>> BALDWIN COUNTY COMMISSIONERS
The Baldwin County Board of Commissioners met Nov. 7 to hear updates from Keep Milledgeville Baldwin Beautiful, discuss the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity (WIOA) Grant, and vote on the ordinance regarding master meters.
The Chair of Keep Milledgeville Baldwin Beautiful Dr. Jeff Wells updated the board on the group. According to Wells, the group has named seven board members and approved their bi-laws in the last October meeting. Currently their board will include only these seven members but will expand in the future to 13 board members. Keep Milledgeville Baldwin Beautiful is also working closely with County Manager Carlos Tobar on the adopt-a-road program to keep roads clean throughout the county and city. They have also partnered with Georgia Military College and John Milledge Academy to begin development of educational programs. Moving forward, they are hoping to start their partnership with the city and are recruiting more volunteers and partners.
Moving into agenda items, the board unanimously approved appointments to the Central Georgia Joint Development Authority. Please refer to 15:35 of the recording of the meeting on the Baldwin County Board of Commissioners’ Facebook Page for the list of names and terms approved.
Assistant County Manager Dawn Hudson also introduced another grant from the Georgia Innovation Opportunity Act named the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Grant for a youth program. The board previously approved the dislocated workers program and adult program. This grant is for the period of April 1, 2023 to June, 30, 2025 for the amount of $298,274. This grant was unanimously approved and the chair was authorized to sign the grant documents.
Following this approval, a long discussion regarding the Code of Ordinances Chapter 58: Utilities 58-33, known less formally as the master meter ordinance, was unanimously approved by the board. According to Tobar, the ordinance was drafted with Attorneys Andy Welch and Brandon Palmer and discussed with the water superintendent and mobile home park owners. County Attorney Brandon Palmer summarized the additional alternative for mobile park owners that is a part of the ordinance.
“We basically bi-furcated the master meter ordinance for pre-existing mobile homes and new mobile home parks,” said Palmer. “For all of these options, the waterline and meter placement is going to be subject to pre-approval by the director of water and sewer.”
Multi-family buildings, like apartment complexes, will be allowed by statute to continue utilizing master meters. New mobile home parks will be required to install water lines and meters to each mobile home unit. They may not just utilize the master meter. For mobile home parks, in existence as of Nov. 7, have three options.
One, they may continue utilizing a master meter if they are already using one.
Second, mobile home park owners can move to individual meters for each residential end user. In order to comply with this option, they must have installed a separate line to the county right-of-way meter and the county right-of-way for each individual end user.
The third option allows residential end users, with written consent of the mobile home park owner, to apply for installation of individual meters.The county would install a meter outside of the residence at the cost of the county and the line would tie into the master meter at the roadway. The mobile home park owner will be responsible for the maintenance and repair of the lines or any loss of water, unless the loss occurs inside of a privately owned mobile home.
“If it is owned by a private individual and is rented from the mobile park owner, the private owner is responsible from the meter to the house,” said Tobar. “That is not the responsibility of the mobile park owner.”
Concluding the meeting, Tobar gave a short update on county projects. He stated that the RAISE Grant is being very slowly progressed and the agreement is almost “sewn up.”
The RAISE project is a safety project in Oconee Heights that will create one way roads in the subdivision in order to accommodate walking/bicycling paths. The final design is hoped to be completed by 2024.
“This will allow residents to access Swint and Vinson Highway safely. By connecting to those streets, they will have safe access to grocery stores and other sidewalks that connect to downtown,” wrote Tobar in an email to The Baldwin Bulletin. “Vinson Highway will have a sidewalk or multiuse path that will extend from McDade’s Grocery store to Caraker Lane. Three culverts will be replaced with modern culverts with safeguards. Solar powered street lights will be installed too.”
Tobar stated another ongoing project is to have Lawrence Road repaved. In addition, the Aquatic Center project is ongoing and Tobar stated 90% of the design should be completed by Thanksgiving and the center should be out for bid by January.
A public hearing on the proposed FY 2024 budget and the next regular meeting will be Nov. 21 at 6 p.m.