Inflation adds to challenge for commissioners
Jones County Commissioners held a work session to consider next year’s budget before their first Tuesday board meeting last week.
Board Chairman Chris Weidner called the Sept. 1 meeting to order, and the prayer and pledge were led by Tim Ingram of Ingram & Associates.
The work session began at 5 p.m. with County Administrator Jason Rizner presenting an overview of special requests from department heads that totaled over $3 million. He said at that time it looked like approximately $300,000 of fund balance was needed to balance the budget.
Rizner went on to say, due to the amount of the fund balance, some of it could be spent without jeopardizing the security of the county. He then asked board members how they wanted to move forward.
Weidner stated that the auditors suggest the county have enough cash reserves on hand to last three months in case of an emergency.
“I think we have enough to run the county for eight months,” he said.
The chairman said he recalled 11 years ago, the year he and Commissioner Sam Kitchens were elected, they had to find $2.4 million dollars to balance the budget.
“We are fortunate to be in the position we are today,” he added.
Commissioner Daylon Martin said he supported using the fund balance to balance the budget. He said the board needed to decide how to proceed from there.
Kitchens asked if the possibility of leasing the large ticket items that are mostly from EMA or Public Works, rather than purchasing the items, had been explored to provide the equipment.
Rizner said a group of five or six equipment- related employees were working on a large equipment inventory with the goal of planning out five years of what is needed. He said the work is nearing completion but was not ready to present to the commissioners.
Kitchens said he is in favor of rolling the taxes back but pointed out that the price of gas has increased 27 percent, asphalt cost was up 5-6 percent, and the cost of health care continues to rise. But he added that the county cannot live off its rainy-day fund.
He said the board started fixing the property equity issue three years ago and told taxpayers property values had to be uniform.
“We have done that, but we still need to live within our means,” he said.
The commissioner also pointed out that departments were made to hold the line for those three years. The result of that is the county now has older equipment. He said the board needs to start looking.
“In my opinion, we need to find a way to fund those big-ticket items and then look at roads,” he said.
Kitchens said the tax rate has been reduced from 16.185 in 2021 to 12.963 in 2025. This year’s proposed rate is 12.085.
“We have done our part,” he said.
His proposal was to use $1 million in fund balance, taking the $300,000 to balance the budget and looking at the special requests minus the big-ticket items. The commissioner also wanted some set aside for improving roads.
Commissioner Wendy Vaughn asked if grants that could help with big-ticket items had been explored. The price of many of those items is several hundred thousand dollars. Kitchens noted that because of Jones County’s higher median household income, it is not eligible for most of those grants.
Martin pointed out that the price of the items will only be going up. His suggestion was increasing the budget to cover those items. He pitched the idea of not rolling back the millage rate and using those additional funds to purchase the requested items.
Kitchens said the county cannot continue to use reserve funds to balance the budget.
“I’m proud we have at least kept up with the cost-of-living increases,” he said. “But against everything I believe in, I think we need to take money out of savings. We can’t ask more of taxpayers.”
Weidner, Wood and Vaughn all agreed they needed to proceed with the millage rate rollback.
Kitchens asked department heads to prioritize their request so they can be considered at the next budget meeting.
The work session adjourned at 5:44 p.m.
6 p.m. board meeting
After calling the meeting to order, Weidner asked Zoning officer Tim Pitrowski to present the Planning and Zoning items.
The first was a proposal by the commissioners to create a code section in the county’s comprehensive plan to allow distilled alcohol package sales as a conditional use in the C-2 zoning district. Pitrowski explained the planning commission recommended approval last year, but action was never taken. The code section number would be 73.23(10).
Martin made the motion to create the code section, and the motion was approved unanimously.
The second P&Z item was postponed to a future meeting.
Board members reappointed Belinda Chaney to the Jones County Library Board of Trustees for a five-year term to expire June 30, 2031. The motion to reappoint Chaney was made by Vaughn, and the motion passed with a unanimous vote.
The first item of New Business was the award of the 2025 LMIG bid. Ingram presented the recommendation to award the bid to the low bidder, MHB Paving Inc. The bid amount was $1,391,150. He said the bids were opened Aug. 13.
Ingram added that the project spanned 4.36 miles, including full depth reclamation. He said the cost per mile is $319,000.
Clerk of the Board Shannon Wagner brought up the need for the board to select a voting delegate for the upcoming ACCG Leadership Conference. She said commissioners Vaughn and Kitchens will be attending.
Kitchens immediately made a motion to appoint Vaughn as the voting delegate. It was approved unanimously.
County Attorney Ashley Brodie said board members need to proceed with a public hearing for the alcohol ordinance. Wood made the motion to proceed with the public hearing, and the motion was approved unanimously. Brodie suggested the hearing take place at an October meeting.
The meeting was adjourned at 6:27 p.m.
