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The Barrow County Board of Commissioners has given the go-ahead to move forward on a portion of the sewer line along Highway 211.
The board approved the $54,900 Highway 211 gravity sewer project at its meeting Tuesday night.
"It’s essential to the total project that we go ahead and put this gravity sewer in," Wastewater Services Director Mark Whiddon told the board.
HSF Engineering will design the 12-inch wide gravity sewer that runs along the highway from Beaver Dam Road to Freeman Johnson Road, where the county plans to build a pump station. The company will also assist in other preparations for the sewer, including coordinating surveying, preparing bid documents, approving shop drawings and preparing digital drawings.
According to Whiddon, this design phase will cost $32,400.
The surveying will be done by W.T. Dunahoo and Associates and would cost about $15,000. HSF Engineering will also help acquire wetlands delineation and various permits for $7,500.
The project is funded through the Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax (SPLOST) and Whiddon estimated it would take about six months for the project to be completed.
Inmate health services
The board also approved signing a new inmate health services agreement with CorrectHealth. The new contract will cost $44,457.65 per month and ends the two-month-long temporary extension the county had with the company.
CorrectHealth has provided health services for inmates at the county jail for the past two years.
The new agreement costs about $4.87 per inmate when the jail population is at 300. And if the population reaches 360, that cost will increase to about $5.16 per inmate. The agreement also has an aggregate monthly cap of $2,500 for expenses that aren’t covered by the contract, Maj. Mike Katsegianes told the board.
County code amendments
After holding a public hearing earlier in the evening, the board voted to amend the county codes related to public drunkenness and tabled the ordinance change regarding nuisance animals.
The ordinance on public drunkenness now makes it unlawful for anyone to be and appear intoxicated in a public place or on someone’s private residence without invitation, "when such condition is made manifest by boisterousness, by indecent condition or act, or by vulgar, profane, loud, or unbecoming language."
That change is effective immediately.
Animal Control Director Jimmy Terrell said the first he’d heard anything about the possible changes to the animal ordinance were when the notice ran in the newspaper. He told the board that the changes don’t clarify any more than what already exists in the ordinance.
He also said the proposed changes that would set a timeframe for how long an animal could be making "excessively disturbing noises" was unrealistic.
"I don’t believe the sheriff has enough deputies to sit out and listen for barking for half an hour," he said.
Terrell told the board he has other potential ordinance changes that he’d like to bring to the board in the future.
Planning Commission rezones
The Board of Commissioners also opened up the meeting to hear public opinions on the flood damage prevention ordinance, a rezoning request by the Georgia Club to build a sales center at the intersection of Highway 316 and Craft Road and an amendment to the Unified Development Code (UDC ) that would allow churches in industrially-zoned areas.
The board approved each of those requests.
Executive session
The Board of Commissioners adjourned the regular meeting with a motion to go into executive session.
District 1 Commissioner Larry Joe Wilburn was not in favor of going into executive session.
The session was convened behind closed doors for the purpose of litigation with personnel added to the agenda.
Wilburn did not join commissioners and County Attorney Angie Davis for the session which began at approximately 8:30 p.m. and wrapped up at 9:15 p.m. when the board reconvened into regular session. Wilburn abstained from that vote.
The meeting adjourned with no business coming from the executive session which Chairman Yearwood said involved existing and new litigation and personnel issues.
