Commission Chairman Marvin Rentz was back for first time since his heart attack and looked very well.
Wallace Sholar thanked the County for the use of the Ag building for the town hall meeting on Medicare Part D.
The deadline for property taxes was not changed. The request to change the deadline to November 20 of each year by Don Belcher was to even out the workload for the tax office. County tax bills were sent out in August for the December deadline. Georgia law states that they be sent 60 days prior to the due date, Decatur County residents have them for 120 days. Even with this advance notice only 55% of the payments due on Dec 20 have been made. Today we are still waiting on about $7 million in tax payments. Taxes on mobile homes become due in January and will remain the same.
There were some minor changes made in the contract with the City of Attapulgus regarding the county taking over the volunteer fire department. Changes concerned where equipment would be stored and that the equipment be equal to rest of county. According to Bramblett, the equipment has been inventoried. Commissioner Nichols wanted to make sure rest of commissioners understand that their equipment is in bad shape and some will need to be replaced or repaired.
The County holiday schedule was presented. County offices will close on Thursday December 22 at 12 noon. They will reopen on Tuesday December 27. Offices will also be closed on January 2nd.
There was a discussion about Christmas bonuses for county employees. Proposed was $100.00 for full time employees and $50.00 for part time employees who had been employed prior to July 1 2005. County Attorney Brown Mosley advised he thought this would violate the state 'Gratuitous Laws'. Commissioners discussed how to get around the law and decided to give the qualifying employees a one time 'raise'. The 'raise' would be in the form of a payroll check and taxes would not be taken out. According to County Attorney Mosley, Christmas presents or bonuses are in violation of state law but salaries and raises are not.
A concern was raised that County positions are being filled without advertising the position opening to the public.
Commissioners went into executive session to discuss a real estate matter. When back in public session, they stated that it was decided to contract to acquire 4.25 acres of land on Highway 27 south. This land is planned to be used as auxiliary fire, EMS and possibly for 911. The purchase price agreed to is $300,000. The land will be purchased from John Skipper.
County Commissioners also agreed to spend $150,000 to contract for grading necessary for the rail spur into Commodore Industrial Park. The County had agreed to do this work several years ago but had not been able to do so. The City of Bainbridge had completed the work that they had agreed to do. We will have more on this tomorrow.
