County approves advertising for bids on new pool
News February 15, 2021
ELLIJAY, Ga. – Engineering reports are completed and in the hands of the Commissioners for their pool project.
The project saw a delay early this month when COVID hit the engineering firm causing a major quarantine. However, with the specs and the firm working alongside Project Leader Loy Jarrett and County Attorney David Clark, reports indicate that Gilmer could be bidding out the project as early as mid-March.
Commission Chairman Charlie Paris said that the advertisement will have to be open for four weeks as it is a public works project, which means bidding would last into May. Citizens could see the county awarding the bid in their May Regular Meeting.
One change to previous designs came with modifications to move the diving well to the right side, from the center. That is moved to the right hand side when viewed from the civic center.
One point of note that Post Commissioner Hubert Parker put forth was to inform citizens that the progress is underway and while the designs are in, the finalization of the bid package is being undertaken as a part of the same project with the firm.
With that, citizens could be seeing physical progress on construction in May or June after that bid process is completed, awarded, and the contracted company begins the project.
The county was looking to a special called meeting towards the end of February to look at final approval for advertising the project for bids and a few other items. However, with optimistic news coming on the day of the Regular Meeting, the Commissioners did move forward with approving advertisement of the bid package upon completion.
With that approval, the next step is to wait for the advertisement period and bid openings before citizens will know which company will be actually building the new pool.
Pool project hits another delay with COVID
News February 4, 2021
ELLIJAY, Ga. – Reports during a special called meeting of the Gilmer Board of Commissioners (BOC) indicate that the county’s pool project hit another delay this month.
Loy Jarret reported to the board that the engineering firm the county is using has been hit by the COVID virus. Due to this, at least a two week delay is coming to the pool construction project.
According to Jarrett, a large portion of the project is finished but the firm is now awaiting recovery and quarantine periods to end and for the firm to reconvene in order to finish the project. This means Gilmer will also see a delay in the promised 3 weeks originally promised. This could come closer to 6 weeks now.
The board is hoping to have the engineering finalized in February before returning to scheduling on the project which has been plagued with delays and issues including many from the ongoing Coronavirus outbreak and resurgence.
The pool project is attempting to continue under conditions after a major delay saw the Commissioners halt the project completely after demolition of the old pool last year. The commissioners, at that time, wanted to wait and see what the virus outbreak, quarantines, and self isolations would do to the county’s economy.
In the same area of the county, at River Park, the commissioners also approved an easement for Georgia Power to begin excavation and subsequent repairs to areas of the park to install underground utilities. According to County Attorney David Clark, the county will be making some minor changes to the agreement before returning it to Georgia Power for final approval.
With that, citizens could be seeing more immediate construction work in the area of River Park stretching through different areas. This construction work is not a part of the pool project, but rather Georgia Power performing this installation.
Gilmer Courthouse suffers bomb threat on election night
News January 6, 2021
ELLIJAY, Ga. – Gilmer County may not have had issues at the poll precincts, but the courthouse saw issue on election night as a bomb threat was called in on the facility.
According to the Gilmer County Sheriff’s Office, “An anonymous caller notified the Gilmer County Sheriff’s Office of Facebook posts made by a Travis Ingram regarding his anger against law enforcement about a prior arrest, as well as a specific threat that he had a bomb and was headed to the courthouse.”
Staff at the courthouse was put on high alert, and while the statement from the Sheriff’s Office did not directly connect with election night, other counties are receiving specific threats related to political ideals and the elections specifically.
Pickens County posted officers at precincts in a pre-emptive effort based on the threats in other counties as well.
According to the Sheriff’s Office, the staff inside the courthouse was put on alert, and election staff had to follow special response considering election ballots being on premises.
According to Chief Registrar Tammy Watkins, as they prepared ballots and discussed what to do as they are not normally allowed to leave ballots unattended, the threat was dealt with before they were forced to move or do anything with the ballots due to the threat.
The statement read, “Based on the severity of the threats and actions he stated he intended to carry out, the courthouse staff was put on a high alert status and deputies began looking for Ingram.”
The statement continues on saying that Ingram was found and arrested. Ingram is facing charges of Terroristic Threats & Acts and is currently being held in the Gilmer County Detention Center.
Despite the threat, proceedings continued at the courthouse throughout the night. Elections were still allowed to continue as planned with ballot counting during the night.
Gilmer BOE updates code, meeting dates, and handbook in December
News December 18, 2020
EAST ELLIJAY, Ga. – Preparing for the new year and new board members, Gilmer Schools updated their students code and handbook as they hit their mid-year meeting and prepare for the return for the second semester in January.
Coming late in the year, changes to the student handbook were approved this week in order to provide for students needing certain credits for graduation. Adjusting specifically a world language instead of certain CTAE courses in graduation requirements, this change comes, according to Superintendent Dr. Shanna Downs, as the virtual academy is not able to do those courses online.
Because of this and because some students need to adjust and cover this requirement in their final semester of high school, the Board approved the change to support this digital students as the COVID-19 outbreak continues to require adjustments and changes from organizations moving into the future.
Additionally, the board is changing an official job title adding a Title IX Director for Lindy Patterson, who is already the school system’s State and Federal Programs Coordinator.
The Board is also looking at new meeting dates next year. They have looked at the dates since November, adjusting and changing as needed. The board of education usually approves these meetings in January of the year, approving the 11 months of that year along with the January Meetings for the following year.
This means that the Board’s two newest members, Joe Pflueger and Michael Parks, will have the opportunity to vote on these in their first meeting of the new year.
The Board is updating its Student Code of Conduct to incorporate new needs as the school shave reached a point when students have Chromebook for use throughout their grade levels. Incorporating information gained through use of a program monitoring what students are typing and reading through the Chromebook. This new update will incorporate the new screenings that the school is using along with protections on the Chromebook usage.