HomeMy WebLinkAbout03-01-2001 Joint Meeting
JOINT MEETING MUNICIPAL BUILDING
March 1, 2001
Augusta Richmond County Commission and the Richmond County
Commission convened at 5:30 p.m., Thursday, March 1, 2001, the Honorable Bob
Young, Mayor, presiding.
PRESENT: Hons. Beard, Bridges, H. Brigham, J. Brigham, Cheek,
Colclough, Kuhlke, Shepard and Williams, members of Augusta Richmond County
Commission. Hons. Jefferson, Curtis, Seitz, Hatney, Barnes, Padgett, Minchew and
Myers, members of Richmond County Board of Education.
ABSENT: Hon. Commissioner Mays.
Also present were Mr. Wall, Attorney; Mr. Hornsby, Acting Administrator;
Geri Sams, Purchasing Director; Tom Beck, Recreation Dept. Director; Chief Bernard
Mack, Fire Dept.; Teresa Smith, Public Works Director; Max Hicks, Utilities Dept.
Director; Vanessa Flournoy, Staff Attorney; Lena Bonner, Clerk of Commission;
Charles Larke, BOE Superintendent, Pete Fletcher, Attorney; Jim West and Kevin
Shea, Chamber of Commerce.
The Invocation was given by Rev. Max Hicks.
The Pledge of Allegiance was recited.
1. Discuss appointment a member of the BOE to the Planning & Zoning
Commission.
Mr. Mayor: We want to discuss appointing a member of the Board of
Education to the Planning & Zoning Commission.
Mr. Jefferson: We hadn’t gotten together yet. I am going to talk with my
colleagues, along with Dr. Larke and Mr. Fletcher, and see which one would be
interested in serving in that capacity, and it may be joint venture, a couple of them.
Mr. Mayor: Okay.
Mr. J. Brigham: Bob, we just -- the reason we’re asking that is because it’s
become more evident to me that schools [inaudible] on our zoning more than
anything else that goes on in this county, and we felt like if we had some cooperation
from the Board of Education to start with, if we changed our rules where we could
add a member, an ex-officio member from the Board of Education it would help in
y’all’s long-range planning and our long-range planning.
Mr. Jefferson: Dr. Larke, you want to add something to that?
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Dr. Larke: I think it’s a good idea. And we can address it next Thursday night
at our board. We have time to think about it and appoint somebody.
Mr. Jefferson: Right. Would any of the board members like to speak on that
[inaudible], fellow board members? Okay.
Mr. Mayor: Charles, just as a matter of information, do you all get a copy of
the Planning Commission’s agenda over at your office so that you can see what
they’re taking up and where the things are? Okay. Need to get you on the mailing
list.
Mr. Mayor: You probably don’t get a copy of our agenda, do you?
Dr. Larke: Yes.
Mr. Mayor: All right.
Mr. Cheek: Mr. Mayor?
Mr. Mayor: Yes, Andy?
Mr. Cheek: Question. When y’all have problems with traffic or other issues
with our infrastructure and how it affects the operations of the school, how do you get
that information to us and how do we respond to getting that taken care of? For
instance, if you have overcrowding on a road, a lot of cars at change, and you need
signage or perhaps road widening, how is that addressed in the short term and the
long term? Is there a communication mechanism? How can we improve on that?
Dr. Larke: I think most times when we have a problem with any right-of-way
or any widening, we go through the Board Attorney. He talks to Mr. Wall and they
work it out, bring it back to the Board for approval. If you ask us for an easement or
if we are asking y’all for anything, it always goes through the Board Attorney. That’s
how we’ve always handled it.
Mr. Cheek: And you do that with needs for stop sign or cross walks or
anything else like that?
Dr. Larke: Some of the [inaudible], we’ve gone through the Sheriff’s
Department, on that issues.
Mr. Jefferson: And individual Board members will talk to their counterpart
Commissioners and a lot of stuff is handled that way.
Mr. Cheek: Thank you.
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Mr. Mayor: Anything else?
2. Discuss the quality of education in Richmond County and the influence it
has on economic development, as well as how the Commission can be of
assistance.
Mr. Mayor: Next we want to discuss the quality of education in Richmond
County and the influence it has on economic development, as well as how the
Commission can be of assistance. We’ve got some folks from the Chamber of
Commerce here tonight that are involved in economic development. And if I can just
make a few remarks on this. We’re in the process now of putting together an
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economic development summit for the 14 of March, and I had lunch yesterday with
about ten business people, and these are folks who employ hundreds of people in
Augusta. They are some of the major manufacturing facilities. And this is one of the
things they’ve discussed with me and I’ve heard from other is that they have a
problem recruiting from an educated workforce here. And whether it’s true or just a
perception, at least that’s the conversation that’s on the street. I know you’ve heard it
before and you’ve heard about realtors steering people to other counties because of
perceptions or whatever with the school district here. And we’re not here to beat up
on the school district by any means, but I think if there are things that the City
Commission can do to help advance public education in this community, we’d
certainly like to know what some of those things are, what kind of steps can we take,
measures we can take, whatever, to support you folks in the work that you do.
Mr. Barnes: One thing I think you can do, Mayor, and you just mentioned a
summit. When the City government sponsors of that nature, then I think you should
invite someone from the Board of Education to participate in those summits. Not just
summits, but any other economic development thing that you are going to have, the
Board of Education should be invited to participate.
Mr. Speaker: I think we were there this morning at the Julian Osbon’s
presentation.
Mr. Mayor: [inaudible] meeting.
Mr. Padgett: Yes. And I think it’s fairly evident the School Board wants to be
involved downtown. We don’t live in a vacuum. We’re part of this community. And
I think the new Board members, as well the Board members that were there, are
working actively to deal with that perception. That perception about public education
and about working together. Marion made a good point about some of the
committees. I think the Bio Research Center is something we want to be involved in.
Do you handle the appointments for that or is that strictly [inaudible]?
Mr. Mayor: I think that’s a State thing.
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Mr. Jefferson: State.
Mr. Mayor: State authority, yes.
Mr. Padgett: So we’re interested in being involved.
Mr. Padgett: Let me just say something, Bob. I know Dr. Larke and I have
talked about this. I’m glad that the Chamber is here. I think the Red Carpet Tour
misses a golden opportunity to involve the Board of Education. I know from time to
time there has been one or two members, but yet the one who can tell those you are
trying lure and swoon are sitting around this table. Can tell you about the education
in the individual areas. So I think that the opportunity has been missed many times
through the Red Carpet Tour by the lack of participating, allowing the Board to
participate. So I think it’s important that we become more involved in that. If you’re
talking about education being important, and yet you don’t involve your School
Board, that’s kind of not a good idea in my opinion.
Mr. Padgett: I think we were notable by our absence in the brochure that the
Chamber sent out.
Mr. Mayor: I don’t know what brochure you’re talking about.
Mr. Padgett: Well, the brochure that was at the Legislative barbecue.
Mr. Mayor: I never saw a brochure up there.
Mr. Padgett: The Chamber’s brochure that mentions MCG, that mentions all
those other things. And the point you made, that public education is important to
employers that are coming in here, I think it’s evidence that we should get a little
[inaudible] time. There are some really positive things happening with education in
Richmond County.
Mr. Mayor: I make it a point to spend a lot of time in schools. As a matter of
fact, I was reading to a class today and I give out -- I’ve got private sponsors for it,
but I give out a scholarship in each one of the public high schools every year. We’ve
all got an investment in public education here. We all need to see that we get a good
return and some success with our investment. But are there some other things that the
City Commission can do to assist you in your work? And maybe some of the
Commissioners have some thoughts, too, and want to chime in.
Mr. Speaker: Mayor Young, was there anything in particular that the folks
you said you met with that are employing hundreds of people in the area -- is there
something in particular that they were looking for that they don’t see, that they can
point out that’s missing, that might attract somebody in or not attract them?
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Mr. Mayor: Well, they were -- it was just -- we didn’t spend a lot of time
talking about it. But one company specifically said the quality of the carpenters they
get, to do construction work at the site. I mean they can’t do the work. One major
retailer told me that they have a hard time just keeping people. People don’t have a
work ethic. They don’t want to come in and work. Want to come in and get a couple
of checks and they’re gone. They just have a hard time keeping people. And some of
the other folks talked about the skill level of the work force, that they had to do too
much training in basic work experience type issues for them to work.
Mr. Speaker: Are these retailers paying these folks? I mean [inaudible].
Mr. Mayor: I’m just telling you what the business people told me.
Mr. Speaker: I’m simply asking.
Mr. Mayor: Yes.
Dr. Larke: Let me say one thing about K-12 education, and that is that we no
longer train carpenters and brick masons and plumbers like we did ten years ago. We
[inaudible] now to build a vocational magnet school. Vocational Center. That we’ll
be able to put those programs back in place that you remember. I remember the
Builders Association, that was one of their complaints, that they can’t find skilled
help. Well, you read now about our kids and the academics they have to take now.
There’s not enough time in the day, in a six-period day, to take those courses. Those
courses are dying every year. Right now we have one program left at Butler High
School. And we have one instructor at Augusta Tech who comes into Laney two
hours a day, because when the teacher retired, there was not enough enrollment to
warrant a full-time teacher for 24 students. So he comes in and spends two hours
with those kids and goes back to Augusta Tech. But with vocational magnet school,
we’d be able to prepare students to enter the world of work. Right now, we’re trying
to prepare them to enter post-secondary school. Augusta Tech, Augusta State, Paine,
USC, UGA or whatever. And the day is full of academics, not for entry-level job
skills. [inaudible] the basics in some jobs, like in retail, they can have on-the-job
training. But you can’t get somebody to go out there and spend a lot of time teaching
somebody how to lay brick, or how to become a first-class carpenter. That takes a
two-year program at Augusta Technical School.
Mr. Mayor: All right. We’ll move along.
3. Discuss workforce issues.
Mr. Mayor: I think that took care of no. 3.
4. Discuss the joint use of school facilities as recreation centers/libraries.
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Mr. Mayor: I think we did one project with you up at National Hills.
Mr. Speaker: Garrett.
Mr. Speaker: Southside.
Ms. Speaker: Levi White.
Mr. Speaker: Levi White. Southside.
Mr. Cheek: And this is something I wanted to talk about. We have many
neighborhoods, and my neighborhood is one of them, that’s an old, existing
neighborhood that has two very nice schools but no recreation facilities. And it would
be nice to be able to use, say the gym a couple of nights a week for neighborhood
family night or something like that. Partner with the communities. And I think
through that we’ll get communities attached back to the school, even when they don’t
have kids there. But to develop arrangements to where we can share facilities like
that in our neighborhoods and communities at some point in the future.
Dr. Larke: We need to hear from y’all on which ones you let use. I said that
because the Y, the YMCA has asked the Board to let them come in and sponsor night
basketball this summer, and so if you have a need for a specific gym on given nights,
we need to have communication so that we can make sure there is no conflict with our
program and work out some arrangements with you.
Mr. Cheek: Sego and Rollins.
Dr. Larke: And with the Y.
Mr. Cheek: Sego and Rollins are what I’m looking at.
Mr. Beck: Mr. Mayor, if I could just maybe respond to that. Our relationship
with the Board of Education has been outstanding through all of my years in
Recreation. The Garrett school project, I think, is exemplary. It’s working out very
well at this point. So is [inaudible] Sego Middle School, which is in Commissioner
Cheek’s district. We are using Sego every Saturday for basketball practices to
supplement. We’re also using Langford gym on occasion. The School Board uses
many of our tennis facilities [inaudible]. The Diamond Lakes Regional Park will be
the host of most of the girls’ softball league. High school and middle school league.
So we’ve got a great relationship with the Board. Anytime that we’ve ever needed
anything, to call on the Board of Education, they’ve been more than willing to
respond. So I just wanted to mention that.
Mr. Mayor: Steve?
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Mr. Shepard: Thanks, Bob. One concern that I shared with you at the last
meeting was with the fact that the West Lake Forest Elementary Gym was built too
small to be a community gym like Garrett, and I hope that future gyms would be more
like Garrett and that some of the recreational facilities such as exist outside of West
Lake Forest Hills could be open to the community. I know there are issues of
vandalism, but I hope that we would look at opening that as a community park
because that is now fenced off and locked. I understand security issues, but I hope
we’ll take a look at making that available to the community in some fashion and work
with Tom on that, if you would.
Mr. Mayor: Mr. Henry?
Mr. H. Brigham: [inaudible] not on here listed as such, but the policy of
safety. Do we in any kind of a way share your safety officers when they ride through
the streets in our areas? What’s the policy?
Dr. Larke: I believe we have 12 of our officers that are deputized by the
Richmond County Sheriff’s Department. Deputized and have arrest powers outside
of the 500 feet from our property. Right, Mr. Fletcher?
Mr. Fletcher: That’s correct. We also signed an agreement for those 12 that
off-duty -- off campus responsibility would be for our activities --
Dr. Larke: Only.
Mr. Fletcher: -- so that’s a limiting factor, even though they have authority to
make arrests. So we only have jurisdiction within 500 feet of campus.
Dr. Larke: And basically, our officers are assigned to the schools. We don’t
have them riding around. We did, but we ran into a lot of overtime problems. You
won’t see ours out too much other than being at the school during the school day.
Mr. H. Brigham: Thank you.
Mr. J. Brigham: Bob, this isn’t exactly on this issue, Willie Mays was here,
and he’s not, I’m sure he would say y’all please invite the state basketball tournament
to Augusta. I’ve heard that out of Willie so many times. And I know we would love
to host any kind of state championship in any type ball.
Dr. Larke: We had the quarterfinals here at Richmond Academy last Friday
and Saturday and anything beyond the quarterfinals, you have to deal with Guillebeau
and the Georgia High School Association because they put in bids many years ahead
of time for the Macon site, the Albany site, the Jones County site. But we’re
definitely trying to infiltrate some of that.
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Mr. J. Brigham: I know Willie would encourage y’all tremendously to
[inaudible].
Dr. Larke: And plus, we took a step in that direction.
Mr. Mayor: Let me introduce Commissioner Marion Williams, who has
joined us. Y’all know Marion. He slipped in. Any other issues with respect to the
joint use of facilities? Marion?
Mr. Williams: I’d like to echo what Commissioner Brigham said about the
safety factor [inaudible] and I thought back to the officer at MCG have the same
arresting powers for [inaudible]. Is there something that can be done when our kids
are not in school or when there are kids out of school in the areas, I think our local
Sheriff’s Department already have an eye for those kids, likewise those [inaudible]
people who maybe they’re going from one school to another one. If there is some
violation there that we can assist each in, if [inaudible], they don’t have to do the
arrest thing, but I think that’s something [inaudible] going to be very important for
the safety and welfare, and when they understand that everybody’s eyes are open and
everybody is concerned, I think we have a better hold on [inaudible].
Mr. Mayor: Thank you.
Mr. Barnes: Could we go back to this item again on this use of school
facilities and use of recreation centers? In our planning, both the government, the
City government and the Board of Education, what is the thought on joining together
to build some of these facilities as a joint venture, the city government putting funds
into it and the Board of Education putting funds into it, for these type things? We
both could save money cause we both serving the same group. Would there be any
problems?
Mr. J. Brigham: Marion, I think the biggest thing we got to do is we got to
find, between y’all and us, those projects that we can do together. And I think that is
where it’s got to start at. I think -- for our part, I think we’re willing to cooperate, and
I feel like y’all are. But we got -- Garrett was unique in that we had a project at
Eisenhower field and y’all had one at Garrett school, and they were within blocks of
each other and we were able to marry those two projects together. And I think what
we’ve all got to do is a better job of planning how we can do these projects together.
Mr. Fletcher: Jerry, you know, one think is you were talking School Board.
We have some limitations on how we can spend funds. They can only be spent
constitutionally for educational purposes. Now silly as it sounds, we cannot spend
money on a library, even though it’s educational in the general sense. So I think the
projects that you would pick would be one that you would have to look at the
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limitation we have on our funds that you don’t and pick those that would mesh
together. Though we might be able to co-locate on the same property.
Mr. Mayor: That’s true. And share some infrastructure.
Mr. Jefferson: Dr. Larke?
Dr. Larke: One point that Mr. [inaudible] alluded to, go beyond gyms. But
let’s talk about stadiums for a minute. We’re getting ready to build three stadiums in
Augusta. Those stadiums will be built to a capacity of 6,000. That may not be
enough down the road to attract college games to Augusta, weekend college classics.
May not be big enough to attract even playoff games. Playoff games. If we could
maybe join forces and build a 10,000-seat stadium or a 12,000-stadium.
Mr. Jefferson: That’s the kind of thing I’m talking about.
Dr. Larke: Not just the gyms, but the Board has already voted to build in the
next SPLOST three football stadiums. If we could add a track along all those
stadium, like we did at Cross Creek, the Recreation Department could certainly
benefit from that. Would help everybody.
Mr. Barnes: From the [inaudible] what you’re saying now, Dr. Larke, and
Mayor, could we form some kind of one or two people group to look at this? We
already know this is coming to pass. Could we form somebody to look at this and see
what both governments could do to enhance the building of one of these stadiums or
stadium to attract say a game from Georgia Southern?
Mr. Jefferson: What we’ll do on Thursday’s agenda from the Board of
Education standpoint, along with putting someone on the Planning & Zoning, I will
appoint a couple of people to that joint task force on facilities.
Mr. Barnes: Well, both bodies have to agree to do it first, before we appoint
somebody.
Mr. Mayor: Andy?
Mr. Cheek: I volunteer to serve on the committee.
Mr. H. Brigham: So do I.
Mr. Bridges: Richard Colclough volunteered, too.
Mr. Mayor: Richard, okay.
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Mr. Bridges: Mr. Mayor, the only comment I’d make on it is on building this
stadium, I’m sure the committee will do this. But we need to find out what exactly it
is that somebody like Georgia Southern is looking for and if we can build to
accommodate that.
Mr. Barnes: You know, look at that, we say that the Civic Center is not large
enough. But there are a lot of other outdoor events that you can have besides football
that you can put in a stadium. Like the amphitheater they have in Atlanta where they
have all these big shows.
Mr. Mayor: We’ve already got our three names. I’ll send you a letter
confirming that. Let’s move on to item no. 5.
4. Discuss Rights-of-Way for DOT I-520 State Route 56 Additional Loop
Project.
Mr. Mayor: Teresa, are you familiar with this project?
Ms. Smith: Yes, I am. This actually is an issue that came up when we were
up to meet with the Georgia Department of Transportation Commissioner Coleman at
the very end of the meeting that we had. Although I have to admit that within Public
Works we have been very successful in working with the School Board Attorney and
the professional engineering representatives and architects that he has on board in
getting issues resolved as far as right-of-way for our activities, apparently the Georgia
Department of Transportation has hit a snag with the I-520 State Route 56 project in
getting the issues resolved on that particular one. Now what Mr. Coleman asked as w
were exiting the room was when you guys mentioned this, is there something
outstanding that we need to do, we need to open up the lines of communication and
just kind of get it loosened again. That’s really what we were tasked to do that. I
know that there were several items that you ha requested that DOT addressed. We’ve
got some correspondence back on that, and I think that the last actual correspondence
was October of last year, and they’re just looking to get that finalized and completed
so that we can move forward with it, because we do have a lot of traffic congestion
issues there that do follow the public works and a high accident rate in that area.
Mr. Fletcher: You want me to respond to that?
Ms. Minchew: I have a question. I’m not familiar with what this is about.
What is the I-520 and [inaudible].
Mr. Fletcher: Georgia Regional Hospital, Procter & Gamble. Southside
Elementary.
Ms. Minchew: Southside Elementary?
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Ms. Smith: It’s specifically the property that is [inaudible] discussion, but the
project in general is at Bobby Jones and State Route 56, and along State Route 56 is
Georgia Regional Hospital, Procter & Gamble, [inaudible], it’s the road right before
the [inaudible].
Mr. Fletcher: The issue is Southside School, and Southside School has got a
large lot that is prone to flood, if you look. And they’ve already -- we’re talking
about an on ramp going on to 520 at Southside, which already exists. What they want
to do is widen it and bring that road even closer to the school. If you’re familiar with
it, means we’re going to have to move all of the playground equipment and all of the
parking lot and it’s going to come pretty close to that building. It’s a real concern to
us. There were issues of drainage that we asked them to address, and they simply
wrote a letter and they said it’s not a problem. So I don’t see they addressed it.
Secondly, there was an issue of noise. All I can do is pass it along cause I’m not the
one making that evaluation for the school district. But we asked for information so
we cold make a judgment as to whether the on-off ramp being that much closer would
interfere with that school. And again we got an answer back, is no. Now we had
asked for some data from them to show what studies had been done, because we’ve
got 600 kids in that school, and this is not the typical right-of-way. It’s going to put
that on ramp closer and higher, near the building, and increase the opportunity for
injury to kids. There are some real drainage issues that our engineers are concerned
about, and this noise issue has not been satisfactorily addressed. So money and the
moving of the playground and paying for that, those are not issues. We’ve resolved
those. Now I can’t make the decisions on those other things. All I can do is get you a
report, Dr. Larke. They’re up in the air, and I don’t think our experts are satisfied
with that. I think the DOT knows that.
Mr. Mayor: Anything further on that?
Ms. Smith: Would it be appropriate then for me to report back to DOT that
you’re waiting on something from them, in addition to the October 17 letter?
Mr. Fletcher: Yeah, and I think that our planner wants to see the underlying
data on the drainage issue and on the noise issue.
Ms. Smith: All right.
Mr. Jefferson: Okay. The next item.
6. Discuss BOE Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax (SPLOST).
Mr. Jefferson: Mr. Fletcher, you want to bring us up to speed on the history
and where we are now?
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Mr. Fletcher: Where we are now on the one we currently have is we’ve got 19
months of collections to go. We had estimated that revenue would be about
$2,300,000. In fact, we’re averaging closer to $2,700,000. For the 19 months to go,
if you take a conservative estimate of where we are and the money comes in as it has,
we would be able to pay off all of the bond issues that we have, we would be able to
completely construct the Fort Gordon school, we would be able to purchase the land
for these stadiums y’all have been talking about, due the work for Davison and the
parking garage which is on the agenda later on, and still have $5-6 million left for
other projects. So it’s been successful and I think the School Board has managed
those monies very well. Right now, the planner for the school district and the person
in our school system, Gene Sullivan, who is in charge of facilities, are getting costs on
all of the elementary, middle and high schools as to what it would take to finish
renovations, cause we did approximately half of them before. Now with an increase
in costs, the half doesn’t work in the future as well, so we can’t do anything. They
are also looking at the new vocational magnet school, and they’re looking at doing
some work with A.R. Johnson, to update it more as part of the bio-technical issue and
partnership with the Medical College. And once all those figures are done, which I
am told will be done by May or June, then what they will do is present those to the
Board, and the Board will start prioritizing what projects the Board wants to present
to the public. Currently we hope that what we can do is ask for the sales tax
extension either in November of this year or March of next year. As far as giving you
the specifics other than what I’ve generally talked about as to what Phase II projects
would be, I guess cost in prioritizing by the Board of Education would have to be
done.
Mr. Mayor: Andy?
Mr. Cheek: Thank you, Mr. Mayor. I just wanted to comment on this one
cent sales tax, they way y’all managed it, the program management, and the execution
of it has been excellent. Following the program like I have through the years,
bringing those projects, some 47 projects, on line on or ahead of schedule and on
budget is amazing, and it’s a model for all the rest of the city to follow. Thank you.
Mr. Jefferson: And piggyback on that, Commissioner Colclough and
Commissioner Cheek usually have a breakfast every second Saturday out at
Gracewood Community Center, and the second Saturday in March, we’re going to
have Jeff Baker from [inaudible] to give a PowerPoint presentation to the residents
out there, from the very beginning to where we are, showing them what percentage of
the money went in what schools and have color before and after photos. It’s a nice
PowerPoint presentation, so y’all are invited to come out there and go further into the
explanation. You can see that a picture is worth a thousand words.
Mr. Mayor: You used [inaudible] as a project manager?
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Mr. Jefferson: Right. And we didn’t increase the amount of the $115,000,000
bond, so they had to find a way to get their money out of the savings [inaudible].
Mr. J. Brigham: Bob, I think this really goes back to our earlier discussion. I
think it would be great if maybe Tom Beck could meet with y’all’s planners, since
Tom knows what monies we have in Recreation, to see what opportunities are in the
future where we can do more joint projects, along with y’all’s plans. We don’t want
y’all to conform to us and we can’t always conform to you, but we ought to be able to
look for opportunities to work together.
Mr. Jefferson: Well, now that we have this dialogue, it brings a lot of stuff to
light and we’ll be willing to work with the County and the County is working with us,
maximizing the dollars. So I mean it’s a welcome addition I think on both parts, and
I’m pretty sure my colleagues will concur with that. Dr. Larke, you want to go a step
further?
Dr. Larke: Well, I want to make a comment on the SPLOST and remind you
that when they passed the original $115 million bond issue in November of ’96, it was
2-1/2 mil tax burden for Richmond County citizens. And we promised the voters that
if they would pass the SPLOST, which they did in March 1997, it was reduced to one
mil. I think the key thing here is what Commissioner Cheek mentioned about the
oversight committee and also keeping your word to the taxpayers. I think that’s the
key thing that helps us in the future when we go back to the voters in November or
March. We’ve been trying our best to stay within budget and [inaudible] timelines.
Mr. Cheek: Just to follow up on that, too. The presentation, I think there’s
going to be one tonight at the Board at the Oversight Committee meeting and then out
at our breakfast meeting. I’ve been around project management for a lot of years, and
[inaudible] has done a job that is unequalled. And if you haven’t seen project
management and you want a good example of it, we all need to be out there and
watch this, cause it’s second to none.
Mr. Mayor: Mr. Shepard?
Mr. Shepard: In the 1996 SPLOST, did you use a citizens committee to
develop the list or did you do it from the Board?
Dr. Larke: We had a group. What do you call it, Pete, the [inaudible]?
Mr. Fletcher: Yeah.
Dr. Larke: We had a committee that met every Monday night at Trust
Company Bank to help us [inaudible]. We had that group. And part of that was to
hire a program manager. And the Board agreed. This is our first time ever hiring a
program manager. Architect and the facilities department and that’s it.
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Mr. Barnes: You know, that was one of the stipulations that we citizens told
you.
Dr. Larke: Right. You were on that committee. That’s right.
Mr. Barnes: That we would not work with you unless we had that.
Dr. Larke: [inaudible] cooperation. And I can tell you that I was a little
nervous because in 1996, it was $22.5 million and there were only three new schools
and [inaudible] and it was just me and the architects. But $115 million, that was
different. I was happen to have a program manager on board. [inaudible] I was
excited about that.
Mr. Mayor: Walter, give the floor to you to talk a little bit about SPLOST.
You’re the one that has been working very diligently on trying to get out projects
prioritized.
7. Discuss Augusta Richmond County’s Phase IV SPLOST.
Mr. Hornsby: Well, if you really want to put your project manager over here, I
think [inaudible]. No, really, we did pull together a group of citizens and they advised
us initially on the SPLOST issue that just passed. And of course it passed. And I
think that in the past years, the past phases, the other three phases of it, we’ve done a
pretty good job of trying to stay on board and do those things that we had promised.
We perhaps have a wee bit more flexibility because we have a larger area that we’re
working with when you spread it all out. But we are expecting really on this coming
Commission meeting to have a final designation of exactly how those monies will be
spent as far as projecting out of the five year period. But as it stands now, we’ve of
course had it before the voters. The voters again have overwhelmingly approved it,
and that’s where we are going. I think there are a lot of good things done through
SPLOST really, and we’ve got the designation on the designated areas, and also you
may want to know for information -- I think in this particular round with SPLOST, we
are finding we can do more because of the laws, the changes in the laws, the changes
that the Legislature has made for us, and which we can spend monies in some other
areas where in the past we were not able to do it. But we’re trying to utilize
everything. We have come a long way and are getting pretty close to the end of the
tunnel.
Mr. Mayor: We project we’re going to collect about $140 million. $138
million is going out to Diamond Lakes and then the other $2 million is going --
Mr. Cheek: We still need about four more million dollars.
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Mr. Mayor: It’s a real challenge to prioritize the projects and I think we are
going to take a final vote on that next week. Do y’all have any questions about our
SPLOST at all? We’re in the first year. Actually the third money of collecting the
money. Okay. The next item, I’m going to merge a couple of things with it. It takes
about better collaboration of planning school projects that will require city utilities,
and let’s go ahead and discuss that and take up item no. 10 and no. 11, the first station
and Sue Reynolds.
8. Discuss formulating better collaboration on the planning of new school
projects that will require city utilities.
10. Update on the Sue Reynolds Sanitary Sewer Extension Project.
11. Update on proposed fire station.
Mr. Mayor: Maybe we can talk about this a little bit. Max, did you have some
specific issues, since this involves utilities?
Mr. Hicks: I can address item 10, the update on the Sue Reynolds sanitary
sewer extension project. I will say this. The Board of Education did contact us early
on in their planning, but at that time, we had no money and no hope of any money.
Now things happened between then and now, both in your planning and in
circumstances with the city and with our Water and Sewer Department. We went
through what we refer to as 1998. After that, the money has been available. We’ve
been able to know [inaudible] funds, and I think when the Board of Education
approaches us in timely manner as they did even then, we’ll be able to talk with you
better about we will perhaps have funds to work with. But at that time, we had no
money and no hope of any money for extending Rae’s Creek line. However, since
that time, it has taken place, and we did put it on the fast track to be sure we had it out
there by the time the school was occupied. Now it’s going to be nip and tuck, and let
me give you the schedule. So far as the main part of the sewer line, that is the one
that will begin on the north side of Wrightsboro Road, extending across Wrightsboro
Road and then parallel to Wrightsboro Road, skirting the edge of the storm water
retention pond that has been built in that area, and going up to just before -- well,
actually the line will cross Wrightsboro Road again at Flowing Wells Road. But it
will tie to the line coming on the school property just on the south side of
Wrightsboro Road. Now that line is scheduled to be completed on June 28. Now so
far as the portion of the line that’s on the Sue Reynolds School property itself, that
contract will be awarded to Johnson Utilities Inc. by the vote of the Commission this
coming Tuesday. It was approved in committee this past week and there’s a 60 day
contract on that. If everything goes as we anticipate, then we should be able to give
them a notice to proceed around March 14 or 15 and that line would then be
completed in the middle of May. So it would be ready a month ahead of time, a
month before the other one. Now in the meantime, we understand that the Board of
Education wishes to occupy the building probably sometime in April and begin doing
work within the building and begin using the water facilities and sanitary sewer
facilities inside the building. With that regard, we’ve worked -- I think Mr. Wall has
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worked with Mr. Fletcher. We’re going to set up a meeting of all those parties
involved, and what we’ll have to do there is designate a manhole as a holding area, a
holding tank. We can then come with our vacu-trucks and pump it out on a regular
basis so that you’ll be able to occupy the building, do the things you need to do to get
the furniture set in, test it out, test all your facilities, so that you’ll be sure to be ready
when school starts. That’s the program right now for that particular line. With the
others, well, when you approach us in the future, I have every idea we’ll be able to
discuss monies a lot better than we were when you first approached us on this. The
situation has really changed, and the Commissioners are really giving Water and
Sewer just top priority and top billing and will be able to give you cooperation.
Mr. Mayor: Do y’all have any questions for Max on this? Okay. Ulmer?
Mr. Bridges: Yes, Mr. Mayor. I’ve got a comment on working with the
school board in regards to these water and sewer projects. And I use as an example
Hephzibah Elementary School that I believe it is that you’re building now. Jim was
involved with this, as well as Mr. Fletcher. You’re building a school that you’ve got
to get sewer to it. I’m not sure what you’ve done now in regards to providing sewer.
I think you’ve government it worked out. I’m not sure what it is. But your approach
to us some time last year concerning tying on to the city system, which obviously
would have been best for everybody if we could have done that. But we only had like
maybe a couple of weeks or a couple of months really to try and put that together to
meet your deadline. And of course we work by budget just like you do, you know,
and once something is set in budget, it’s in budget for a year and the project is there
for year. I think myself and other Commissioners are very favorable to planning
sewage and water projects to meet the needs of the future expansions of the
educational system. I don’t think you’ll find negative comments in that regard. But
that was one situation where I felt like y’all came to us and we just really didn’t have
time enough to plan the best project to do, which was to put it on the city system.
And I think it’s real critical that your people stay in touch with Utilities as to what
you’re planning years ahead of time, if you can. I know there are certain legal
ramifications involved in purchasing property and that type of thing, and maybe we
can’t be privy to those items, but if there’s a way that we can work with you in
regards to planning for utilities for these schools, I think the entire Commission is
ready to work with you on it. We just go to know with enough advance warning to be
able to accommodate you.
Mr. Mayor: Chief, do you have any news on the fire station that we’re going
to build out at Sue Reynolds? Have you got that programmed in?
Chief Mack: Well, I got to say no, probably, because we’re waiting on
information from Wrightsboro Road where the rerouting is going to take place. I
think another thing that would sort of lend to saying no is the fact that basically we’re
getting too close to the county line by going out to the school. You mentioned
something about noise. When we leave a station, we don’t go out quietly, so I think
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it’s going to be somewhat disruptive. I could see a problem with the parents coming
in and deboarding. At certain hours of the day they’ll be dropping children off, there
will be problems with buses coming and going, and a number of children in the area
whatever time of the day, and our leaving the station on response, I think totally -- I
don’t think it’s an appropriate thing to do, to sit right on top of the school, that close,
for all those reasons.
Mr. Mayor: Questions? Comments? All right, let’s go to item 9.
9. Update on the BOE and Downtown Development Authority’s Project.
Mr. Fletcher: I think most of y’all know that the Board of Education voted to
move downtown if we could work out several things. And again, we feel that with
selling some properties, the land will be close to a wash. And so the question is what
do we do for parking and what do we do for a building? We have been meeting with
the Downtown Development Authority, and assuming we can work out an agreement
where we update that deck so that it meets our needs, and part of it is structural, part if
it is repairs, part of it is lighting, part of it is security, and so we’ve had studies done
and an estimate. Now one thing I want to say, and Jerry, I think I told you this.
When I started off on this, I heard that that deck could be expanded, the one behind
Macy’s. But our study didn’t show that and I have an engineering report that I have
shared with the Downtown Development Authority, that to expand that deck to a
fourth deck, you’d have to go in and cut through the deck, do pilings to support the
top two floors. The point being that it would cost more than the parking spaces you
would gain. So I think whether we work something out where we have it or someone
else, it’s a two-decker. That’s what it is. It has over 300 spaces, and the study we
have it’s an estimate of $850,000 to bring it up to date. That includes engineering
costs. And a $50,000 contingency. The Downtown Development Authority is
looking at it from the standpoint of reducing that present day value and assigning
parking spaces at current cost to the School Board for use. And while I haven’t seen
anything in writing, I’m told that would get us about a 20-year use of the parking
spaces we need. We would need to work out some kind of way to renew that on a
mutually-agreeable basis, and we’ve been working on a cost sharing arrangement pro
rata in case we need more decks because we come. So all of that is being worked out,
and as soon as we get that present day value, I will present that to the Board. As far
as the building itself is concerned, the planner and the engineers have gone through it.
They have looked at the architectural plans. We are in the process right now of doing
space planning for that building. We have been in touch with the owner of that
building. We are a little bit apart on price but that’s not going to be the issue. The
issue is going to be the parking deck and the planning space. I feel real good about
that. The recommendation from our planners is also to get H.L. Green. The owner of
that building has been a little more coy about getting together on price, and so I can’t
report on that now. I may that may end up being a condemnation if the Board
chooses to go that. We’ve had it appraised. We really would like to get both pieces
of property cause we think we can make a real nice corner that would anchor the
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Augusta Commons, and when it came before the Board for a vote last year, the vote
was unanimous, and so I think if we can work al these things out, y’all would have
new neighbors downtown.
Mr. Mayor: Would you use be using all of the parking deck?
Mr. Fletcher: We need about 225 spaces. The deck has about 314, if I recall.
Y’all have leased out about 50. So that will leave about 50 spaces for other persons to
use. And obviously on the weekends and at nights, there will be very few times, so
I’m thinking the idea that if Augusta College and Augusta Tech comes down, if the
library is put somewhere in that regard, the times that those are most in use, the deck
would be available. That’s the thought. So I’m thinking it is kind of a symbiotic
situation, although we’re still working toward it.
Mr. Mayor: I tell you, those people at that church keep an eye on that deck.
Cause they call us if something is going on on that deck. I might just mention where
we are with Augusta Commons. I’d like to get it built sooner rather than later. We
are working on a demolition permit now through the Historic Preservation
Commission. We have to get an appropriate -- we hope to have that issued this
month. We’re not going to do demolition until we may sure we’ve got the money to
build the thing. We don’t need a big open space on Broad Street. We’re short right
now about $350,000 and I’m working on a number of different issues to try to fill the
void, and I feel confident that by June 1 we’ll have all the financing in place. So
we’ll probably start demolition in April, start destruction in June, and hopefully have
it done by the end of the year, if everything goes well. But it all hinges on finding the
rest of the money. And now since you’ve got all this money left over from SPLOST,
perhaps -- but that would be a real nice addition to downtown, having that corridor
and those two buildings on the corner there.
Mr. Mayor: Item 11.
11. Discuss redistricting.
Mr. Mayor: We’ve got reapportionment coming up. The new census numbers
should be in by the end of the month or the first part of next month. I mentioned to
Andy before we started the meeting tonight one thing I’d like to do is form a joint
committee with the School Board. We currently have the same districts. Certainly
it’s the easiest thing in the world to send the same set of District lines up to the Justice
Department to be approved and that would be a good goal to work for, just to
continue that for the next ten years, have the same Districts.
Mr. Jefferson: That’s probably the best thing that would happen to the voters,
because when they go to the polls, it holds out a lot of confusion on what
Commissioner is running, what Board of Education member is running at the time. If
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they’re voting based on Districts rather than the scattered way it was prior to the
redistricting we had once before.
Mr. Barnes: Again, Mr. Jefferson and Mayor, and I think I mentioned this to
you, Mayor, that day we talked. If we could form -- again, you’ve got to look at a
committee, because you’ve got to share stuff. We could form a committee made up
of the two groups, small committee, just to look at the feasibility of having the same
thing. It’s a lost easier on the voters, and I think we’ll have less problems if we could
get a combined [inaudible] on Districts rather than two separate Districts.
Mr. Mayor: Anybody have any thoughts on [inaudible]? Mr. Jefferson and I
will continue our dialogue on this. I think no. 13 is yours, Andy.
Mr. Jefferson: Yes.
13. Discuss the possibility of scheduling a softball game against Columbia
County consisting of elected officials and senior staff members.
Mr. Jefferson: Yes. I accepted a challenge. The Board got mad with me.
They agreed.
Mr. Cheek: Well, this is an opportunity for us to do something away from
work, or day-to-day business. It’s something we can all do. I think Columbia County
has an equal type distribution of age and so forth, so I don’t think they would have an
unfair handicap. It would be a chance for us to work with them, but the possibilities
are boundless. We could use Patriots Park or Diamond Lakes or maybe GreenJackets
Stadium and do kind of challenge game before one of the GreenJackets games. But
would I’d like to do is just is forward this idea, and if y’all approve it and we can do
that, I think there’s been interest in Columbia County, maybe develop a trophy that
we could pass back and forth to whoever wins or loses, and go up and whip Columbia
County.
Mr. Jefferson: This has been a brainchild of Mr. Cheek’s for about two years.
We coached together in the Georgia Games, and the game was kind of boring, so
Andy said, Andrew, what do you think about the Board of Education and the County
Commission joining forces against Columbia County? I thought it had died at that
Georgia Games, but I see it didn’t.
Mr. Cheek: A little team building exercise.
Mr. Mayor: Anybody have any other items that y’all would like to bring to the
table?
14. Other business.
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Mr. Cheek: For years now, we’ve heard a consistent voice from the folks out
on our side of town that we desperately would like to have a magnet school or a
magnet campus arrangement out in south Augusta. This would attract people to the
area and as successful as the magnet program has been, maybe a modified community
or district-based magnet concept, including the athletic programs and so forth. I think
it would bring people back. It would really help us economically, fill up our homes
with families, and you’ll see some turning in the rental properties and so forth. I ask
you to consider that. We have several schools, middle schools and elementary
schools that are in close proximity. It might make for a campus arrangement. And
that way your advance placement programs for elementary could be carried out at the
middle school and so forth, but to please consider that, and too, to please consider
returning us to community schools at some point in the future. People from all over
the city travel many, many miles on buses to go to other schools that are not near their
homes, and just strictly from a point of convenience, if you look at services that you
will go get, you will go to a place that is closer for a service than you will a place
that’s far away. If we want to include participation, particularly community
participation, a school closer within our community would be something that would
support our community, and people are more likely to participate in. So please
consider those two things.
Mr. Jefferson: One thing that piggybacks off of what Andy said, I was coming
back the school on Windsor Spring this afternoon, and I’d seen the kids walking
home from school, and it brought back some old memories when I used to walk home
from school.
Mr. Mayor: Anybody have anything?
Mr. Cheek: To follow up, I think I have consensus from the School Board on
the softball game. Or y’all want to vote on it and come back? We can have some fun
with this thing, too. If we can get a representative from the Board and the
Commission to make an official challenge at some point to Columbia County
together, I think that would be a good thing to do.
Mr. Mayor: All right, if there is no other business, we will stand adjourned.
[MEETING ADJOURNED]
Lena J. Bonner
Clerk of Commission
CERTIFICATION:
I, Lena J. Bonner, Clerk of Commission, hereby certify that the above is a true and
correct copy of the minutes of the Joint Meeting of Augusta Richmond County
Commission and the Richmond County Board of Education held on March 1, 2001.
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