Growth is coming to Hinesville and Liberty County, county commission Chairman Donald Lovette pointed out, and as someone said to him recently, “Hinesville is stretching out.”

“For our non-locals,” Lovette said at last Thursday’s Liberty County Chamber of Commerce Progress Through People luncheon, “that means Hinesville is really growing. I interpreted to mean Hinesville and Liberty County are stretching out.”

Lovette pointed to the developments at one of Liberty County’s two interchanges at I-95. A Love’s truck stop is planned for the southeast side of Exit 76, and a Jones fuel station is planned for the southwest side of the same exit.

County Administrator Joey Brown said the county is trying to balance the growth and be cognizant of taxpayer dollars.

“It just keeps coming,” he said. “Which is great – but it’s very challenging.”

Budget in the works

Commissioners have passed a 90-day continuing resolution, operating on the same budget as last year. They have been presented a nearly $61.8 million budget, a 6.7% increase over the current budget, which expires June 30.

The proposed fiscal year 2025 budget also shows revenues through grants and other sources. Those revenues get offset through spending reflected in the budget but still have to be shown, Brown noted.

Of the proposed budget, about $6.2 million is directed toward fire services and EMS will cost about $4 million, according to the FY 25 budget.

“I get a lot of questions about why has that budget gone up. Why don’t we just cut?” Brown said. “A few years ago, we embarked on a mission to create countywide fire. You had no one, or very limited folks, who could respond to a fire or a vehicle accident. Seventy-five percent of the calls fire goes on has nothing to do with a fire. We had no one – no one. It is not cheap and not easy to find qualified folks. If you wonder where your tax dollars are going, it’s going to make your community safer and travel safer.”

While special purpose local option sales tax dollars can’t offset the general fund, they have been to put to use throughout the county, Brown added.

“We’re blessed with an abundance of recreational opportunities, both passive and organized,” Brown said. “All our parks are widely used.”

Gill Park has a new walking trail, and the facility is in line to get a new multipurpose softball field. Jones Creek Park – which may be renamed for Susie King Taylor – also is in line for a series of renovations, including boat ramp upgrades, an open air pavilion, a walking trail, new restrooms and a septic system. Those items are still in the planning phase, Brown said, and the county is looking at getting grant funding to go along with special purpose local option sales tax proceeds to back the work.

One of the biggest additions to the county’s recreational portfolio has been the new Samuel B. Harris Gymnasium, on the site of the old Liberty County High School. Unveiled earlier this year, the crowd for the ribbon cutting was one of the largest for any county facility, Brown said.

“It is a beautiful complex,” Brown said. “It has worked out really, really great.”

New homes for fire, EMS Brown also touted the opening of the new EMS station on Highway 17 and EMS is fully staffed.

“This gives them a much more efficient operation as our call loads increase,” Brown said.

Also in the works is a new administrative and training for EMS at its headquarters on South Main Street in Hinesville. The current headquarters does not have any training space and there is no more administrative space.

The work, which will be funded through SPLOST, is expected to go to bid this fall.

The county’s fire headquarters on Highway 84, adjacent to Miller Park, which also has had some work done, are now occupied. When the county took over EMS operations, they were half-staffed, Brown said.

“There were times after we took it over, we got two calls in the queue and we’ve got nobody available,” he said. “We had to beef that up. We had to do something about that.”

Brown praised county Fire Chief Brian Darby and EMS Director Crystal Hensler for getting their respective departments up to full rosters in just a couple of years.

“My hats are off to Chief Darby and to Crystal to achieve what most communities would say is unheard of and that’s to be fully staffed,” Brown added.

The MidCoast Regional Airport continues to expand and its business has taken off, Brown noted.

“The airport is jampacked full,” he said. “We just added another hangar and it was full before it was built. I have another hangar waiting list that is already full. My problem is finding some state and federal dollars to try to build that.”

The joint use partnership is looking at expanding the airport’s footprint with a lease of an additional 83 acres, about 60 of which will be usable. A new entrance road to the airport will be part of the plans, and bids could go out in fiscal year 2026.

Water remains hot issue The county also has expanded its water service, having finished an extension down Lewis Frasier Road in the eastern part of the county. The next phase, Brown said, is to extend the water service on the other side of the railroad tracks in the McIntosh community area. That work will be funded with a mix of SPLOST and American Rescue Plan Act resources.

The extension of those water lines will provide more clean drinking water and also provide an opportunity for economic growth, Brown added.

“It’s great to have the workforce. It’s great to have some of the other things,” he said. “But one of the biggest challenges we face is water. We’re limited on what we can withdraw.”

The county and some of the cities are working in conjunction with other governments that aren’t hampered by being in what the state Environmental Protection Division has called a yellow zone for groundwater withdrawal, which Liberty County is in. Hinesville is working on a well with Long County, which is in a green zone, where there are no restrictions, and Riceboro has a pact in place with McIntosh County, also a green zone county.

“We’re trying to find ways, working with other counties,” Brown said.

Brown said connecting those water systems to get a continuous system is a goal, and a countywide water and sewer plan must get done in order to handle and provide for continued growth.

The county also is involved in youth initiatives, with a youth commission and a summer youth employment program that “is running wide open,” Brown said. The county also has set up its summer food program with 15 locations. Last year, more than 10,000 meals were served.

County’s costs going up, too But of the county’s budget, only 1% is deemed as discretionary spending. The rest is split almost evenly between spending called either mandated or essential.

And the county’s bills, Brown said, are going up too. The cost of utilities for the county and its buildings are in the hundreds of thousands of dollars a year. The FY25 budget anticipates spending $850,000 on utilities, an increase of more than $100,000 from just three years ago. The county’s fuel budget too has had to grow, going up by more than $150,000 from three years ago.

The county also has had to rework its insurance coverages for its people and its facilities. Insurance costs last year jumped by more than $1.2 million as some providers got out of the business of writing policies for governments in hurricane-prone areas.

“We shopped the market heavily,” Brown said. “We couldn’t find insurers. We had to stack coverages. They went up everywhere on the coast.”

The county has gone to self insurance for its vehicles and some of its property and casualty to keep premiums down.

“We had to back up and do some unconventional things,” Brown said. “We’re looking for any way to be more efficient.”

Some costs have come down from the state, without the means to handle them – such as those associated with elections. For instance, the state mandated county elections officials use thermal paper, which is more expensive. Then, after buying all that thermal paper, the state said that thermal paper needed a watermark, making all that thermal paper obsolete and a cost the county can’t recoup.

“Every bit you spent on that – gone,” Brown said.

The county also has to place opioid reversal treatments, such as Narcan or naloxone, in its buildings. Counties also now must provide post traumatic stress disorder coverage for its first responders, both part-time and fulltime.

“It’s a good thing,” Brown said. “It just costs money.”

Liberty County also has a number of property tax exemptions, taking hundreds of millions of dollars off the tax digest, more than $276 million last year. The state has passed a law exempting boats worth from $7,500 to $20,000 off property tax rolls.

The county is looking at user fees and is close to finishing a plan for impact fees, Brown said. Those impact fees can be used only for infrastructure costs but can help offset the costs for public safety. The county also is looking at alternative energy resources and is working with developers on covering costs of building. Plus, Brown said, the commissioners are exploring creating a retail development committee or authority.

While many property owners have gotten property assessments in the mail, Brown stressed those numbers are not the taxes they owe. Brown acknowledged the assessments can be confusing because the projected taxes on the notices are based on last year’s millage. It also does not include possible exemptions.

“That’s not your tax bill,” he said. “That will won’t come out until November.”

Brown also said some assessments are higher because the tax assessors office has to look at sales ratios and come within 3842% of those ratios. Anything outside of that range could lead to a penalty from the state – per parcel. There are 28,000 parcels in the county, and the assessors office was at 37.92% of the ratios a year ago.

The county expects to get its property digest in either August or September and then will set millage rates. Once millage rates are set, property tax bills will be sent out.

Brown also pointed out the recently-passed HB 581 as a potential critical piece of legislation. Should voters approve it on the November general election ballot, it will lock in property values for a three-year period. It also will allow communities to vote for an additional penny sales tax that can be used only for property tax relief.

“In a community that entertains 100,000 people a day and has only 28,000 parcels, anything you can do with sales tax is great,” Brown said.

Liberty County voters also will get a chance to renew the transportation special purpose local option sales tax this fall. Brown said information sessions on it will be held later.