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CITIZENS’
ISSUES AT TOWN HALL MEETING
Comm. Payne and Comm. Patrick held a town hall
meeting on July 30th. Members
of TWG attended and this is our report on what went on.
The first issue to be brought up was the County Manager and the “default judgment” in Magistrate Court
that was on the front page of the paper.
The question was, “Just how much longer are you all going to tolerate a County Manager
that is this inept and incompetent?”
Both Commissioners agreed there were huge problems, and Comm. Payne indicated there would be a new County Manager
and the current County
Manager most likely would
not be back. During the
meeting other issues were brought up concerning the role of the County Manager
and the BOC needing to take back some of their authority. Comm. Patrick said
the entire County Manager Ordinance needed to be re-written before a
new County Manager was hired. Everyone attending agreed and the
commissioners were reminded that “the buck stopped with them” and they needed
to do what was necessary to be able to remove a County Manager
for non-performance.
Several people discussed the curbside pick up.
There were new ideas presented as to how to recycle, questions about
customer service or the lack thereof, and the ability to opt out. Both commissioners thought Comm. Cox’s new
curbside proposal was a good solution to many problems.
Jackson Lake Rd. and the need for paving
was brought up. Comm. Patrick said she
had put the first mile of Jackson
Lake Rd. from Hwy 212 toward Hwy 16 on the LARP
list, and Comm. Payne added that he put the next mile on his LARP list. Both commissioners said they knew how bad it
was, but there was just no money to do it with county funds and they had
applied for stimulus money and grants with no word about receiving any money.
The commissioners were then questioned on Pitts Chapel Rd. One citizen asked just how much time and
money the county had spent with Public Works doing work on Pitts Chapel Rd. Comm. Patrick answered, “A lot!” “You’re right, A LOT, and now is the time for Public Works to be fixing and grading
dirt roads, not continuing to work on Pitts Chapel Rd.,” the citizen
continued. Comm. Payne agreed and said
dirt roads can’t be maintained in the winter and when it is wet because all
that does is destroy them.
Scott Cummings of Cummings
Grading then got up to talk about Pitts Chapel and the work the BOC
approved on it. He said, “We had the low bid.” Both commissioners stated he did not have the
low bid for the scope that was finally presented by the engineer, Larry
Kaiser. Comm. Patrick said she had
read the ad in the paper and that the $465,000 quoted in that ad was for a 4”
base that would never hold up under school buses and garbage trucks as well as
all the traffic. Mr. Cummings then said,
“That’s what Larry Kaiser told us to bid on.”
Comm. Payne said that Mr. Cummings would
need to check with Mr. Kaiser about the bids because the BOC voted to approve
the lowest bid. After more discussion,
Comm. Patrick said the scope kept changing every time Mr. Kaiser brought the
bids in to the BOC and agreed Mr. Cummings needed to discuss it with the county
engineer.
TWG has asked for information on the bids and has
received the following information:
Changing Scopes
Final bid results
Please click these links to see the information for
yourselves.
Other issues brought up for the commissioners
comments were borrowing money to operate on, lack of cooperation by some
departments and officials, investigation into the former Rec director and the
golf cart at his house, 200 foot road frontage for properties, the code
enforcement officer doing building inspections and not being qualified, the
building inspector not holding all the certifications required to do inspections,
putting people on probation for a garbage violation, and things money was being
wasted on.
TWG wants to thank these two commissioners for
holding a town hall meeting and listening to the public. We now hope these issues will be acted on and
not just talked about.
TWG
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Mission
Statement:
** To keep the taxpayers of Jasper County, Georgia
informed as to where and how their tax dollars are
being spent.
** To keep the taxpayers abreast of local policies
and laws being discussed and enacted.
** We advocate more open government, less government
spending, and lower property taxes.
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