Brantley County commissioners approved the recommendation of GWES, LLC Engineering in Brunswick for the LMIG 2022 bids for Browntown Road.
GWES provides professional services in all aspects of planning, design, operations, and management of transportation infrastructure.
Director of Transportation Ben Pierce made the recommendations during the Tuesday, October 4 work session with commissioners acting during the Thursday, October 6 regular meeting.
Pierce’s recommendation Tuesday was to accept the $694,162.17 low bid of East Coast Asphalt in Douglas with a bid of $694,162.17 for the project. The other bid was from J. Hiers Company, Inc. of Baxley.
“We received two bids for resurfacing/patching of Browntown Road and Albert Gibson up to Hwy. 32,” said Pierce. “We did an inventory of the road to see what type of patching was needed and resurfacing. We put that data together and sent the information out to several contractors in the area and received two bids (Thursday) September 29.
“After looking over the bids, we recommend you award the contract to East Coast Asphalt.”
Pierce informed the commission GWES will get together with the contractor in a couple of weeks and see what their scheduling looks like.
“We will, in our scope of the work, oversee construction administration,” said Pierce. “There will be weekly progress reports, quantities placed that day, temperature, just tracking the daily work.”
Pierce added there had been some discussion of possible repairs along Browntown Road and Waynesville Road with an additional 10 percent contingency cost to help cover that work.
Commissioner Randy Davison asked Pierce if aprons could be layed on the side dirt roads.
“On county maintained roads, we typically go out about 10-15 feet,” responded Pierce. “If the county desires to go a little bit further we can discuss that.”
East Coast Asphalt was awarded the 2020 LMIG (Local Maintenance & Improvement Grant) project for Schlatterville Road and School Circle for $388,730. The budget was approximately $423,000.
“The bid was under budget freeing up about $34,000 to piggyback any other projects for patch work,” said Jeffery Moore of Roberts Engineering in Brunswick.
The project includes resurfacing Schlatterville Road and repairing culvert pipe on School Circle.
Commissioners also approved a 6.9 percent increase for all county employees following a recently completed study on a motion by Commissioner Hal Herndon and second by Commissioner Brian Hendrix.
“This is a good increase for the county staff,” said County Manager Bryan Singleton. “It will be approximately $400,000 over FY23 budget which we will have to offset with increased revenue by lowering expenses and having a more efficient operations. We will do this with no tax increase.”
Commissioner Jesse Mobley said the pay raise “could be life-saving for some of our employees. I’m proud of this board of doing this the smart way.
“We brought in people to help us with a study and took our time before making the decision.”
Hendrix said he hopes the increase will help fill positions at Road Department, EMS Department, and the Sheriff’s Department.
“It’s been a long time coming and I’m glad to finally see it come,” said Hendrix. “Maybe it will draw more attention to help fill some slots.”
One final passage was to re-allocate $250,000 in ARP (American Rescue Plan) funds.
“We were going to renovate a couple of buildings,” said Singleton, “but we can move the money to help with wages for the rest of this year. This would be implemented with the October 10 pay period.”
A motion for the re-allocation passed unanimously.
During Singleton’s County Manager update, he informed commissioners EMS was to begin October 1 operating a minimum of 2.5 stations with Waynesville and Hoboken fully staffed. The 1/2 unit would be in Nahunta.
According to Singleton, Station 2 will have a Paramedic, Station 3 an Advanced EMT, while Station 1 will have a lieutenant in a Quick Response Vehicle. Open shifts at Station 1 will be filled when staff is available.
By RICK HEAD
Publisher
It doesn’t hurt to have a wish list. Brantley County Recreation Director Joey Saunds, with the help of the Brantley County Recreation Board, presented commissioners with plans for the future.
Saunds attended the Tuesday, October 4 work session with his wish list to take the Brantley County Recreation Department into the future with improvements at the current facility.
He told the commission of working with Roberts Engineering in Brunswick with the idea of adding fields and making improvements to the park down the road.
Saunds introduced Jeff Moore of Roberts Engineering, who offered a look into the future with a complex full of fields, a gymnasium and lots of parking at the current site.
“We (Roberts Engineering) put together a relatively low-cost concept after discussions about making improvement projects on the site and entertaining ideas of expanding the site for the growing recreation program,” said Moore. “We feel like a master plan at a conceptual level gives you platforms for a direction. Our studies indicate this would work.
“This was developed for the recreation department and what their future needs may be utilizing all the current infrastructure. This is just an idea of how the recreation department could be expanded. This was based on the request of the Recreation Board.”
Moore explained adding a four-field, 200-foot complex would be easier than trying to reconfigure the current fields.
“There is an elaborate irrigation system currently as well as the light poles and wiring and opted not to touch those fields,” stated Moore. “We were tasked with using the land the best way possible.”
Besides the current four-field layout for baseball/softball and two football fields, the new design would bring an additional five multi-purpose fields for football/soccer with one having a walking track which could host track & field events, two pickleball/tennis courts, a two-court gymnasium and plenty of parking.
“This looks good,” said Commissioner Hal Herndon. “It gives us a good road map for future growth.”
Commissioner Jesse Mobley stated new revenue concepts could be utilized with the new complex.
“This is a platform and things can be changed,” said Moore. “The recreation department and the rec board put a lot of work and thought into this.”
