to be an annual event where they up the premiums. And then the teacher's retirement premiums are going up. We have two employees in Merriweather County that qualify for the teacher's retirement. You have to be full-time to do that. They're both located at the Manchester Public Library. And also gas and postage are increasing as well. And I'm sure you're aware of all of these because I know it's all increasing for you in your personal lives and here in the county offices as well. Do you have any questions about the increase that I'm asking for?

Do we have a breakout of how much of that is insurance? How much of it is the... Other items?

I didn't put it there, but I brought my budget with me. And actually, the benefits and all that are built into the salary. So what I can tell you is that for the branch manager, the yearly salary is $27,000. $664, and then we are adding $23,220 onto that for the insurance that we pay for on their behalf. Now, they also have their own premium that they have to pay, but the employer's share is going to be $23,220 added on to that annual salary. Does that help?

A little bit.

Okay, so it'll be that way for the two of the employees at the Manchester Public Library. That the GHI, or I'm sorry, the health insurance is going to be $23,220 for beginning July 1st. Okay. For each of them.

The $10,000 is not that big a deal. I'm not overly concerned with it. I just... For transparency for us and the citizens, it would be nice to be able to see a breakdown of what we agreed to and why. Sure. Just so that we can say, oh, there was a percentage increase of this. Maybe it was $9,152. We're rounding up to $10,000. Perfectly understandable. But we need to start getting those things in our records to be able to show clearly what this board is agreeing to. Sure, I can do that.

No problem. And then for the teacher's retirement for that particular position. That is based actually on their salaries, percentage of their salary. For that position, it's going to be about $6,100. And then for the other position, it's going to be about $5,800 that we add on as benefits that we pay for their salaries.

It looks like in 2020, 2021, 2022, we were at $103,000. And now... Short period later, we're increasing and requesting 50 additional thousand above where we were just a couple of years ago.

And the vast majority of that is because of the increases in health insurance and in the teacher's retirement, because health insurance has almost doubled since then. It is ridiculous how much they have been increasing that. They did not increase for years and years and years. And then all of a sudden they decided they needed it. And they just keep jumping as they go up.

So what program is your health insurance under? So who's the overall umbrella of that network? Are they the teachers?

The public libraries in Georgia are part of teachers' retirement because many years ago, public libraries were under the Department of Education. And when we left the Department of Education, they let us stay in teachers' retirement because it benefits them. We're paying into it. And then now we are under the University System of Georgia, the Board of Regents. We are under them, but they, since we're part of teacher retirement, then they don't, we are not in their retirement system. And then our health insurance is with the state of Georgia. We're just sort of a hodgepodge of things, but that is where our health insurance. So all of the teachers, all of the, like the state patrol and all the public employees, government employees, all of them have the Georgia health insurance.

So you get the mercy of whatever the state deems as the carrier and the rate you're paying, and that's spread out percentage-wise on you guys.

Right. So we don't get a choice in it, but we are a part of it.

And the employee, y'all have a full-time or part-time?

We have two full-time employees that are 35 hours. For us, 35 to 40 hours is full-time. And those two are at the Manchester Public Library, the branch manager and the assistant branch manager. And then there are four... part-time employees at the Manchester Public Library, two part-time employees at the Greenville Library, and then two part-time employees at our new library up in Luther'sville, which opens June 4th.

But just the full-time ones are the ones that get the health insurance?

Yeah, they're the only ones qualified for health insurance, and they're the only ones that qualify for the teacher's retirement as well, because you have to have work a certain number of hours for the teacher's retirement. Any more questions?

No.

And I sent out invitations to you all for the grand opening for the Luther's Hill Library. I don't know if you've received them yet. I hope you have. And hopefully you'll be able to make it up there. We're very proud of that one. It's our smallest library, but we're very proud of it.

I'll make a motion to approve as presented in the lounge chair, vice chair, and the machine.

I said, do we have a second?

I'll second.

All in favor? No.

All in favor? Yeah. No.

Thank you, I appreciate it very much. 2026, 2027, state agent request by chair, vice chair to sign, county, circuit, public defender. Should we go ahead?

Commissioners, the Coweta Circuit Public Defender is requesting an increase in their annual budget in the amount of $12,040. The majority of this increase comes from pay increases for staff. Rick Samper will be in attendance to present the Public Defender budget and answer any questions the commissioners may have. But I don't believe he's here.

Commissioner, I did speak with Mr. Semper regarding his budget, and the request is for, I know, Ryan Fuller to receive a $5,000 increase and for Mary Ann to receive an increase as well, and then the rest is associated taxes and insurance related to it.

Well, I think that gives us what the percentage increase is for Mr. Fuller, but again, we don't have what is the increase we're doing per employee or per

I think with Ms. Marianne, I want to say you told me it was 3,000, but I may be wrong on that one. And we could table this to the next meeting.

I prefer to table it and see if he cares enough to show up.

Motion.

I'll make a motion to table it.

I'll second.

I'll invite.

2026, 2027, state agency request the last chair or vice chair to sign. District attorney.

Commissioners, the district attorney has requested the same budget as the previous year of $289,467 and staff recommends approval. I make the motion we approve budget of $289,467.

All in favor? That's how you do it right there. No increase.

Thank you so much. 2026-27, state aid and request, allow chair, vice chair to sign, Department of Public Health.

Commissioners, the Department of Public Health has requested the same budget as the previous year of $152,500. The staff recommends approval.

I make a motion to approve, allow chair, vice chair to sign. It's been $152,500 since I've been on this board. Second. All in favor?

2026-27 state agent request and allow chair and vice chair to sign Department of Family and Children Services.

Commissioners, the Department of Family and Children Services has requested the same budget as the previous year of $33,000 and staff recommends approval.

I make a motion to approve and allow chair and vice chair to sign. I'll apply.

Award the bid for ambulance box remount.

Commissioners, you should have an updated issue paper for this one with today's date. Three companies expressed interest in the RFP for an ambulance remount. Bid opening was held today at 2 p.m. and only one bid was received. The sole bidder was Custom Truck and Body Works of Woodbury, Georgia, with a bid amount of $129,622. You note on your commitment sheet the estimated project cost was $127,837, which is an increase of $1,785,000. Staff recommends awarding the contract to Customs Truck and Body Works in the amount of $129,622 to be funded through SPLOST, authorizing the chairman to execute the contract. And the ambulance chassis is currently scheduled to be ready in August of 2026.

I'll make a motion to approve as outlined and allow the chairman to sign. Second. All in favor?

Discussion and approval of third floor. the courthouse for mediation.

Commissioner, this is just be a discussion. I do not have any quotes. The third floor of the courthouse requires remediation and requests for pricing have been sent out to three vendors. Still currently waiting quotes. I was hoping to get some in today. It was a very quick turnaround. I got paperwork in Wednesday, sent it immediately out, have not got any bids yet, but we do know there is remediation needed on the third floor. We just don't know what the cost is going to be just yet. to ask that we table this to the 23rd meeting.

Make a motion we table it to June 23rd, 6 p.m. meeting. Second.

I'll invite a discussion to place property tax relief referendum on the November ballot.

Commissioner, as Chief Appraisal of William Harris the second is here. Second, third. I'm sorry, third. I thought it was the third. He can discuss in detail more about this one with the local homestead option sales tax and the property tax relief option sales tax, which also is known as the FLOST.

Good evening. Good evening.

Good evening.

Okay. One L-host, the other PTR-LOST. The main differences are going to be one targets, which is L-host, it targets homestead, where the PTR loss targets all your property owners. The L-host has a 10 years, the PTR loss has a five year. So it's deciding which of the taxpayers are we trying to prioritize through this tax relief? Are we looking for the homeowners or are we looking for everybody in Marywell County? That's really the question between the two of these things. Because one does have an IGA, but we have IGAs for other things. So I don't think that's a big issue. Trying to go down to see anything in particular that stands out with this law. They're both 1%. They both require a referendum. One came in 2024, which was your PTR loss. And the L-host came with Senate Bill 33 for 2026. Okay, none of these things stand out. It's just deciding, because nothing changes as far as the assessments on property. The only thing that changes is who gets the exemption money and where that exemption money is going to be placed. If you go with the L-host that has to be held into a trust account, And you go with the floss, of course, you used to call it floss, PTR loss. You would operate that the same way if you've been doing it in the past. Any particular questions you have about it?

So this is going to be in addition to the rollback that we do. It'll be applied after that fact. based on the new house.

Well, that's actually going to depend on between the two of these because it's how the funds are going to be specifically used.

Well, you're correct because the L-host is that way without mentioning because it's the homestead property owners versus floss or PTO loss is every property owner, businesses, homeowners and everything.

So that one will actually affect your role better.

And I believe that L-host is what they're, and special host is what they're in special session right now trying to work out all the details.

So what would we look at a 10-year period for the L-host?

It's going to be a 1% tax increase just like SPLOST and TSPLOST. The major difference is going to be how the General Assembly decides how it's distributed. Even though it's going to be put into a trust account, they still have to come up with a formulation on how to disperse those funds.

Yeah, but what are we looking at million-dollar-wise over a 10-year period?

It's somewhere between your T-SPLOS and SPLOS allocation.

Combined. They're five years, and we get $10 million to $12 million off of a five-year T-SPLOS. So if we do a 10-year LHOS at one cent, then it's going to be $20 million to $25 million.

Roughly estimated.

Year 2.5 million a year to come off.

And you go to PTR losses requires IGAs, which staff has plenty of time to get them out. We just have to get them to the board by next meeting approved and then sent out to the cities to pass. But the L-host does not require the IGA. It can just be voted on and go on to the ballot.

So I would question, is everybody on this board up to speed on this?

This just came out last week and they...

When we were in Savannah, the class I took, they covered this extensively. It was a revenue class, so it was a hot topic for what was going on. And so in my opinion, I would choose the L-host path, but I don't know about the rest of the board if you've had time to understand what's really going on.

If you collect that money, the only people that get relief is Homeowners, correct? Homesteaded properties. Right. And if they qualify for homestead, you have to live there, correct? Correct. So those are the only ones that would get benefit from the L-host.

Correct.

And you would just divide it up and it would be based on a percentage basis, correct?

Well, once all the revenue is then collected, you then decide what that exemption will be for all the homesteading. So it's not necessarily a percentage. It's usually like when Governor Kemp did it, it was like $585 or something that they took off everybody's tax bill, regardless of what the tax bill was.

But, I mean, you had somebody that had a $500,000 house versus somebody that had a $250,000 house. Would they get twice as much money as the one with a $250,000? No, it's going to be that same amount for everybody across the board.

Flat rate. Everybody gets a flat rate. Right. So some people will not pay a home property tax. Right.

So the amount they can divide it by the amount of homeowners with home state exemption. Right. Divide that, and that's what everybody gets.

Yeah. That should be the calculation the General Assembly comes out with.

It's the way it was explained in Savannah in the class by the ACCG. And that some people would end up not having to pay property tax to the county based on that because the revenue, the county's revenue would be replaced with this. And some people, if you have a more expensive piece of property, may be left owing something.

I know there was an advertising that we did get an email about from ACCG and They want you to do it like they want it to run in the paper next week, deciding on that. I just don't see that that's going to happen.

They don't want you to run it next week.

Are we good then? Yes. Okay.

If she's willing to run it. Yes. The ACCG's not telling you. I didn't see anything telling her.

They sent it to the clerks. Oh, I see. I'll send it to you. They wanted something done. quickly because we're going to start the special session and we needed, they didn't know how long that was going to last. And if you're going to pick one of the other, we needed to advertise.

But we have to put this on the November ballot for the citizens to vote on which option.

My question is, like I said, to go on the ballot, How are the citizens going to understand what the balance is? We're at the process to get folks educated. We're discussing it here trying to make sure we understand it. We can do town hall meetings.

We can do town hall meetings between them. That's how we did when we initially did the T-SPOT. They're not going to know what the vote is. So we would get a legit vote.

I mean, they would be like, I don't know what that is and skip it.

We need to educate the citizens between now and November on what these two options are.

And I think this one is, depending on when you advertise, is when collections start. Collections may not even start on this one until January 1st of 28, depending on special session. So it may be two years before the revenue starts to come in. But with House Bill 581 passing, bringing everything up to today's market price, this is a way to relieve some of the tax burden to the taxpayers.

We did the We had numerous public hearings for that. I don't know if that's something that...

I think it's something we have to do. They need to be informed to make the right decision between these two. As far as homeownership in this county, being able to live here will significantly help them more than the other. I won't say too much, but we'll put it out there for them to decide. They need to understand it.

ahead right what do we need to do anything the board wants to go with uh el host and it needs to be made a formal motion for staff to move ahead and do the research to anything so this is our decision on which one of these people want to move forward with it okay well okay we got to tell me adding these this by mid-july to get it on the ballot so we have to move very quickly so we decide which path we want to go in the citizens vote to approve it or not correct

I make a motion to go with the L-host. I'll second that. All in favor?

All right, staff. We'll get working on preparing this document.

I still think, as a staff and a board, we need to have those town hall meetings and develop all the information we can and get to let people know what we did, why we did it, and they can agree or disagree.

We got the information last week. Yeah.

It's been a while. I can't wait.

Administration staff will look over it and see what needs to be done.

Report began administrative.

Commissioners looked into the tax relief options due to elections in mid-July. We had interviews for public and zoning director, set up quotes for the courthouse remediation, attended a transit stakeholder meeting, department head meeting, met with River City on the HVAC portion of the project. We have already begun starting budget meetings to have finance familiar with the process. I met with Dean, with Dean Communications, which is now Williams Communications on the infrastructure design of the remaining towers. Brought Deputy County Administrator Jeff Fisher up to date on all the projects. We had the jail lock manufacturer was on site June 4th to assess and address the issues. Waiting on an update on that one. The tankers, one is scheduled to be picked up this week. The second needs to be programmed. We have received invoices for both, so it should be a matter of weeks that we'll have both of them in our possession. And that's all I have, Mr. Chairman.

Support from County Commissioner, Commissioner Threadgill.

I don't have anything to add. Just thank everybody for being here tonight. Thank you for the presentations. It looks really good. We'll have more discussions and keep you guys up to date.

That's an amazing word. I agree. I think that presentation was well done and looked like a great facility. Thank you everybody for being here and the job that everyone's doing. Appreciate all the work. Vice Chairman Snelson.

I had the honor of being asked to go to Zion Hill Missionary Baptist Church yesterday to read their proclamation, and they were very welcoming, and I want to thank them for that. And I also went to the car show and the rodeo this weekend, and those were fantastic events in the county, and I love seeing the citizens out participating locally. Thank you.

Baker King. Same thing. Attended the car show over in Gay this weekend, and It was a great turnout. Lee Nash has been doing 14 years to raise the money for diabetes, and it was a great turnout, good money raiser. And since this will be her last meeting, our planning and zoning director, Cassandra, will be leaving us, going to Pike County. I wish you the best, and I hope you can still call Hoover. Someone's got some questions over here to help them with a smooth transition, but you'll be missing. You've done a great job. Thank you for being here.

And I'd just like to say thank you to the staff and the workers for the work they do. And it's a very nice presentation. I'm glad the rodeo was a success. And I'm looking forward to seeing that project come to life. And the car show was great. And that's all I have. Report from county attorney.

Mr. Chairman, I don't have anything to report.

Future meeting dates and notices, closing observance, June 10th, Friday, June 19th, 2026, Tuesday, June 23rd, 2026, a regular meeting at 6 p.m., closing observance of Independence Day, Friday, July 3rd, 2026, and Tuesday, July 13th, 2026, regular meeting at 6 p.m. Do we have any executive sessions?

We do.

I'd like to make a motion to go into executive session for litigation, personnel, real estate, and tax matters. So moved. All in favor? Go back into regular session. So moved. Second. All in favor?

So I want to make a motion to allow the two-week unpaid leave as discussed for the employee in executive session.

Second. I'll invite him.

I also want to make an announcement that we are glad to announce that Mr. Gordon, our county administrator, has rescinded his resignation, and I would like to make a motion to accept the rescinded of his resignation.

Second. I'll invite him. No problem. I'd like that. So moving on to adjourn. Second.