Baldwin County Commission Chairman Andrew Strickland delivered the State of the County address during the Milledgeville-Baldwin Chamber of Commerce’s last Eggs and Issues this year.
The county’s areas of focus included infrastructure, compliance, and code enforcement.
During 2025, the county has resurfaced 26.25 miles of county roads, including Log Cabin Road, Meriwether Road, Lake Laurel Road, and more funded by TSPLOST. The county has also completed 1.7 miles of new water lines on Log Cabin Road.
“Through TSPLOST the county can repave 20-30 miles per year in contrast to five to seven miles per year without TSPLOST,” said Strickland.
Strickland also reported that a roadway entrance to the Smith-Sibley Industrial Park is under development through a $2 million state grant.
For compliance, the county has two main areas of focus: the tax assessor’s office and Baldwin County Animal Control.
At the Tax Assessor’s Office, issues of missed deadlines set by the State of Georgia, unresolved software issues, appeals, valuations, and other issues were uncovered. To resolve these issues, the board passed a resolution requesting help from the Georgia Department of Revenue. The department is currently conducting a full report and once it is complete, the report will be made public.
The Department of Agriculture regulates animal shelters and Baldwin County was found to have multiple violations, mainly due to overcrowding and mismanagement.
“The shelter regularly housed over 100 animals,” said Strickland. “Baldwin County has more animals than are wanted by the public.”
To combat these issues, the county created a spay/neuter ordinance that will act as a long-term solution. In addition, the county changed management, promoting Tracy White to director and hiring Charles Trumbo as a management analyst. The animal shelter has since received a clean report from the DOA for the first time in eight years, has received $8,000 in private donations, has partnered with three new rescue partners, and much more.
“We will see the long-term benefit of the ordinance in five to seven years,” said Strickland.
In code enforcement, the county found that most ordinances were not enforceable.
To resolve this, the county has moved the responsibility of ordinance prosecution to the district attorney’s office and has ongoing employee training.
“Ordinances are underway of being cleaned up in public meetings and work sessions,” said Strickland. “I invite anyone to attend and hear what is being changed. Starting Jan. 1, most of our enforcement mechanisms will be operational.”
In other issues, Strickland touched on litter problems and stated ordinance enforcement is underway, the county has paid for litter pick-up in conjunction with right-of-way mowing, planned to reboot community service trash details, and is promoting the Adopt-a-Road program.
“This has led to thousands of bags of trash removed from county right-of-ways,” said Strickland. “This is the first year we have implemented this, and this is a historic kind of cleanup but it’s not enough for me. We will continue to rework this program and get better over time.”
The county also aims to continue to resolve blight mitigation to improve neighborhoods. The county does this by acquiring blighted properties, removing the blight, donating the property to Habitat for Humanity, and having new homes constructed on the property, which return to the tax base.
Looking to the future, the county worked with the Convention & Visitors Bureau, who commissioned a study by Huddle-Up Sports, to determine that sports tourism investment will improve economic opportunities.
To invest in this area, the county has created a comprehensive plan for Walter B. Williams Park for it to be the “center of play” in the community. The plan should be complete between February and March of 2026.
The county has also made investments in the Little Fishing Creek Golf Course to add irrigation, new green complexes, new tee boxes, lengthening the course to 7,200 yards, and opening a training facility. The facility will open prior to the close of the golf course’s renovation in January.
To hear more about the subjects mentioned in the State of the County address, citizens are encouraged to attend monthly board meetings. Agendas and dates can be found at baldwincountyga.com/ commissioners.