BOC HAS ANOTHER MEETING OF SURPRISES

 
Surprise!  Comm. Pennamon decided that JCWSA would be added to the agenda at the meeting yesterday morning.  Maybe another commissioner or two knew about it because there was sure a lot of back scratching going on, but not all of them did.  It was obvious the JCWSA knew about it because 5 of their members showed up at 9AM.  Comm. Pennamon must have already talked with them to let them know. 

Comm. Cox and Comm. Patrick voted against putting it on the agenda with Comm. Patrick saying it was underhanded not letting the citizens know ahead of time.  Comm. Cox said the same thing and said it should be put on the next agenda.  Comm. Pennamon wouldn’t hear of it and said a decision needed to be made and had his other 2 votes—Comm. Bernard and Comm. Hill—and it was put on the agenda.

During discussion of the JCWSA Comm. Pennamon said the Fire District Tax needed to be discussed.  Comm. Cox said the last one was not done legally and he had documents from the Attorney General.  Comm. Patrick also said it wasn’t legal and in fact the donation last year violated the law.  The county attorney is to look at it and this will be on the agenda April 19^th. 

At the February 9^th meeting of the JCWSA the county attorney, Comm. Bernard and Comm. Pennamon all met with the JCWSA according to their minutes.  Maybe this was the same kind of meeting that Comm. Pennamon, Comm. Payne, and the county attorney had in August 2009 before JCWSA was bailed out then. 

Brack Pound, Chair of the JCWSA, told everyone they were broke and had already taken money out of their sinking fund which is a big no-no.  If you don’t want more money being poured into the bottomless pit of JCWSA you need to attend the Town Hall meeting Thursday night and let the BOC know it and then attend the meeting on April 19^th.

We continue to ask—WHY DOES THE BOC FEEL SO OBLIGATED TO THIS ONE ENTITY?????

Surprise!! Larry Kaiser, the engineer that seems to work for one commissioner, was back.  Somehow HE went out to Jackson Lake Rd. and made all those pink marks on the road, not DOT.  HE says the road is sooooo bad it has to be reclaimed.  His estimate to deep patch the road is $136,000.  The DOT’s estimate was $48,000. 

Kaiser was also the one Comm. Bernard called on to help get the $1.7 million dollar loan to redo Jackson Lake Rd.  Remember, he would only charge $4500 to apply for the loan!  Everything he has presented to the BOC for SPLOST has Jackson Lake Rd. on it.  Citizens and TWG continue to remind the BOC that Jackson Lake Rd. was not one of the original 10 roads promised as SPLOST roads.

Comm. Cox asked who authorized Larry Kaiser to call DOT on February 12^th and try to get Jackson Lake Rd. LARP money moved to another road.  No one answered.  Mr. Kaiser just sat in his back row seat and said nothing.  We were reminded by Comm. Cox that Larry Kaiser was not supposed to be doing anything for the county except Pitts Chapel Rd.  The new County Manager tried to take the blame, but was quickly reminded he wasn’t even here in February. 

There were several votes on SPLOST roads with Comm. Bernard either amending the motions to include Jackson Lake Rd. or trying to defer the motions.  None of that succeeded as Comm. Cox, Comm. Pennamon, and Comm. Patrick voted against those.  Comm. Pennamon made the motion to do East Bullard Rd. and Feldspar Rd. with SPLOST money.  Comm. Patrick agreed but they lost the vote 2-3. 

Once again NO SPLOST ROADS were decided on. 

Surprise!! Everyone needs more money!  The Sheriff, the library, EMS, and others all were at the BOC to ask for more money.  The BOC made no commitments and Comm. Patrick kept asking where would the money come from?  Those asking for money didn’t have an answer or at least didn’t give one.  Comm. Patrick said that the taxpayers couldn’t pay any more in property taxes. 

It was shocking when Comm. Pennamon asked the library spokesman when he was going to quit coming and asking for money every month.  Comm. Bernard agreed and asked it again.  The commissioners were not rude like this to others, just the library.  It sounded like the library would not be able to operate even 2 days a week.  Wonder if the BOC will find money for the JCWSA so they can continue to dig a deeper hole but have the library closed?