Chatham County board approves budget transfers, reads first reading of right‑of‑way encroachment amendment

Chatham County commissioners on March 27 approved a set of budget amendments and transfers and listened to a first reading of a proposed amendment to Article 11 of the county code concerning right‑of‑way encroachment.

Chair Chester A. Ellis announced a calendar change and the county manager read several fiscal items into the record. Among the items read were a request related to purchasing an ADA van for the Chatham‑Savannah Authority for the Homeless (the manager read an increase in miscellaneous revenue of $40,000 and a transfer described in the record to support vehicle purchases), a reported allocation of SLOs revenue to establish a marine patrol facility, and a transfer of capital improvement funds described in the record to a West Broad Street YMCA project. The transcript contains several numeric lines that were garbled in the recorded readout; staff told commissioners they will provide corrected figures and supporting details to be available before the second reading and the formal budget appropriation process.

A motion to approve the items as read was made and the chair called for votes; the action calendar was accepted on the record. Later the clerk read an amendment to Article 11 ("Right‑of‑way encroachment") into the minutes as a first reading. The manager said staff will provide the relevant documentation between the first and second readings so commissioners have answers for questions at the second reading.

What’s next: the manager will circulate corrected budget figures and supporting documentation for the items read into the record. The amendment to Article 11 will return for a second reading after staff provides the requested materials.