Work session: County explores Riverbend dock, dredging, storage and an IPAWS alert add-on

At a work session Aug. 25, 2025, County Manager Thomas Weaver and staff presented several operational items that the commission directed appear on the Sept. 2 agenda: Riverbend Park improvements including a larger dock option that will require public bidding, estimates for dredging the boat ramp area, a proposal for a climate‑controlled storage building to house election equipment and county records, and a proposal to add an IPAWS‑style emergency alert capability to the county's text notification service.

Weaver said SPLOST and tourism funding could support a dock at Riverbend Park, bathrooms at the King Street basketball court and a Welcome Center at City Hall, and that staff would gather cost estimates at the next work session. Mordie Askew reported that a marine company had inspected the boat ramp and that he would follow up on pricing. Commissioners asked staff to return bids and cost options; Weaver said the dock purchase will need to be put out to bid because of its estimated cost.

On public alerting, a presenter (Johnny Floyd) asked the commission to consider adding IPAWS‑style alerts to the county's text‑message system so the county could push countywide emergency messages similar to Amber or highway incident alerts; the commission agreed to add the item as a voting item on the next regular meeting agenda.

Other administrative updates included animal control staffing and shelter logistics, public‑works millings work on Steeplechase, water‑utility repairs and EPD inspection follow‑up, and the county's consideration of moving its online payments to a new vendor (Caselle Payment Portal).

Next steps recorded in the work‑session minutes: staff to obtain dock and dredging cost estimates, prepare a formal bid package if needed, return information on a climate‑controlled storage option and present a formal IPAWS proposal for the Sept. 2 regular meeting.