Rick Patrick: Greene Publishing, Inc.
During the regular meeting of the Madison County Board of County Commissioners on Wednesday, Feb. 14, Solid Waste and Recycling Dept. Coordinator Jerome Wyche addressed the Board about raising the fees for waste tire disposal. The reason for the increase is to offset increased fees incurred by the county by Liberty Tire Recycling. Effective this past January, the prices charged to the county increased from $117 per ton to $129 per ton. In addition, a charge of $100 per month for the use of a storage trailer provided by Liberty Tire is being incurred by the county. Based on tire disposal figures from fiscal year 2016-17, these new charges will result in a yearly increased cost for the county of $3,200.
In order to help offset this cost increase, Wyche proposed the following increases shown above.
The Board unanimously approved the proposed increases, to go into effect Thursday, March 1.
During the public comments portion of the meeting, Benjamin Wyche addressed the Board with a request that the meetings be recorded and posted on the county's web site. Wyche went on to suggest that all county business of a public nature be posted on the web site. The Commissioners agreed that this was a reasonable request and decided to examine the costs involved with making a video and audio recording of the commission meetings and posting them on the county's website.
Resolution 2018-02-14A, allowing for the lease of a John Deere 670G motor grader with a sloper blade was passed. The Board also approved revisions to the county's personnel policies and procedures.
The Board agreed to lease a Ford F-750 for the County Road Department from Langdale Ford, in Valdosta, for the price of $85,728, payable in five yearly payments of $19,340.23. The other bid was from Coggin Ford for a total price of $94,324, payable in five yearly payments of just over $21,000.
There was discussion regarding a letter to CSX Railroad concerning blockage of county roads. An incident occurred earlier in the month wherein a CSX train blocked a roadway in the vicinity of the country club for over 11 hours. It was discovered that the reason for the blockage was the train's crew had reached the end of their allowable work shift. At that point, the train's crew secured the train and left with the train blocking the road. According to Sheriff Ben Stewart, this road blockage could have caused an additional 10 minutes of response time had an emergency occurred in an affected nearby residential neighborhood. Madison County Director of Emergency Management, Alan Whigham, expressed concern beyond emergency vehicles having to make a detour. Whigham was concerned over the possibility of a hazardous materials spill from a train that had been abandoned. Attempts to solve the problem with CSX have been widely unsuccessful due to the seeming lack of concern from CSX. Since railroads are under federal jurisdiction, local recourse is limited. Several of the commissioners suggested asking US Sen. Bill Nelson for his assistance in dealing with CSX when he opens his local office in the Madison County Courthouse. One course of action open to the county is to file suit against CSX over the road blockages. According to County Attorney Tom Reeves, this could be a costly endeavor. Whigham said he could arrange a meeting between representatives of CSX and the Board of County Commissioners and representatives from the Florida Highway Patrol and the Madison County Sheriff's Office. A date for the meeting has not yet been set. The commissioners decided to table the issue, pending a meeting with CSX.
There was an economic development update presented by Crawford Powell. Powell stated that there was a “cottage industry” that had expressed an interest in a downtown location. This business was in the field of tourism and promotion.
The commissioners passed a resolution providing for the rotation of Chair for the Board of County Commissioners.
The next scheduled meeting for the Board of Madison County Commissioners will take place on Wednesday, Feb. 28, at 6 p.m., in the Commission Meeting Room in the Courthouse Annex, located at 229 SW Pinckney St., in Madison.