About The Georgia post. (Knoxville, Crawford County, Ga.) 19??-current | View Entire Issue (June 26, 2014)
CRAWFORD COUNTY EAGLES FOOTBALL CAMP will be held July 12, 2014 at CCHS football field. Registration begins at 8 a.m. Camp hours are: Age 6-12, 9 a.m. to 12 p.m. Middle school age, 1 p.m. - 4 p.m. Pre-register for Recreation Dept. 2014 Season - Age 7-12 - $75; Flag - $25. For additional information or questions contact James Carter at 478-258- 0110. SHOP LOCAL. EAT LOCAL. SPEND LOCAL. ENJOY LOCAL. Siart a ^Crencf TASTING ALL OF CRAWFORD COUNTY COMING JULY 17TH AT 5:30 P.M. The Chamber will host the event where local businesses will offer a taste of their menu items from their business. The cost will be $5 per adult and $3 per child (12 and under). Bring your lawn chairs and empty stomachs and taste Crawford County! m Issue25 Thursday, June 26, 2014 The Voice of Crawford County Since 1921 2 Sections, 12 Pages One Dollar also serving Byron and Peach County Roads are a never-ending issue for county Commissioners must whittle over $1 million in road projects down to $369,000 By Victoria Simmons The Georgia Post Roads continue to be of major importance to Craw ford County Commissioners as they struggle to whittle down road projects to match the amount of monies avail able. At last week’s meeting, commissioners approved abandoning a portion of one road and continued to look at the LMIG (Local Mainte nance Improvement Grant) roads project list. A public hearing was held for the abandonment of a portion of Tribble Road. There was no one in atten dance to object to or agree with whether the road should be abandoned. The portion of the road commissioners want to abandon is from Zenith Mill Road to Cum mings Lane. County Manag er Pat Kelly told the board that surrounding property owners had been notified of the public hearing and an advertisement had been in The Georgia Post. One prop erty owner (Pearson) sent a letter to Planning and Zoning in support of abandonment, according to Kelly. Commis sioners approved abandoning that portion of Tribble Road unanimously (4-0, Chair man Dean Fripp was in the hospital). The county manager again presented the 2015 LMIG roads project list to the board which contains 19 various projects. As Kelly had previ ously told them, the list need ed to be scaled back because the estimated total of the 19 projects was over $1 million and the expected funding amount is only $369,000. To further that process along Kelly presented the commis sioners with a whittled down version of the original list to consider. These projects on this list were roads the county engineer and road su perintendent had identified as the most critical in need of attention while keeping within the constraints of the funding. Kelly also noted if they wanted to do one big project, Dixon Road would be the one to consider. In discussing the roads the question was asked that for the good of Crawford County citizens, what was the best way to keep from wasting that money. There was discussion as to whether the way they were doing things was what needed to be done or were they wasting money by what was being done and having to redo some roads every year. Commissioner Frank Hol lis noted that if you spend all the money on one big project that you would only get one road per year done and that wasn’t fair to all commission ers. Vice Chair Paul Chairman, standing in for Fripp, wanted to know what happened to getting the traffic count and number of homes on each road. Commissioner John Thomas said that the board needed to try and address all of the roads and do what they could. He also noted there wasn’t enough money to do much of anything. Maintaining roads was compared during the dis cussion to how you eat an elephant — one bite at a time. On the whittled down list there are 10 projects which include 3.20 miles of Dixon Road (Dbl surface); 1.40 miles of Jackson to Evans (rock); .80 miles of Tan- glewood (rock); .60 miles of Walton 0 overlay (Dbl surface)’ 2.10 miles of Hollis Peaches and politics If you think peaches and politics have nothing in commoon then you obviously haven’t attended the annual Peaches and Politics event at Dickey Farms. This year’s was held last Thursday and as always included peachy refreshments including free peach ice cream. There were attendees from all over middle Georgia including Peach County and Monroe County to see old friends, catch up on the latest news and meet and greet local politicians. Above Chuck White of Georgia Power and Ryan Johnson, Crawford County Superior Court Clerk discuss local politics while Ryan’s daughter, Sophia, enjoys the delicious peach ice cream. Michael Sanders Missing mans family asking for Michael Sanders, age 32, will have been missing for three weeks today and his family is asking for anyone who might know of his whereabouts or anything about his disappearance to please contact the local authorities or a family member. Sanders was staying with his grand mother on Sandy Point Road. He is described as having salt and pepper hair, balding and was probably wearing t-shirts and shorts. A missing person’s report was filed. If you know anything please call the sheriffs office. (rock); another one mile of Hollis (rock); 1.10 miles of Dent Road (Dbl Surface); .20 miles of Stagecoach (rock); and 1.80 miles of Smith Chapel (rock). Moving on, Kelly requested that the board table a request for a motor grader which was on the agenda because he was still waiting on bids. He did, however, present the board with quotes for a scag Mower because he said the grounds crew needed another mower, especially now since they were mowing the ball fields. One quote was from Advanced Power Equipment of Macon for $10,385 and the other from Kenny’s Repair Service of Macon for $9,743. With a little discussion the board agreed to purchase the mower at the lowest quote. It is now time for the county’s medical insurance for employees to be renewed and Kelly presented the com missioners with 15 different options from five providers. The options ranged with all having higher deductibles. Going over the options, premiums would increase, depending on the plan cho sen, from 25.27% to as high as 262.8%. Commissioners discussed back and forth the various options and issues associated with each and how they should proceed forward. Kelly recommended Plan#3 by Blue Cross/Blue Shield which has a premium increase of 25.27% and high er deductibles for both indi vidual and family plans. This increase is lower because it is being offered through ACCG (Association of County Commissions of Georgia). Deductible for an individual is $3500 and for a family is it $10,500. The increase in premiums will cost the county $130,000 more than the previous year. However, employees pay for 23% which leaves the county with an additional expense of $100,000 for fiscal year 2015. Commissioners approved going with the option recom mended by Kelly. In other business, Kelly told the board the Health Department building was in need of various repairs and had received a quote of $20,000 for those repairs. The roof has several leaks he noted and suggested to the board they may want to immediately repair the roof and hold off on additional re pairs until the 2015 budget. One citizen said that the roof damage may be from high winds and the county should check with insurance to see if that was the case. Commissioner Chapman asked Kelly to investigate the possibility of an insurance claim and also asked that he get additional quotes to re pair the roof. Chapman said he thought it best to spend money on replacing the roof rather than a temporary fix which would cost more in the long run. He did ask the county manager to determine if the roof could be temporar ily patched until bids could be obtained for a new roof. Ms. Simmons from the health department told the board someone had written obscene graffiti on various walls inside the building and asked if the county could cover those up immediately. She added that the roof did need to be fixed but other re pairs could wait. The county manager told her he would have someone paint over the markings on the walls as soon as possible. He told the board he would get the needed quotes. According to a letter sent to the County, the fund that pays the Federal portion of the Transit grant may face insolvency as soon as Au gust. Kelly told the board the county relies on the Federal portion ($66,500 per year) and the county would have to cover those expenses if monthly payments are delayed. He recommend ed the county continue to operate the Transit system but not enter into the annual contract until the issue of a Federal shortfall is resolved. The letter stated that every step possible to fully reim burse the state for as long as possible would be taken. The Middle Georgia Re gional Commission request ed that the county appoint a community representative to the Middle Georgia air Quali ty Advisory Committee which is a part of the EPA’s Ozone Advance Program. Improving air quality in the region helps protect Robins Air Force Base during a BRAC. Kelly said Giles Ragsdale is willing to serve on that board and the commissioners approved that appointment. Griffin Utility Construc tion, LLC was the low bidder See ROADS, Page 3 Opening doors of opportunity Several people investigating the possibility of open ing a business in Crawford County attended Friday’s Opening Doors of Opportunity for Businesses hosted by the Roberta-Crawford County Chamber of Commerce. The idea was to get potential business owners to look around Roberta and Crawford County to see what was available to decide if they would like to open a busi ness here or expand an existing one. Chamber Exec utive Director Patti Temple (at left) showed the group different buildings which were available. A representa tive of the Small Business Development Center was on hand to help the potential owners. The Chamber hopes this will provide a boost to the local economy and bring businesses into town. Several chamber directors were also on hand to lend support.
