LUMPKIN COUNTY, Ga.- The ACCG Worker’s Compensation Program presented Lumpkin County with a special cash distribution check at the work session on July 5.

The commissioners also discussed the Quality Tire Scrap Tire Recycling Service agreement at the meeting. They also discussed the change in the per-ton fee for the transfer station.

The ACCG check presented to the county is for a total of $56,442.00. The check is Lumpkin County’s share of a $6 million special cash distribution program. The board of trustees voted to approve that a portion of investments and underwriting gains should be returned to counties that had been members since 2015.

This is the second time that the ACCG has given money back to counties in the State of Georgia. The first time was back in 2019 and that was a total of $4 million. To understand more about why the ACCG gives back this money visit https://www.accg.org/story2.php?id=1545. At this time the Lumpkin County Commissioners have not stated how they will use the funds.

The next item that was discussed was the Quality Tire Scrap tire recycling service agreement. This agreement is for the tires that come off county-maintained vehicles. The agreement guarantees a rate of $170.00 per ton for the next 12 months.

The county scraps approximately 600 tires per year. The state requires the tires to be scrapped through a State-approved tire recycler and Quality Tire Scrap is the closest recycler that meets that standard.

By entering into this agreement the Lumpkin County Commissioners will be able to receive grant funding to hold a “Scrap Tire Round-Up Program”. The county has done this program in the past collecting two to three tractor-trailer loads of tires. They do impose a limit on how many tires can be brought by citizens or the number would most likely be much higher.

This is already planned for in the budget as a reoccurring fund line item under the Fleet Department budget. That total budget is $2,000.00.

Mark Robinson has requested that the commissioners approve a five-dollar increase to the per ton fee at the transfer station. The increase would be from $50 to $55 if approved by the commissioners.

The request for the increase is due to the rising fuel cost and a need to stay competitive in the market. This will not affect the price per bag and it also has nothing to do with recycling.

Development Authority Director Rebecca Mincey also provided the board with an update on how the broadband infrastructure project is currently going. Mincey has been working on this project for months to review some of the prior requests she has made of the board for the project visit https://lumpkin.fetchyournews.com/2022/03/16/the-board-to-seek-bids-for-inmate-health/.

Heard in the clip above is a portion of the update Mincey provided. Mincey went on to explain the process of descoping the NTIA grant and informed the board that she hopes in August to be able to provide a new CD450 for the new budget for the NTIA portion of the project.

The Development Authority will also be hosting an open house for the citizens on July 11 from 5:30 until 7:00 p.m. This will give citizens an opportunity to see if their address falls into the area that the project will be working on and also give them an opportunity to preregister for the broadband.

County Manager Alan Ours also gave an update on talks for the aquatic center. He has met with the architect for the project and Carrol Daniel’s construction and provided them with the key areas that were discussed in the work session on Jun. 28.

They will be going back and making the adjustments to the plans and he will be meeting with them again on July 13. He then should be able to present a new budget for the project to the commissioners at their July 16 work session and get further direction from them at that time on how they wish to proceed.

“We’ve got to do what’s in our means but the trap I want to avoid is that we talk about something this month and then we have to wait a month for another meeting, we make some little minor change then we have to wait another month for that change to come down the pipe. If we need to have special call meetings to expedite this process I’m more than willing to make myself available as needed,” stated Commissioner District 2 Bobby Mayfield.