Commissioners recognize volunteers and employee of the month; approve funding Twin Cedars traffic light, Trans-Aid contract and salary supplements for judge and clerk.
Catoosa commissioners truly operated in the dark during their meeting on the night of July 19 — not from ignorance or a desire to keep their activities hidden — but because of a power outage in downtown Ringgold.
Even so, the Board of Commissioners accomplished much during its 2½-hour meeting: proclamations were issued, employees were recognized, purchases and payments gained approval, salary adjustments were made as was the formality of OK’ing the school board’s sale of bonds.
In proclaiming August as Blood Assurance Month, it was noted that the region’s hospitals need 450 units of blood per day, year in and year out, and rely on unpaid donors to fill that need. It was for the dedication its staff to draw, test and deliver that life-saving liquid that Blood Assurance and its staff were honored.
The commissioners also recognized Katie Thomason as the county’s employee of the month.
Thomason was recognized for her efforts in “single-handedly” bringing events to the Northwest Georgia Bank Amphitheatre. That facility, adjacent The Colonnade, was home to the Catoosa Market and its more than 1,000 visitors as well as an ongoing Thursday night concert series.
Commission Chairman Keith Greene said the amphitheatre “was an area we’ve wanted to improve for years” and noted it has recently begun attracting interest from outside the local community.
County Manager Jim Walker said that in addition to her work with the amphitheatre and the county’s Economic Development Authority, Thomason is responsible for the county’s revamped website.
Beyond accolades, the commission also tended to taxpayer business during their meeting.
Spending $39,250 for purchasing a New Holland tractor as a replacement for a 20year old mowing tractor for the public works department was approved as was buying a new dump truck bed, a replacement for equipment that also has been in service for about 20 years, for $21,675.
Jean Altman, director of Trans-Aid, requested approval of a contract to provide rural transportation service throughout the county during 2017.
Trans-Aid’s capital budget of $88, 373 is 80 percent federally funded, with the state and county evenly sharing the remaining 20 percent — meaning $8,837 from the county budget. In addition, the state and county equally divide the $550,330 annual operating budget to operate seven buses.
County Attorney Chad Young informed the commissioners that the last parcel of right-of-way needed for installation of a traffic signal at the intersection of U.S. Highway 27 and Twin Cedars Road is being purchased for $3,833.
“Everything from this point forward is in GDOT’s hands,” he said.
Young also asked that the commission adopt a resolution supporting the school board’s intention to sell $40 million of bonds. Voters have adopted a special purpose local option sales tax earmarked for education that has repayment guaranteed by the school tax rates if required.
The ESPLOST referendum allows issuing of up to $49 million in bonds, repayable over five years, so commissioners were reassured that it is normal to issue up to 80 percent of that amount.
Carl Henson, the county’s chief financial officer, reported that revenue for the first nine months of the fiscal year have been about 2.5 percent less than budgeted, but expenditures have also come in below projections.
“After all is figured, revenue exceeds expenditures by $689,575,” he said.
The recent settlement of an $8.2 million obligation to Erlanger hospital at a discount means the county is “$2, 992,075 to the good” and that the county fund balance of $3.95 million at the beginning of the year now stands at $6.94 million.
Sales tax collections, while shifting from month to month, have been favorable over the most recent 12month period, Henson said.
The final business the commission considered, and what took the greatest amount of time — including a period when the lights and air conditioning failed during a power outage — concerned salary supplements for the probate judge and the state court clerk.
Catoosa was to implement a state court on July 1, 2016, and will do so once Gov. Nathan Deal appoints a judge and solicitor for that court.
Without a state court to hear them, traffic cases were previously assigned to probate court and that court’s judge received a state salary supplement for hearing those cases.
Probate Judge Jeff Hullender had asked that the county make up the difference in salary following the state’s withdrawal of funding.
A motion by Commissioner Bobby Winters, made by telephone, to have the county assume the full salary supplement died for lack of a second.
But a motion by Commissioner Jim Cutler that the county provide $250 per month, half what the state supplement had been, was adopted and will be paid for the remaining four years of Hullender’s term.
Greene said Hullender will continue handling cases that he has presided over and will continue overseeing offenders’ probation for the remainder of his elected term.
The commissioners were unanimous in approving an annual salary supplement of $3,000 for the next four years.
County Attorney Skip Patty presented a similar request for salary supplementation by Tracy Hullender Brown, clerk of superior court.
“The superior court clerk has agreed to serve as state court clerk,” Patty said, when asking the commission to approve a $500 per month supplement to Brown’s current pay.
Patty explained that the state stipulates a state court clerk’s supplemental compensation is $323.59 monthly and proposed the county upping that amount by slightly more than $176 per month.
“If she is not paid the supplement, she can decline the office and a clerk for the state court would have to be hired,” he said.
Hiring another clerk, adding staff and equipping a separate office for the state court could cost considerably more than offering a supplement and having the superior court clerk’s office perform duties for both courts.
Again, the commissioners were unanimous in approving the monthly salary supplement.
With business finished, the meeting adjourned at 8: 26 p.m.