Dodge County Commissioners met Monday night in thier regular meeting. An item taking the most time was a request from a group to ask that a Club or Dance Hall be allowed to stay open an extra hour on Friday nights. The spokesman for the group, Leroy Sparrow, pointed out that numerous people from Dodge County travel to other counties for entertainment and in the process, spend their money elsewhere.
The request was originally made at the last meeting and was tabled until tonight to allow time for commissioners to aquaint themselves with the situation and confer with their attorney, John Harrington. Commissioner Karen Cheek explained to the group that the current ordinances prohibited staying open past 1:00 am. Harrington also pointed out that other ordinances also come into play such as noise and “brown bag” ordinances. Harrington offered to meet with the group and attempt to come up with some viable options to present at a later date to the commissioners.
Concerned Citizen, Kristee Roberson, addressed the commissioners in the public comments portion of the meeting expressing her opposition to the noise. Roberson lives across the branch and is frequently disturbed by the loud noise. Roberson was not opposed to the change of times or the gathering, she is only concerned if the noise cannot be prevented from disturbing her residence.
In other business before the commissioners, Neil Spradley was appointed to the Heart of Georgia Regional Airport Authority. The seat was vacated by Lamar Marshal a while back. Commissioners advertised in the Dodge County News for anyone interested in volunteering their time by filling the seat. No applications were received by the board.
The Dodge County Board of Assessors and the Recreation Department both have vacant seats and are in need of appointments. Both matters were tabled for now.
Commissioner Terry Niblett told the board that the Airport was in need of $2800.00 for a sewerage improvement project for Dynamic Paint Solutions. Niblett said the project was estimated to be around $5000.00 total, and the City of Eastman was going to be asked to provide the other half of the money. Some discussion was had about the airport’s bidding process for the project but it was determined that the County was only providing funds to another Government entity and it would be that entity’s responsibility to make sure the project was contracted legally. The commissioners voted to provide the funds from the contingency fund.
County Manager Bobby Peacock said he had nothing to report to the commissioners. Commissioner Niblett inquired about the status of the contingency fund. Peacock said the fund had started with $119,268.00 and was now down to $88,418.00 since some spending has been done from it.
Judy Madden, President of Economic Development, reported to commissioners that she has had SEVERAL businesses inquiring about locating in Dodge County.
Susan Coffee told Commissioners that the Governors Task Force will be meeting Thursday evening at 6:00pm at the recreation department to discuss handling Alzheimers patients and have training on Crisis intervention involving Alzheimers. Coffee said that all the First Responders were invited to attend the training. She said she had been in contact with the Sheriff’s Department and Major Donald Helms said he was expecting some 80 plus Law Enforcement personnel to attend.
Commissioners went into executive session to discuss personnel matters. Upon reopening the meeting, nothing was announced or voted on and the meeting was adjourned.
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