BOC to sell old Planning and Zoning Building
News July 28, 2020
Downsizing its facilities due to moving offices around, the Gilmer County Board of Commissioners is now looking to sell their building on the square that has been used recently as the Planning and Zoning office.
Gilmer’s former Planning and Zoning building is located in the square immediately south of the courthouse.
The property disposal came before the commissioners in a Special Called meeting under an agenda item that encompassed both the “disposal of the property” as well as engaging a real estate agent.
Gilmer Commissioner Chairman Charlie Paris stated that engaging a real estate broker will begin with a bid process to the board to find an agent to use in the process. However, engaging the bid should follow broad language on usage. County Attorney David Clark encouraged this option of specificty to allow the Commissioners options down the road. He stated, “That gives you the option to consider it, but you don’t have to use the agent with the additional piece of property.”
This means that the county could use the agent to sell the Planning and Zoning building, but wouldn’t have to go through the agent for every piece of property that may come up.
Paris also clarified further saying that if they get another piece of property they need to sell, but wish to just auction it off, they could do this. However, if they do wish to go through the real estate agent again, they would not need to complete the bid process again at that time.
Having the bid process set one agent into this position, the county is also looking to only extend the contract by a specific time period. After that time they would need to rebid the services of real estate agent. With that in mind, Clark also suggested the contract would terminate after a year unless the agent was amid a selling process at the time.
The final decision came through two motions, the first came to take bids for a real estate agent to handle disposing of county property while reserving rights to dispose of property in other ways. The second came to dispose of the building previously referred to as the Planning and Zoning building. Both were approved by the two present commissioners, with Post 2 Commissioner Karleen Ferguson absent.
Along with the disposal in this meeting, another issue arose that could become a major issue. While the office of the Board of Commissioners is attempting to satisfy requirements for a DOT audit with regards to Gilmer’s Airport Professional Services Agreement. According to Paris, Georgia’s Department of Transportation is going through an audit process.
As such, Gilmer has used grants they have used at the airport from the FAA. Part of those grants cover engineering requirements. The state’s audit saw a request for the master contract with the engineering firm from Gilmer County. Paris said that the county didn’t have a contract in 2015, but the county specified it was to be done under the contract of 2012. However, in 2012, the engineering firm, Croy Engineering, signed the contract and sent it to the county. The county at the time tabled the item to investigate. However, the county never revisited the contract.
With no contract, Gilmer County could be held responsible for reimbursement of all the engineering costs since 2012. Clark explained that the county has tried other options to resolve the issue, but have been rejected. Now, the county will authorize the chairman to sign the contract with a retroactive effective date to satisfy the needs.
The county has been operating under the contract over the years, but has simply not signed the contract.
Gilmer calls Special Meeting for Millage Rate
News July 20, 2020
ELLIJAY, Ga. – The Millage Rate is one of 5 items on the agenda this week during a special called meeting of the Gilmer County Board of Commissioners to be held on Friday, July 24, at 10 a.m.
The other items include the Swimming Pool, Vehicle Financing Documents, a Review of Roles and Responsibilities of the Board of Commissioners, and disposing of Surplus Real Property.
Agenda for Gilmer County’s July Special Called Meeting
Property taxes and the millage rate are set into the agenda discussing a “Resolution Authorizing the Advertisement of the Rollback Rate.” Set at 6.898 mills last year by adopting the rollback rate, the county went through discussions over both the Millage Rate and the 1.5 mills Bond Rate.
Last year discussion came from then-commissioner Dallas Miller and Citizens Joene DePlancke over the Bond Millage. After refinancing bonds in previous years, Holden said in August of 2019 that the 2020 payment is expected to total just over $4 million. Still, discussions were made about, specifically, about the .5 mill on that bond payment millage rate to cover the payments.
As discussions will move forward with the Millage Rates for County and the Board of Education, who each have their own rates, the county approve its rates and awaits the BOE to set their rate, before final approval of both rates together can come in August, if the county follows the same schedule as previous years.
The swimming pool has been put on hiatus since near the beginning of the COVID-19 outbreak as the Commissioners look to see what financial fallout would come from the shutdowns. However, discussions have started up again this month as the Board of Commissioners look for Bid specifications to begin the next step in the project.
The project got as far as the demolition of the old pool before stopping. The commissioners approved finishing that stage before coming to a full halt.
The bid process could start as early as next month with authorizing to advertise, however, to reach that point, obtaining the proper specifications is the current hurdle. Some discussion came during their regular July meeting voicing their disappointment that the designers of the pool came with estimates but are not going to deliver bid specifications. Paris said, “It surprised me that they couldn’t give us those specs…”
Disposing of Real Property is the other new business on the special meeting agenda. Agenda items like this sometimes do not specify a specific property in case multiple properties need to be discussed. However, an earlier copy of the agenda stated disposing of the former Planning and Zoning office as at least one of those properties.