County Commission’s latest session sees re-appointments, project bid approvals
The Polk County Commission is making sure to fill any position vacancies that might have come with the new year, so the group approved both appointments and re-appointments to various boards and departments within the county.
Barry Akinson was unanimously selected to fill the position as the Assistant County Manager directly under County Manager Matt Denton, the second time he’s held the job officially. Also Sherman Ross was re-appointed as a Highland Rivers board member where he will serve another 3-year term beginning on July 1, 2019.
Todd Queen was selected to fill the vacant slot on the Water Authority board, and since accepting of the position, will serve a 3-year term beginning on April 1, 2019. The board also invited the newly promoted Clerk of Court Stacie Baines to speak on her progress in the office, so vacancies are being handled across the board.
To ensure the current and future employees have the tools and materials they need to thrive, the commission also approved a series of bids on everything from network infrastructure to building repairs.
The $31,400 bid submitted by Engineering Solutions was accepted for stabilizing a section of the building slab for animal control. This is another step forward in the commission’s attempts to make more room available for the animals, and they also plan to purchase materials for the cat room addition.
For $82,658.42, Hypertech will be providing various pieces of technology that were approved in the commission’s earlier FY19 Capital Improvement Plan. In the CIP, $25,000 was pledged towards an updated firewall, $20,000 worth of optics and network switches were approved, and $8,000 towards emergency backup and virtualization was promised, among others.
It’s important to note that there are certain pieces of tech the group isn’t ready to purchase, however. While the county has been looking to update their firewall, they plan to refrain from buying until they find the best possible one.
“This will not include all the cyber stuff,” Denton said. “He (Polk IT Director David Smith) hasn’t made purchases on that, but he’s still looking for the best solution for a firewall. He’s got a product in place, but he needs to expand it. He’s working on that issue.”
Roof Technology Partners was the accepted vendor for repairs to the gutters and a section of roof on Court House #2, and with each bid approved, it won’t be long until the construction begins.
Any residential building repairs or construction will likely be done to local standards, however, since the commission joined many other Georgia governments in officially pledging to oppose House Bill 302 and Senate Bill 172.
If passed, the documents would prevent local governments from enforcing and regulating their own design standards on homes. Local governments risk losing control of elements such as exterior building color, style or materials of certain exterior parts, certain exterior ornamentation, the interior layout of rooms, number of rooms, and more.
The bills would not affect state or federal historical districts, mobile homes, or homes governed by neighborhood associations, however. The group had little discussion, but cited the desire to maintain their own building standards before unanimously agreeing to oppose the legislation.
The group’s agreement with Floyd County for an inmate work detail was also due for renewal. Polk often sees neighboring inmates performing labor such as picking up litter, and after speaking with County Public Works Director Michael Gravett, the commission agreed to have them perform similar tasks by approving the renewal.
“The Floyd inmate crew that we get, they strictly pick up litter on the sides of our roads,” Gravett said. “Then we use them if we need them for paving projects if we need a couple extra hands.”
According to Sheriff Johnny Moats, Polk depends on Floyd inmates because there’s a limited number of qualified people, based on flight risk and charges, available in the Cedartown jail. Also, not every person being detained has been convicted and therefore are not required to serve in a detail.
“Out of 200 inmates, there might be only 15 or so that actually qualify to come out on an inmate crew,” Moats said. “But we do contract with the city of Rockmart and we do con- tract with the city of Cedartownwhich they do fund a certain amount of those inmate crews because they solely go out to those cities. The county and the Sheriff’s office does fund one crew from our jail that does stuff inside of Polk County.”
Before an executive session for pending litigation, the commission offered some closing comments about future items and plans.
“It’s almost budget time,” commissioner Chuck Thaxton said. “I sure hope we can move, at no one’s fault, I hope we can move quicker than we have been in the past. I hope that works out, but I want to say a special thanks to our employeesespecially the ones that are out there now.”