Future Changes Possible for Gilmer County

Advertising for the changes to the alcohol ordinance in Gilmer County is moving forward with the Commissioners approval Thursday Night at the regular meeting. Votes were also approved for the final reader on the Powers of the Board of Commissioners negating the need for the County Clerk to sign on checks and maintain a hard copy of all expenditures as well as the first reader on the Collection of Tax on Harevested Timber.

Coming from the work session, Chairman Charlie Paris is proceeding with updating the County’s internet service to come closer to the modern needs of the offices as he says most things are transitioning to cloud services. Attempting to move all the information within the courthouse through the old 20 megabyte connection was causing very slow speeds and further hindering the operations of the offices. The new service he is looking at will more than double the service to a 50 megabyte connection while only increasing costs by an estimated $300 per month.

An update on the Emergency Medical Services in Gilmer County came with Commissioner Crouch reporting the county is raising pay levels of the EMS Personnel. This is due to a lack of response to attempts to hire more personnel. Crouch reported that Gilmer County was very low on payscales for these services relative to other Counties, and needed to raise this to maintain quality services in light of the situation with Gilmer County and its Hospital. This will also boost pay for those already working for Gilmer County to that level.

One other major note of the meeting involved a possibility of a new connector from Highway 382 to Highway 515. The Georgia Department of Transportation is requesting a letter of support from the county for putting in a roundabout in after they move 382’s intersection with Old Highway 5 further south away from Green’s Store and then continuing 382 straight across to connect to 515. Currently, it is being suggested that the Department of Transportation will construct the new roads, but were expecting the County to pay for certain upkeep costs and electrical bills. However, the letter the Commissioners approved to send is only in support of negotiations to move forward with this project that is said to aid in much of the traffic issues in the area. Though they only approved to enter negotiations on the project, Chairman Paris did say he wanted to make sure they would not cause undue hindrances on the project stating, “I don’t want another Clear Creek.”

Finally, the Gilmer Airport Runway Extension Project has attained an extension for Phase 1 of the project due to the bad weather we have received. This project is still moving forward, however, and will also look to add in necessary components for planes to land on instrument approach so that planes can land easier in foggy or bad weather ensuring further safety for aircraft.