The Liberty County Board of Commissioners mid-month meeting kicked off with recognizing the Liberty County Recreation 12 and under boys’ basketball team for becoming Georgia Park and Recreations 2019 State Champions. 

“Jimmy, how old are these boys?” District 6 Eddie Walden jokingly asked after seeing how tall some of the boys were. 

Keep Liberty Beautiful Director Karen Bell advised the commissioners that KLB won numerous awards in 2018 including Keep America Beautiful National Award and 2018 Affiliate Award of Excellence.

In other county business, County Administrator Joey Brown gave an update to the TSPLOST plan that they are hoping to have on the Nov. 5 ballot.

TSPLOST is a transportation special-purpose local option sales tax that is used for transportation purposes and projects. At the Thursday meeting, Brown broke down the estimated revenue that would be received from TSPLOST.

They project in five years to bring in $38 million from the sales tax, and 30 percent of the net revenue must go to a Statewide Transportation Plan project. The remainder of the money could be split up between the county and municipalities. 

“I think in order for this pass, the residents are going to have to know that we are planning to pave some roads,” District 4 Commissioner Pat Bowen said.

 Brown presented a map of transportation projects the county intends to work on and advised the county is working alongside the Georgia Department of Transportation to bring the projects to fruition.

“We are pushing right now for the Nov. 5 referendum and did go ahead and notify the board of elections,” Brown said. “The goal we are trying to achieve is to have folks that go and vote at their city places, also be able to vote on the county-wide referendum as well.” 

Liberty County Assistant Administrator Bob Sprinkel informed the commission that they have hired Crystal Hart to lead the 2020 census. She will contract for one year with the county, and will begin working on April 1.

“She has already begun coming up with great ideas,” Sprinkel said. “I’m very excited to have her with us and think she is going to do a great job.” 

Before the end of the meeting, Liberty County Board of Commissioner Chairman Donald Lovette made a statement that some commissioners did meet with residents from the east-end of the county regarding the fire plan, but will not change their comprehensive fire plan.

“We have heard rumors and I would like to dispel those rumors by saying we are not changing our comprehensive fire plan,” Lovette said.