LAURENS COUNTY BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS

REGULAR MEETING

APRIL 15, 2008 @ 4:00 P.M.

The Laurens County Board of Commissioners held their regularly scheduled meeting on Tuesday, April 15, 2008 at 4:00 P.M.   Present were Chairman Emory Lake, Commissioners D.M. Mullis, Tommy Daniel, Roscoe Brower, Cliff Crews, County Administrator Bryan Rogers and County Attorney Billy Kight.   County Administrator Bryan Rogers gave the invocation and Commissioner D.M. Mullis led the Pledge of Allegiance.

The first item was the approval of the minutes of March 18, 2008.  Commissioner Roscoe Brower made a motion to adopt the minutes. Commissioner Clift Crews seconded the motion.  All voted in favor. 

The next item was Public Hearing on Closing Ralph Wood Road.  Commissioner Clift Crews stated this road is in his district and he received a letter from Judge Stan Smith and Dr. Jackie Fordham concerning closing a portion of Ralph Wood Road.  Commissioner Crews stated the section of road runs from Highway 80 to Vinson Road.  Commissioner Crews stated several years ago, a portion of that road was made as one way and that is the portion they would like to have closed.  Commissioner Crews stated County Administrator Bryan Rogers, County Attorney Billy Kight and himself went and looked at the road and concluded that by closing the section of this road would still give two ways in and out of the road.  Commissioner Crews stated he does not feel that this would cause a hardship on anyone living on the road and would enhance the property value.  Chairman Emory Lake asked if anyone was present that opposed the closing of this road.  Mr. Tommy Wood came forward and stated when a section of the road was closed, County Administrator Bryan Rogers sent a letter out stating there would be some changes from the corner of Ralph Wood Road and Vinson Road so that he and others would be able to sell timber.  Mr. Rogers stated the timber trucks can go over the part of the road where the bridge is located.  Mr. Rogers stated the bridge was just inspected last year and it has full capacity for large trucks.  Mr. Rogers stated any truck that can run on a county road can go over the bridge.  Mr. Louis Ward also came forth with a concern.  Mr. Ward stated he believed closing the portion of Ralph Wood Road would affect property values on the road.  Mr. Ward also stated he heard that the property would be developed as commercial and he is concerned what may be placed on that property.  Commissioner Clift Crews made a motion to close the portion of Ralph Wood Road.  Commissioner D.M. Mullis seconded the motion.  Chairman Emory Lake polled the Commissioners and the voted was 5 for and 0 against.

The next item was Downtown Development Authority Presentation.  Mrs. Kathy Jones, Director of the Downtown Development Authority, was present to discuss the new projects for the downtown Dublin area.  Mrs. Jones stated she would like to thank the Commissioners for their support of the program and for believing in making the downtown area successful.  Mrs. Jones also recognized Commissioners Roscoe Brower and Clift Crews for their willingness to serve on the board.  Mrs. Jones stated for the fifth year in a row, Dublin has been certified as a national main street city and was featured in the February 2008 addition of the Georgia Trend Magazine.  Mrs. Jones stated the biggest asset to the downtown area has been the Market on Madison.  Mrs. Jones again thanked the Commissioners for helping make this project come to reality.  Mrs. Jones stated the second year of the logo contest has just been completed and there are two winners this year.  Mrs. Jones stated another exciting thing that has happened downtown is that a portion of downtown has been included in the enterprise zone through the city.  Mrs. Jones stated the zone starts at the southside and will include Madison Street and this will give the Development Authority an incentive to call on the businesses on Madison Street as well as potential business owners to offer certain incentives for new businesses to locate downtown.  Mrs. Jones stated Madison Street is the main focus at this time which will include repaving and restriping the parking lot behind Ma Hawkins and Blue Plate restaurants as well as going to the business owners in that area asking them to allow the Development Authority to do improvements to their backdoor areas.  Mrs. Jones stated the Development Authority will be working with the Department of Community Affairs to development a plan for the “Skyscraper Block” which would include the skyscraper building and the old taxidermy building, the five points building and the old warehouse building down by the railroad tracks.  Mrs. Jones again thanked the Commissioners for all they do to help with these projects and thanked her board for the work that they do also.  Chairman Lake thanked Mrs. Jones for all the work she is doing to update the downtown area.  Chairman Lake stated because of Mrs. Jones’ leadership, these projects are becoming a reality.

Next was the Disposal of Surplus Property.  Chairman Lake stated there were several pieces of surplus equipment and he would like a motion to approve the sale of this equipment.  Commissioner Clift Crews made a motion to approve the list of surplus equipment.  Commissioner D.M. Mullis seconded the motion.  All voted in favor. (Exhibit A)

The next item was to approve the Bid for the Airport Runway Extension.  County Administrator Bryan Rogers stated several months ago, he reported the county received the money to add a 500 foot extension on one end of the runway.  Mr. Rogers stated this is a contractual agreement with the state and does not involve the federal government.  Mr. Rogers stated this is a 75/25 type project which consist of extending the runway 500 feet, building a taxiway, and lighting the runway and taxiway projects.  Mr. Rogers stated there were eight companies that bid on the project and Landcare Services had the low bid.  Mr. Rogers stated the lighting of the runway was set up to be bid separately for the electric companies.  Mr. Rogers also stated the project was set up to build the extension first and then the taxiway in case the bids came in high.  Mr. Rogers stated the total project cost would be $650,756 to complete the whole project, which is what DOT wants to do.  Mr. Rogers stated the portion of the counties cost would only be 25% and the money would come out of the SPLOST fund.  Mr. Rogers stated his recommendation would be to do the project completely.  Commissioner Tommy Daniel made a motion to accept the bid for the total project.  Commissioner D.M. Mullis seconded the motion.  All voted in favor.

Next was to Approve Purchase of a Batwing Mower.  County Administrator Bryan Rogers stated bids were taken and the low bid was from Albritton Company in the amount of $10,289.  Commissioner D.M. Mullis made a motion to accept the bid of $10,289 for the Batwing mower.  Commissioner Tommy Daniel seconded the motion.  All voted in favor. 

The next item is an Equipment Request from East Dublin.  County Administrator Bryan Rogers stated Public Works has an old clam truck that hasn’t been used for a while because it is in need of major repairs.   Mr. Rogers also stated a new truck had to be purchased last year to replace the old one.  Mr. Rogers stated the city of East Dublin has made a request for the county to donate the old clam truck to them.

Mr. Rogers stated the truck is listed on the surplus list but due to this request, it was not sent to the auction.  Mr. Rogers stated if it is not the desire of the board to grant the request, then it would be sent to the next auction.  Commissioner D.M. Mullis made a motion to grant the request and donate the old clam truck to the city of East Dublin.  Commissioner Clift Crews seconded the motion.  All voted in favor. (Exhibit B)

The next item was to Amend the Sheriff Department Budget.  County Administrator Bryan Rogers stated throughout the fiscal year, the Sheriff has received several grants and there have been a couple of insurance losses also in which vehicles have been involved in wrecks and the insurance company has refunded the cost of the losses.  Mr. Rogers stated for accounting reasons, these revenues cannot just be washed out, they have to be shown on the revenue side and the expenditures have to come out of the budget.  The Sheriff wants to make sure his budget is properly approved and amended to show these changes.  Mr. Rogers stated the total amount to amend would be $31,500.  Commissioner Roscoe Brower made a motion to amend the Sheriff Department Budget.  Commissioner Clift Crews seconded the motion.  All voted in favor. 

RECOGNITION OF CITIZENS:

Judge Tommie Bobbitt was present and stated last year, he and Sheriff Bill Harrell came to tell the Commissioners about the need to expedite the serving of civil and criminal papers.  Judge Bobbitt stated the Commissioners were kind enough to allow his office to hire two partime process servers.  Judge Bobbitt stated he has had several positive comments on how much quicker the paperwork is being served and that overall; there has been a 29% increase in the civil cases filed as of December 2007.  Judge Bobbitt thanked the Commissioners for their help in making the process go much faster and providing better service to the citizens of Laurens County.  Judge Bobbitt also asked that a time be set up to discuss his budget. (Exhibit C)

OTHER BUSINESS:

Commissioner Roscoe Brower wished to congratulate Judge Bobbitt for the work he does and especially how it is reflecting in the case loads.

Commissioner D.M. Mullis stated it is election time and he is the only Commissioner that is up for the re-election, except for the District 3 position in which he thanked Commissioner Crews for his willingness to fill that position until next year.  Commissioner Mullis stated he will be running for re-election and he has enjoyed serving and has worked very hard.  Commissioner Mullis stated he just wanted to let the public know he is running and will be qualifying in the coming weeks and would ask the voters for their continued support.

Commissioner Clift Crews stated recently, the paid firefighters come under the Georgia’s Firefighters Standard in Training.  Commissioner Crews stated Bibb County has been in the news recently concerning their firefighters not being able to pass the test.  Commissioner Crews stated Laurens County firefighters were tested recently and out of those who took the test, they all passed.  Commissioner Crews stated we sometime do not see things that happen around the county but he would like to congratulate County Fire Chief Don Bryant and all the firefighters, paid as well as volunteers, on the outstanding job they do each and every day.

Commissioner Emory Lake stated everyone needs to continue working on the liter problem.  Commissioner Lake stated we all need to be responsible to keeping our city and county clean.  Commissioner Lake stated he met a new couple at his church that has moved to Laurens County from Florida and they told him that they loved living in this area and wished they had moved a long time ago.  Commissioner Lake stated their comments made him feel so proud of all the citizens and the way they except new people to live and be a part of Dublin and Laurens County and he would like to thank each and every citizen for making our community what it is.

There being no further business, the meeting was adjourned.