LUMPKIN COUNTY, Ga.- The Lumpkin County Commissioners met with Fiance Director Abby Branan and County Manager Alan Ours on July 16 to review changes made to the budget and make a decision what the millage rate for the fiscal year 2023.

Commissioners met with Branan and Ours following their July 5 work session and meeting and set the task for them to try and find ways in the budget to balance it without raising the millage rate or using too much of the fund balance. To review that meeting visit https://lumpkin.fetchyournews.com/2022/06/29/commissioners-continue-budget-talks/.

Branan and Ours reviewed the budget and spoke with department heads to find areas where they could adjust the budget. Branan found six items to adjust that freed up a total of $561,337. Those items are shifting the Aquatic Center Owner’s Rep from the general fund to the F301 Fund Balance, Removing grant fund cash match, shifting the E911 Communication Equipment from the general fund to the E911 funds, Update P&R Program Coordinator Salary, adjusting various line items, and cutting out the insurance for positions that are vacant.

The reason behind removing the grant fund match is due to never having used it in the past. Removing that frees up $50,000 by itself.

The department heads along with Branan also came back with a few suggestions to increase revenue for the budget. These include increasing ambulance and animal shelter fees, placing a freeze on four positions, removing the Yahlooa Creek Park turfplane treatment project, and delaying the airport project within safety means until 2024.

The positions that were suggested for freezing are currently vacant and have been for some time. Those positions are a custodian, real property appraiser, and two road maintenance workers.

The increased fees for the animal shelter are coming from an increase in rabies quarantine, rabies vaccine, cat adoption, and offense fees. Most of the increases are between $5 and $10 from what they currently are.

The turfplane treatment is more of an improvement project rather than a necessary maintenance project. The commissioners also talked about exploring other community-based options to move forward with this project.

Total increases from the measures are $491,139.00. With these changes, the expenditures are $26,444,891 and the revenue gap is $12,788,612. To review these figures with the original budget Branan proposed visit https://www.lumpkincounty.gov/635/2023-Budget.

Coroner Mark Cox came before the board to request an increase to the coroner’s salary in the new budget. To review that request in full use the link above.

To bring the coroner’s salary up to the average of the counties surrounding namely Dawson, Fannin, Gilmer, and White would be a $9,000 increase. This is on top of the $5,000 that the state-mandated all elected officials received beginning Jan. 1. In total that would bring the coroner up to $30,000.

The commissioners agreed that to place the extra $9,000 to bring up the salary into the budget. They did not do anything with the deputy salary feeling that was up to the coroner to decide how those positions should be paid.

They also gave directions to Ours to check and verify if the state is responsible for giving the Librarians a COLA increase. If they are not then they are willing to add another $12,069 into the budget for that increase.

The current millage rate for unincorporated is 9.389 and for incorporated it is 11.556. The rollback option for the coming year is 8.157. Due to the rising inflation and high fuel cost, the board felt that the best course of action was to keep the millage rate at what it currently is and use $1 million out of the fund budget to balance the remainder of the budget.

The two special tax districts the reservoir and planning have their own millage rates. The reservoir is 0.206 and the planning is 0.452. That is a rollback for the reservoir from the previous year. Currently, the school board has not received their millage rate so it is not yet clear what the total millage rate will be.

Heard in the clip above is Chairman of the Board Chris Dockery explaining why they are moving forward with using some of the fund balance to finish balancing out the budget. There is also the chance that they will not need to use the entire $1 million during the fiscal year.

Ours also presented the commissioners with the new plans for the Aquatic Center project. The new plan is to have a gym with indoor courts for basketball, pickleball, and volleyball. There are six outdoor pickleball courts with room for bleachers.

There are two waterslides, a splash pad, and an eight-lane 25ft pool. Around the outside of the pool, there will be room for a bubble if the money is raised for it and if the school system decides they are still willing to pay to heat the pool.

The new design for the aquatic center.

The current price for the project from Carroll Daniel Construction is $11,878,556. The next steps are for the construction drawings to take place which should take up to 45 days. Carroll Daniel will also need to go ahead and order the steel as soon as possible since current wait times are six to eight months.

The commissioners could take action at the next regular meeting on  July 19 to move this project forward. They have not received the cost for the FF&E yet and that could be anywhere from $716,000 to $1 million. Staff is currently working on those numbers and the commissioners suggested working with the School System’s Chief Operations Officer Greg Trammell for additional support on getting the numbers down.

“I feel like we fought for what we have right here and the reason we fought for this was because of the kids in our county and what we can provide for them,” commented Commissioner District 1 Tucker Greene.