Newspaper Page Text
Wednesday, October 17,2018
dawsonnews.com I DAWSON COUNTY NEWS I 7A
Board of Commissioners holds second budget hearing
By Allie Dean
adean@dawsonnews.com
The Dawson County
Board of Commissioners
could vote Thursday to
adopt the 2019 proposed
budget.
The board held the first
hearing Oct. 4 and the sec
ond on Oct. 11.
Prior to the hearing Oct.
11, Chairman Billy
Thurmond stated he had
three changes he wished to
propose: adding back
$1,100 to the general sup
ply budget for the Tax
Commissioner’s Office;
including $6,200 in the
planning and zoning
department budget for
computer software that
was not asked for because
the former planning direc
tor anticipated being
awarded a new software;
and adding an additional
$8,000 to the parks and
recreation budget for
power.
Parks and Recreation
Director Matt Payne said
that underestimation on the
cost of the new soccer
lights at Rock Creek Park
as well as the cost of the
new pool house having air
conditioning and more
lights than the older pool
house necessitated the
need to add more funds to
the power budget.
None of the other com
missioners discussed any
changes they anticipated
making.
The current proposed
budget is an increase of
$700,000 over the 2018
budget, and allocates 23
new positions in various
departments totaling over
$900,000.
During the public hear
ing, the only person to
speak was Joey Homans, a
local attorney and former
county attorney, who said
he was speaking as a citi
zen.
He asked the board to
consider earmarking funds
for training in personnel
management after the
departure of three longtime
county employees earlier
this year.
“It’s a great concern to
me as a citizen of Dawson
County that we lost three
of our long term employ
ees (this) year who reside
here, raised their families
here,” Homans said.
“Wages, income and sala
ries are important but
Lanier Swafford, Lisa
Henson and Kurt Tangel
combined roughly 60 years
of experience with our
county, left not because of
salary, not because of
income issues...it seems to
me there needs to be some
sort of specific training,
whether it’s to the employ
ees or at the management
level that needs to be taken
on so that our employees
are looked after in addition
to what y’all are trying to
do to make sure that sala
ries are equal and competi
tive with surrounding com
munities and that they have
appropriate benefits.”
The third public hearing
will be held at 6 p.m. Oct.
18, after which point the
board could vote to
approve the budget.
All hearings are open to
the public and will be held
in the second floor assem
bly room at the Dawson
County Government
Center.
In other business:
County could take
over maintenance
of Marketplace
Parkway
Public Works Director
David McKee presented
the board with a request
Oct. 11 to accept
Marketplace Parkway
into the county mainte
nance system.
The road is located in
the Kroger Marketplace
development and runs
from Dawson Forest
Road to Whitmire Drive.
According to McKee,
the road was formerly
named Gordon Moss
Road and was a gravel,
county-maintained road.
It has been developed as a
commercial subdivision
and built to county stan
dards with the intent for
Dawson County to take
over the maintenance.
The sidewalks, grass
and center of the round
about will not be main
tained by the county but
perpetually be maintained
by the developer, McKee
said.
“The intent behind this
development is ‘you build
it to this standard, we’ll
take over the mainte
nance’ and when we take
it over it’s a peak perfor
mance and we know for
the next eight to 10 years
other than cleaning out
curbs and doing that stuff
that it’s at peak perfor
mance,” McKee said.
“They have met all of the
obligations of the subdi
vision regulations and
their intent from day one
was for it to be a public
road.”
McKee said that in a
few weeks he will be
bringing LMIG, or Local
Maintenance and
Improvement Grant appli
cations, before the board
to start the process of
road improvements on
High Tower, a commer
cial subdivision, and
Dawson Junction, a resi
dential subdivision, both
of which have been
accepted into the county’s
maintenance program.
“The reason why we
have this policy is so we
don’t end up with the sce
nario like we saw in
between Power Center
Drive and Home Depot
(where) we have a road
that’s privately main
tained and we cannot reg
ulate that,” McKee said.
“We can do the best we
can do to put pressure on
them... if it becomes a life
safety issue then yes we
close it down, but that’s
not our purpose or intent.”
Grant could
establish Dawson
County Family
Treatment Court
The Dawson County
Treatment Court staff is
looking to apply for a
grant to establish the
Dawson County Family
Treatment Court with the
goal of getting local chil
dren out of foster care.
Debbie Mott, director of
treatment services pro-
grams for the
Northeastern Judicial
Circuit, presented a grant
application request to the
board that will allow for
the creation of Family
Treatment Court to
address the plight of
abused and neglected chil
dren who have substance-
abusing parents.
For 2019, Dawson
County Treatment Court’s
three tracts, Drug Court,
DUI Court and Mental
Health Court, were award
ed $309,631 in grant fund
ing. The grant would
award $67,642 for January
through June of next year
to create the Family
Treatment Court. The
grant is given by the
Georgia Accountability
Court Funding Committee
and the county match por
tion is 10 percent.
“We’re hoping that they
will allow us to use the
extra space from the Long
building that y’all gener
ously gave us as the
match, but if not...there
are some contingency
grant funds that could
cover that match,” Mott
said.
If awarded the grant,
Mott said the funds would
be used to fund a case
manager position, office
supplies and furniture and
other costs to get up and
running.
EMS to apply for
grant to upgrade
breathing equipment
Also presenting a grant
application was
Emergency Services
Director Danny Thompson.
See Budget 18A
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