The Ware County Commission held a work session, public hearing, and regular monthly meeting Monday, August 12 at the County Administration Building, Following are actions taken by commissioners:
• Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the Georgia Forestry Commission: The board approved the MOU with the Georgia Forestry Commission (GFC) as it is necessary for each fire department that has loaned or leased equipment from the GFC.
Because of the intermingling of structures and wildland fuels in areas of Ware County, the objectives of Ware County and the GFC are inseparable to minimize the loss of life and property because of uncontrolled fire. The purposes of this document are to provide for closest possible cooperation on mutual objectives and to clarify the purpose and responsibilities of each organization
• Courthouse controls and variable air volume (VAV) box turnkey project proposal:
The board postponed action on a contract with Trane Technologies to install VAV boxes in the courthouse to provide heat. The total cost for the project is $918,000 for the first and second floors.
An explanation of why this project is needed was included in a letter from Chris Gleiter, Account Manager for Commercial HVAC Americas from Augusta.
“…the courthouse was designed as an air handler VAV system. A very robust and efficient way of heating and cooling a building with providing the maximum amount of comfort control to individual spaces. The issue that we are running into right now is that you have new units paired with old VAV boxes and unit level controls from the late 90’s early 2000’s.
“The Air handlers are designed to make 55 to 60 degree (sic) are 100% of the time. They send the air down the duct work to the VAV boxes that are in/serve individual spaces, hallways, offices. The VAV boxes have heating coils on the discharge side of the box that are used to retreat the cold air coming from the air handler to warm the space up (sic) it is cold. If the space is hot, then the heating coil turns off and the 55-60-degree air is given to the space to cool the space down. A butterfly damper is located inside the VAV box that controls the amount of air that is given to the space.
“Right now the VAV boxes that are in the building are an old style plunger damper that used a gear system to modulate airflow. It is my suspicion that these plastic gears to move the plunger damper and or controllers have failed on some of the boxes. This in turn is why we are not getting proper cooling/heating to all of the spaces.”
Assistant County Attorney Jennifer Herzog said she would like to look over the contact in more detail.
• Probate Court FY2024-25 budget amendment: Commissioner Sammy Hendricks asked for the Probate Judge budget to be amended to the FY 2023 budget level, adding $9,034 to the FY 2025 budget. The board approved the request with Commissioner Leonard Burse voting against.
• Ware County Zoning Ordinance Text Amendment — Amend Article VI: The board agreed with the Waycross-Ware County Planning Commission to amend Article VI, Section 616 Orientation of Manufactured Homes: a.) Manufactured homes shall be oriented with the front door facing the road.
b.) in the case of “flag lots” where a lot is connected to a roadway by a strip of land and/or access easement and as such is not directly facing the roadway or in cases where the manufactured home located greater than 400 feet from the roadway and is not visible from the roadway, this rule shall not be enforced.
According to Planning Director James Shubert, the purpose of the change is to improve aesthetics where manufactured mobile homes are used so that an area where multiple mobile homes are located will not look like a mobile home park.
