County to negotiate facilities use, holds first reading for land development standards
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Photo by Sandro Schuh
The Hart County Board of Commissioners voted Tuesday to table a new recreation/school system facilities use agreement with the school system that has caused some controversy among commissioners.
The Hart County Board of Education originally wanted commissioners to sign the same contract as any other renter of the facilities, but that was not applicable to the county. The two boards now have an intergovernmental agreement.
The county and school system use each other’s fields frequently, with the Hart County Recreation Department using Herndon Stadium as part of its participation in the North Georgia Youth Football Association, which requires use of the high school field.
There has been a large amount of negotiation and the commissioners said Tuesday they are not comfortable with some of the requirements made by the Board of Education.
For example, the county will be required to pay a cleaning fee, when in the past the school system’s facilities have not seemingly been cleaned prior to the county’s use.
“It’s gonna cause a little bit of a problem, we’ve always cleaned up behind them and them behind us,” said attorney Kim Higginbotham.
Commissioner Joey Dorsey requested that the cleaning part of the agreement be removed.
Higginbotham stated that it was non-negotiable.
Dorsey replied, “With all these school bus turn-arounds that we are out here doing, we don’t charge them a penny for – there’s a lot of other things, it is all taxpayer money – it shouldn’t be a problem.”
A motion was made by Commissioner Michael Bennett to take no action and negotiate terms further, a second was made by Commissioner Jeff Brown and was passed by a 5-0 vote.
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Commissioners approved the first reading of a proposed ordinance setting land development standards, even though they still disagreed on its details.
The major point of discussion was centered around changes proposed by Bennett.
“I am advocating for the construction workers of Hart County, which is a very large percentage of people in Hart County as well as our smaller developers,” Bennett said.
The changes included a maximum of 10 lots, no curb and gutter put an inch near a site plan for all soil erosion or natural runoff, a 1,000 foot buffer and to make it an option to tie into county water.
Bennett also stated that he felt that the posted sign requirement prior to starting the development’s construction was a waste of time and money.
“People have made it clear they do not want these large housing developments in this county. My thoughts are, we call it a neighborhood, not a subdivision, and make it smaller. I do think you are going to have to do water. It is not fair for one developer to do water and another one not,” Dorsey said. “I don’t feel like it is right to take that away now when there are other subdivisions out there that have had to do this, now all of a sudden we are going to stop.”
“My thing is, they have the upfront cost but we have them forever as far as the county in maintaining those roads,” Brown said.
“This is not a completed document at this point, but we are trying to get there—we need to move on this and try to get this done,” said Chairman Marshall Sayer.
Bennett made a motion to approve the first reading, a second was made by Frankie Teasley and was passed on a 5-0 vote.
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Commissioners held a public hearing Tuesday for the adoption of a FY2024 general fund budget of $15,851,259.
There was no public comment on the budget. .
A motion was made by Dorsey to adopt the budget, a second was made by Brown and was passed with a 5-0 vote.
Dorsey reported that construction of a new bridge on Georgia Highway 77 Spur is causing trucks and other traffic to use secondary county roads.
“We are having problems with trucks and everybody else cutting through secondary roads: Bio Church Road, Nancy Hart School Road,” he said.
The construction of a new bridge over Little Coldwater Creek began Thursday and is projected to take approximately 150 days, weather permitting to complete.
A temporary detour is in place during construction rerouting traffic from Highway 77 Spur to Elberton Highway, Highway 29 and Georgia Highway 181.
However, instead of taking the 22.2 mile detour, traffic is using secondary roads instead of the advertised detour.
“This is a safety issue. Those trucks have no business cutting through and I don’t know that GDOT has done a very good job communicating and the last thing we want is to have millions of dollars in road damage like we’ve already got,” Dorsey said.
He also mentioned that the resurfacing and widening of Bio Church Road has been put on hold due to the bridge’s construction and traffic detour.
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The commissioners also heard from four individuals during public comment that spoke on the matters of election integrity and the implementation of paper ballots.
“We as commissioners don’t make those decisions, it is based on the Board of Elections,” Commission Chairman Marshall Sayer said. “If there was anything that went on in these last elections—I believe the election that we had here was done with the utmost respect and integrity in our county. We can’t control other counties, we can’t control the state, all we can do is be responsible for what’s happening in our county.”