Commissioner Addresses New Services, Construction and Grants

BLAIRSVILLE, GA – September 19 Commissioner meeting addressed several services coming to the county, including the new recreation gymnasium, juvenile justice grant, and road department software.

After some initial contractor setbacks, Commissioner Lamar Paris is confident that the new double, recreation gym will start within the next month.

The foundation has already been poured for the project, and the county has been waiting for construction to begin. It will be located next to Union County’s Health Department on the Glenn Gooch By-Pass.

“We’re hoping it’s going to start this month, said Paris, “We had a near come-to Jesus meeting with the contractor this week. We told them that if they didn’t start this month, then we would take it back out to bid.”

Contractors were supposed to begin construction two months ago, but keep pushing the date back due to other projects. Once complete the double gym will offer an indoor walking track and two courts for community use.

Union County received an Accountability Courts Grant for the Juvenile Justice Incentive Grant for the amount of $118,087 from July 2019 to June 2020. It’s part of the drug court program to help young people reform and rehabilitate their lives.

“We really have a lot of people that have gotten in trouble with drugs and gone through this process, they’ve reformed and they’ve come out of this having their charges removed, said Paris, “I think they’ve got about an 87% non-recidivism rate.”

The county accepted a contract with Point to Point Environmental for Creek Impact and Free Product Abatement for the amount of $65,905.00, effective August 29, 2019. This contract was necessary due to a fuel tank leak at the Road Department and required a combination of self-insurance and public funds to be fully covered.

“Fuel tanks that were put in place by prior administrations, several years ago,” said Paris, “I’m not sure it’s anything you can blame anybody about. One of them just sprang a leak. They have leak detection devices on the tank, but by the time that happened, there had been some leakage.”

The state came in an evaluated the situation and mitigated it, so no direct out of pocket costs to the county.

IWorQ and the county have agreed to a software contract for public works and community development projects and tracking, including building inspection, road department, county commissioner’s office, and the county. It should streamline the repair work and inspection projects in the county through accurate tracking. One day the public can also report road hazards online for the county to review.

The system will help the county to evaluate “what roads to do when” and make it easily presentable to the public.

“The departments are all excited about it especially the road department and building inspection,” said Paris.

The contract amounted to $33,000.

Rushton and Company, LLC agreed to provide specified financial processes training to county staff for $14,000. The additional training will ensure that all transactions are properly processed and recorded.

“We’re supplementing the auditors to come back and double-check the work that’s being done in the accounting department, just to verify things to make sure we’re going in the right direction. Help us keep an eye on the budget process and try to shore up a mistake or two, nothing big…help our staff to understand exactly what they have to do and the order they have to do it,” explained Paris.

Butternut Crossing became part of the county road system.

The next commissioner meeting moved to Tuesday, October 22 at 6 p.m.