Commission hears road updates

At last Tuesday’s County Commission meeting, Roads Superintendent Chris Horton updated the commissioners on roads his department is building up to improve the roads and the drainage. He said his department is moving from district to district to complete the work and would need an average of 300 truck loads of dirt a week. Plans are to begin mowing in March to get a head start on the work during the grass-growing months.
Horton specifically mentioned St. Matthews Church Road, McLoon Road, Jones Road and Mary Cornish Road.
During his presentation, he commended the area office of the Georgia Department of Transportation for the assistance the department has given to the county for local road improvements, pointing out several projects including the construction of the new Post Road bridge.
In other action at Tuesday’s meeting, the commissioners ….
…. appointed Commissioners Vann Wooten and Ricky Crosby to serve on the budget committee.
…. appointed Dawana Mincey to the Department of Family and Children Services Board and agreed to re-advertise for a vacant spot on the Board.
…. heard a presentation from Human Resources Director Hannah Day who presented a contract with FedLogic to help employees especially during times of need and crisis. She said FedLogic specializes in Social Security Retirement, Social Security Disability, Medicare, Medicaid, VA Benefits and more, and provides unbiased education to support families in navigating benefit options. She said the organization will help the county save money. The contract was unanimously approved.
…. heard from Oakley Perry with the Joint Development Authority who talked about upcoming events such as Peaches to Beaches, 3 Rivers Arts Festival, Chamber GALA, Bass/Pan fishing tournament. Perry asked for permission to serve alcohol at the 3 Rivers Arts Festival. He also expressed interest in the old environmental building on the Douglas Highway. He mentioned that the state has a rural site development program that helps rural communities across Georgia. He said projects applying for aid had to have tracts of 50 acres or more. The commissioners approved a special permit allowing the sale of alcohol at the arts festival and agree to deed the old environmental building and the adjacent land to the Joint Development Authority.
…. received bids from Joe Hansley for $5,000 for 105 Brooker Street property and $3,560 from Paul McNeal for a used bulldozer.
…. heard an update from County Administrator Jayme Crosby who mentioned the 1890 Homestead property at the Fairground, and requested the board start the process for cleaning up the area. Some of the items in the old commissary will be moved to the Towns Bluff museum and a date will be set to let anyone from the community get what they wanted before the cleaning process begins.
…. heard from James Wright who wanted the board to be open back up and maintain a road leading to his old family property.
…. discussed building a stage for the fairgrounds.
…. met in closed session. After re-opening the meeting, approved a motion to no longer cover spouses on medical coverage, if the spouse has other available coverage offered to them. Any spouse that does not have coverage offered will still be eligible for medical coverage effective July 1, and to grandfather all current county employees and only effect new employees as of July 1.