>> BALDWIN COUNTY COMMISSIONERS
The Baldwin County Board of Commissioners hosted its regular meeting on Nov. 21 and approved an appointment, grant awards, and an intergovernmental contract. Only commissioners Kendrick Butts, Emily Davis, and Sammy Hall were present at the meeting to vote.
The meeting began with a presentation by the County Director of the Division of Family Children Services Jennifer Crowell to update the board on the division. Services are currently being housed in a temporary location at the professional center behind Chik-fil-A and are fully open to the public again from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.
Crowell also updated the board on numbers related to foster care placement, family preservation services, and family support care. In Georgia 11,000 children are in foster care, including 94 in Baldwin County. Statewide there are 2,234 family preservation cases, including 12 in Baldwin County.
Within the county, there are currently 12 family support cases, and Crowell states there are typically 10-30 ongoing cases a month but most do not typically lead to any removals.
Concluding her update, she reminded the board and community that they are always looking for volunteers, employees, foster parents, and more.
Next, Joy Moten-Thomas, the assistant vice president of government relations for Atrium Health Navicent, presented an award to the Board of Commissioners for being a Community Health Champion. The award was originally accepted by Chairwoman Davis at the Nov. 1 award ceremony but Moten-Thomas also wanted to present it to the board as a whole.
Moving into administrative and fiscal matters, the board unanimously approved the appointment of Dr. Janet Hogan Harrison as the chair of the Board of Health.
The board also approved the Georgia Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA) Grant Awards. Baldwin County is in local workforce area 10 and acts as the fiscal agent for WorkSource Middle Georgia.
“It is now an 11-county workforce area,” said Dawn Hudson, assistant county manager. “Accepting these grants and the proposal authorizes the chair to sign the merger documents.”
Hudson also presented the Ocmulgee Drug Task Force Intergovernmental Agreement that establishes mutual aid to prosecute and detect drugs in the area. A new grant has been submitted for the task force and the unanimous approval by the board allows them to move forward with the agreement.
Concluding items passed, the board approved the Hazard Mitigation Grant Program Award to purchase 200 weather radios, which will be available for local government offices, schools, and critical facilities in the area. The total of the approved cost is $6,267 with a state share of $251 and a local share of $376, which will be paid out of the EMA department budget.
County Manager Carlos Tobar did not give a county manager report for this meeting. However, Linda Colwell spoke during public comments in opposition to the multipurpose track that will be near Newport Road. Colwell expressed that she has been corresponding with Tobar via email, inquiring about examples and more information but had not received everything she requested. She also stated that petitions have been created against the project.
During her comments, Colwell said, “He (Tobar) responded (to an email) and said ‘if you push this and don’t let this go Mr.
Butts is going to suffer.’ He said he (Butts) talked to you and they probably won’t give you a grant if we don’t let our grant go through.”
Tobar forwarded the correspondence referenced to The Baldwin Bulletin on Nov. 22 to clarify what was said. According to the email, Tobar explains that the east apron airport project is no longer going through and that the multipurpose project “is a much different situation than what was happening with the airport east apron project.”
Unlike Colwell’s reiteration, Tobar wrote, “In that case, we did not have a contract with the Georgia Department of Transportation (GDOT) for the east apron project so it was not going to hurt the county’s reputation. Canceling the trial project at this point would harm our reputation and likely harm our chances of future grant awards. It would be ideal if the neighborhood got behind the project.”
Tobar also wrote that according to past survey results, there was 60% support for the project and that is “the main reason GDOT moved forward with the project to the next stage.”
Concluding the email, he does include a link to a path in a neighborhood in Jekyll Island that “has a similar layout to what he envisioned for Newport Road.” He also noted inspiration from a trail he saw in the Lane Southern Orchards in Fort Valley that he is still looking for references from, but did not have a linked example to send to Colwell.
Colwell states that her main opposition to the examples is that they are a growing neighborhood and that it is “just not us.” She also emphasizes that the neighborhood has changed since the approval of the grant in 2018 and that there are many more houses that the path would pass by.
However, Tobar confirmed to The Baldwin Bulletin that the path has gone through many iterations through the years and that the majority of the path is on airport property along the fence line. He also stated that during the planning process years ago, he went door to door to inquire how these homes would prefer the path be placed in the short section, and most homeowners voted for the front of their residences rather than behind.
The Board of Commissioners stated they would get back to Colwell after some discussion on the project.
The next meeting and a public hearing for the proposed FY 2024 budget will be held on Dec. 5.