Dawson County news. (Dawsonville, Georgia) 2015-current, July 13, 2022, Image 6

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Dawson County news., July 13, 2022, Image 6

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Newspaper Page Text6A I DAWSON COUNTY NEWS I dawsonnews.com Wednesday, July 13,2022 New mental health Transfer station talks continue law goes into effect By Rebecca Grapevine Capitol Beat News Service Georgia’s new mental health pari ty law took effect Friday, July 1. Under the state’s new law, Georgia health insurers must cover mental health treatment at the same level they cover physical ailments. “Parity kicks in immediately,” Rep. Todd Jones, R-South Forsyth, said about the new law’s July 1 start date. Jones, along with Rep. Mary Margaret Oliver, D-Decatur, co sponsored the omnibus bill in the state house of representatives earlier this year. “Georgia families hopefully have a greater opportunity to receive treatment they’re entitled to,” Oliver said of the change introduced by the new parity law. “Folks that have not been getting adequate treatment: new funding is coming, new attention is coming,” Oliver said. Oliver — along with several other mental health advocates — pointed out that Georgians can report suspected parity violations to the state insurance department. Georgians’ reports about their expe riences would be key to making sure the law is enforced, Oliver said. Georgia’s new mental health law sends the message that “mental health matters and is just as impor tant as your physical health,” Kim Jones, executive director of the National Alliance on Mental Illness, Georgia, said. To explain mental health parity, Jones gave the example of a health insurer that offers out-of-network coverage for urgent medical servic es. That insurer must also cover out- of-network urgent mental health and substance use treatment under the parity rule, Jones explained. The Georgia insurance depart ment will soon hire a new mental health parity officer to help oversee the law, Weston Burleson, director of communications officer for the insurance department, said. Down the line, the department will collect and publish detailed information about how health insur ers perform on mental health parity, Burleson added. The mental health law also sets up a new MATCH (Multi-Agency Treatment for Children) team. The team will start meeting soon and look carefully at the problem of Georgia children in state custody who lack stable placements, Oliver said. “The issue of emergency place ment for these children needs a lot of attention,” Oliver said, noting that some of these children are stay ing in hotels or offices. The new law also helps set up mental health co-responder pro grams, Oliver said, with funds pro vided by the FY 2023 budget. Co-responder programs pair mental health professionals with law enforcement officers to help respond to mental health and sub stance use crises. The programs often provide follow-up services as well. Later this year, the state will solicit proposals from communities that want to set up assisted outpa tient treatment programs. The new mental health law provides for five such programs on a “pilot” basis. In these programs, courts — working with community mental health and law enforcement agen cies — can require people to get treatment for mental health and sub stance use disorders. Meanwhile, Georgia’s mental health commission is planning another round of recommendations and sub-committees are meeting monthly, Oliver said. And the mental health commis sion is keeping a close eye on the progress of the new law’s provi sions. “There’s a lot of work going to make sure to ensure that our over sight creates a successful imple mentation,” Oliver said. This story is available through a news partnership with Capitol Beat News Service, a project of the Georgia Press Educational Foundation. By Julia Fechter jfechter@dawsonnews.com Four months after staff shared the challenges present at the transfer station off of Burt Creek Road, County Manager David Headley pre sented a possible two-part solution to the Board of Commissioners on July 7. Detailed problems with the trash disposal and recycling site revolve around “significant damage” caused by the change from acceptance of just house hold items to the inclusion of all commercial debris, accord ing to a memo included with the meeting minutes. Resulting safety concerns as shared by previous Public Works Director Denise Farr at the March 3 BOC work session prompted the county to take another look at transfer station operations, Headley said. Currently, he said that Dawson County has limited what it can accept at the trans fer station to residential items. He added later that with only certain materials being taken, recycling has become “more of an inconvenience at the house hold level” as far as people try ing to discern what they can and cannot take to the transfer station, only for items to then go into one bin (the single stream method). As part of the county’s research into how to better handle commercial, residential and recyclable materials, mul tiple commissioners and BOC Chairman Billy Thurmond vis ited Pickens County’s Recycle Convenience Center and its main recycling/process ing center back in May. The first phase of transfer station improvements would entail the Dawson site being retrofitted with a pull-in and drop-off system, similar to Pickens County, that would allow for a “much broader recyclable operation than what we currently have in place,” Headley said. Customers would have sepa rate areas to dispose of house hold trash and place recycla- bles. Specifically, recyclable bins or divided compactors would bear signage showing what is and isn’t acceptable. As part of the proposed proj ect, roofs and wingwalls on the transfer station’s main rectan gular structure would be extended to help facilitate the new setup. Plans would also encompass repairs inside the existing transfer station, like for the affected I beams and rebuilding of the floor area. The first phase’s projected budget is around $250,000. The project’s second phase, which Headley estimated as being several years out, would entail a retrofit to better handle the acceptance of commercial materials, which are not being processed at the transfer station now. That phase would also include rerouting traffic pat terns within the Dawson site to promote a better vehicle flow given a greater expected amount of vehicles. A rough estimate wasn’t given, but Headley did suggest that SPLOST VIII could help finance it. The county has been in con versation with Green Waves Recycling for insight on how to proceed with the first phase of the project. A representative from that company, Taylor Burgess, attended the July 7 work session and explained that they’ll rent out a series of containers and compactors for the endeavor and provide the county with recycling banners to help educate customers on what they can recycle in each of the different bins. Between several months and a couple years from starting the project, Burgess estimated the rental costs for the compac tors, material transport, equip ment and/or fuel maintenance could be offset by fees the county makes back from recy clable tonnage. As with other municipalities, the money in waste disposal can be found in recyclables, namely having recyclable materials be trans ported to another facility where they’re weighed and then sold on the open market. Burgess mentioned the bene fit of potentially also having trash disposal on the same side as recycling receptacles, although he clarified his pur view right now is helping counties like Dawsno more with recycling. County commissioners were generally receptive to the first phase of the project. District 4 Commissioner and BOC Vice Chairman Emory Dooley said that people who want to recy cle should have the opportuni ty, and he subsequently pointed out that with the new setup, people would have a better idea of where their recyclables are going. District 2 Commissioner Chris Gaines spoke on the financial potential of recycling, stating the importance of “part nering with somebody who’s dealing in volume and already has those distribution channels established,” referring to Pickens County. Gaines even mentioned that if the county breaks even on the recycling fees received back, the prospect of building another transfer station down closer to Ga. 400, perhaps near Fire Station 2 and in conjunc tion with a fueling center, which is a SPLOST VII proj ect. The commissioners and Headley also discussed the importance of dialoguing with community entities like the school system to ensure the success of any recycling col lections on their sites. Burgess said he’d be open to helping contribute to the educational component of the first phase by going out to talk to the schools. Headley reiterated the first phase’s potential to encourage and educate Dawson County residents and the wider com munity to recycle and cut the waste to a landfill. Thurmond praised the forth coming project’s details as a “good step forward for our citi zens,” later elaborating that many of them do want to recy cle. WE DELIVER! 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