The Jones County Board of Commissioners celebrated the Jones County Sheriff’s Office, declaring June 8-15 Law Enforcement Week at their first meeting in June.
Board Chairman Chris Weidner called the June 4 meeting to order, and the prayer and pledge were led by Vice Chairman Sam Kitchens.
All board members were present except Commissioner Daylon Martin.
Planning and Zoning items were first on the agenda with variances and conditional uses starting the discussion. Zoning Officer Tim Pitrowski said two families were living in RVs on their Bowen Hill Road properties until their homes could be constructed.
Both families were at the meeting and explained they moved to Jones County because they wanted to live here and wanted their children to go to school here.
One person spoke with a concern that the time people are allowed to live in a temporary dwelling should be limited.
Pitrowski said the conditional use would allow them to remain for six months and if construction had started before the end of that time, they could remain another six months.
Commissioner John Wood made the motion to approve the requests of both families, and the vote to approve was unanimous.
The third P&Z item was a request from Georgia Power to allow the replacement of a 200-foot cell tower with a 285-foot cell tower. The property is at the intersection of Pippin Road and Monticello Highway.
Jonathan Yates spoke on behalf of Georgia Power. He said the current tower was built in 1969. He said the new tower is essential to support the power grid.
Yates said the tower would also be able to accommodate the Jones County Sheriff’s Office repeater, which is essential for communication. It was later noted that the tower would accommodate equipment for Jones County Emergency Management as well.
Kitchens made the motion to approve the request, and the vote to approve was unanimous.
The commissioners also unanimously approved a request for a conditional use to build an addition onto Elam Baptist Church for storage. Commissioner Wendy Vaughn made that motion.
New business
Weidner read a proclamation for National Law Enforcement Week and then presented it to Jones County Sheriff’s Office Chief Deputy Earl Humphries. The chief was accompanied by JCSO Lt. Brent Skinner and Deputy Al Elliot to represent the department.
The proclamation thanked the brave and dedicated officers who protect citizens and the Jones County community while putting themselves at risk. The week of June 8-15 was proclaimed as Law Enforcement Week in Jones County.
Humphries thanked the commissioners and the county for the recognition.
“It’s humbling to have the support we do for the sheriff’s office,” he said.
Greg Boike, director of planning & public administration for the Middle Georgia Regional Commission, presented the board with the annual CIE update resolution required due to county impact fees.
Boike said the resolution is necessary despite that the impact fees being collected by the county are currently $0. Kitchens made the motion to adopt the resolution, and it was unanimously approved.
Humphries presented commissioners with a request for the approval of vehicle purchases by the JCSO. He said the vehicles are purchased with sales tax funds, which allows the sheriff’s office to keep its vehicles up to date.
The chief said an extensive search was done to find available vehicles and check prices.
“We are competing with every law enforcement agency in the country,” he said.
Humphries said they had found five cars available locally and asked the bidding process be waived. The price for the vehicles was estimated at $182,875.
Kitchens said he appreciated the homework done by the sheriff’s office and asked if they could forgo the bid process.
County Attorney Ashley Brodie said the county does have a provision to do that. She said because the JCSO had done an extensive search to find what they need, she was satisfied it met the requirements for the exception.
Kitchens made a motion to grant the request, and it was approved unanimously.
Humphries took the opportunity to thank Georgia Power for including the sheriff’s office on its new communications tower. He said when they found out Georgia Forestry would be taking down its fire tower, he got in touch with Yates.
“It was the easiest conversation I’ve ever had,” he said.
The chief also thanked Georgia Forestry for delaying the take down of its fire tower. He said that would save the county at least $50,000.
Jones County Water Superintendent Brandon Stark spoke to the commissioners about bids received for the water main project to serve Graham Road and Graham Woods Subdivision.
Stark said the bids were opened May 31, and five contractors submitted bids. He said Sellers Contracting Services was the low bidder of $3,095,951. The superintendent said the bid was lower than expected because the cost of the PVC water main pipe had gone down.
Kitchens made the motion to accept the low bid, and the motion was approved unanimously.
Jones County Parks and Recreation Director Bert Rosenberger talked to board members about several topics, beginning with the use of the gym at the Government Center.
The director said the recreation department works with community partners and utilizes recreation board members when possible for things like locking up facilities when they are present.
Rosenberger said the high school and middle schools use county gyms for practice and also share their facilities with the county. He said now that recreation leagues are over, it is time for travel ball.
The director said the regular cost of renting the fields is a lot to ask for non-profit sports teams. His question to the commissioners was to be able to lower the rental fees for the non-profit teams to give kids a place to play ball.
Rosenberger said the county provides sports facilities, and he feels like they should be made available.
“I would like to open the Government Center gym similar to the Mattie Wells gym,” he said.
The director said he has it in the budget to cover staff for the gym this summer.
Rosenberger also asked for help with parking for the upcoming fireworks extravaganza event. He showed the commissioners a picture of the parking lot at last year’s event with cars parked three and four deep, causing a huge issue when the event was over.
“We need to address this by having people parking the cars,” he said.
Vaughn made the suggestion of talking to the Jones County High School JROTC. She said they are experienced at parking cars and do it routinely for football games.
Old business
County Administrator Jason Rizner presented board members with an updated intergovernmental agreement with the City of Gray for the purpose of Transportation Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax for Jones County.
Rizner said the updated agreement was for six years. He said Gov. Brian Kemp recently signed a new law allowing the TSPLOST collections to continue for an additional year, bringing the collections period to six years.
The administrator said the updated agreement included an updated projects list.
Vaughn made the motion to approve the agreement, and the motion was approved unanimously.
Rizner also introduced the next item, which was a resolution to place the proposed TSPLOST on the Nov. 5 general election ballot for approval by voters. Vaughn made that motion, and it was unanimously approved.
Jones County Development Authority Executive Director Haley Watson brought a marketing proposal to board members from Total Marketing 365. She said the idea is to come up with one brand that would include the city, DDA, county, chamber and the JCDA.
“It would be great to have one story that resonates with the entire community,” Watson said.
She said the logos would be separate designs but would all go together. The director said the cost for the marketing plan was estimated at $60,000 and would be divided among the entities.
Kitchens said he liked that idea of combining the plan.
Watson asked for and received a consensus of the commissioners’ interest in going forward with the marketing plan and said she would be back.
Rizner reminded board members that they were approaching budget season and asked how and when they would like to meet.
Vaughn said they met on a Friday last year, which worked well, and that was the best day for her. It appeared the other commissioners agreed with the Friday meeting date.
The next meeting of the Board of Commissioners is scheduled June 18.
