Commissioners approve contracts, capital projects, personnel changes and GDOT partnerships in unanimous votes

The Houston County Board of Commissioners approved a package of routine and project-specific items in unanimous votes during its Feb. 18 meeting, including service contracts, capital change orders, personnel additions, vehicle purchases, and letters of support for Georgia Department of Transportation (GDOT) projects.

Key approvals included jail-service agreements, an independent contractor for superior court, a hauling contract renewal, a traffic-signal change order on the Touton Road/State Route 127 project, mutual-aid and GDOT partnership requests, upgrades to the online code-of-ordinances page, vehicle purchases for the sheriff’s office, and personnel actions in the sheriff’s office, roads and bridges and landfill operations. The board also approved the payment of bills presented at the meeting.

Notable items and funding notes: the board approved a change order for the Touton Road/State Route 127 project to add a traffic signal at Touton Road and SR 127. Change order No.1 totals $493,939.66, bringing the contract total to $5,905,025.11; the project is funded by the 2018 SPLOST. The board also approved a request for GDOT aid on the St. Patrick’s Drive extension SPLOST project and signed a letter of support for construction of dual roundabouts at the SR 26/I-75 interchange; county officials said GDOT indicated favorable consideration and that special freight-and-rural funding (referred to in discussion as “Ford Funding”) could be available.

The board agreed to provide financial support to a GDOT project on U.S. 41 (State Route 11) between Lakeview Road and SR 247C; the requested support amount described in the staff motion was $15,000,000 to assist DOT with design, right-of-way acquisition and related costs, funded from the 2006 SPLOST surplus. Commissioners framed the contribution as a way to federalize and accelerate a larger widening project estimated in discussion to total roughly $54 million.

Other approved items (summarized): - Approval of minutes from the Feb. 4, 2025 meeting. - Contracts for jail services between the Houston County Detention Center and the Macon County Sheriff’s Office and the city of Oglethorpe (one-year agreements billed per inmate per day). - Independent contractor agreement for Superior Court with Sasha Knight (03/01/2025–06/30/2025 at $7,500 per month) to handle indigent defense conflicts. - Renewal of a trucking contract with DeCarleton Mims d/b/a Mid Georgia Trucking for hauling landfill leachate to a treatment facility (terms unchanged; current agreement was set to expire 03/05/2025). - An agreement with Life Safety Inspection Vault to provide required fire-protection reports to the fire department via a portal at no cost to Houston County. - Extension of a maintenance bond (South Veil Section 6) via letter of credit to allow a developer time to complete required work; board reserved the right to draw the bond if not extended. - Statement of work with CivicPlus (Manhattan, Kan.) to update the county’s online code-of-ordinances and maintain a searchable bank of ordinances and resolutions (agreement amount $1,375 from professional services). - Bids for sheriff’s office vehicles purchased from Phil Brannan Ford of Perry: two special service vehicles ($103,000 funded by 2018 SPLOST), one patrol vehicle ($49,850 funded by 2018 SPLOST), and two warrants-division vehicles ($95,555 funded by 2018 SPLOST). - Solid waste collection rate schedule to begin July 1, 2025 (the board approved a new a la carte model of weekly trash, recycling and yard waste options; specific monthly amounts were presented in staff materials and approved as part of the motion). - Renewal of the mutual-aid agreement with the city of Perry for emergency response. - Personnel approvals: addition of a property and evidence manager position (grade 16) in the sheriff’s office and subsequent hiring of Kimberly King for that role (grade 16, step E, effective 02/19/2025); approval to hire Jermembulus King as a heavy equipment operator in roads and bridges (grade 13, step C, effective 02/19/2025). The board noted the sheriff’s office evidence holdings and liability as the rationale for adding the evidence position. - Approval of the payment of bills totaling $4,270,730.66 as presented in the commission packet.

Most motions were made by commissioners responsible for the item and seconded by a colleague; where staff provided additional context (for example, GDOT cooperation or SPLOST funding eligibility), commissioners referenced those details before unanimous voice/hand-raise approvals. No item in this package failed or was tabled; one personnel item at the landfill (Item 8) was expressly not acted on at the meeting due to an attendance question.

The board ended the meeting with public comments and brief commissioner remarks.