The Liberty County Development Authority authorized measures to prepare the former operations building of its defunct water reclamation plant for use by a firm that will convert food waste into salable organic fertilizer.

The authority approved the work on roof components of the building and replacement of the heating, ventilation and air conditioning system at its Dec. 12 meeting.

Condensing units from the HVAC system were stolen in 2011 and were not replaced because the site was not secure at that time. With the Neo Energy plant moving into the building soon, authority members thought it was time to replace the missing equipment.

Also to clear the operations building for use the authority sold for $10,200 worth of piping, manholes, doors and other surplus materials that were at the site. The material had been bought in 2009-10 for use in the water reclamation plant that was never built. The surplus materials apparently had cost around $300,000 when purchased.

In other business, authority attorney Kelly Davis swore in a new authority member, Matt Barrow. Barrow was appointed to serve the unexpired term of Robert Stokes who passed away. When authority officials looked into the formalities of swearing in a new member they discovered that two other members had never been sworn in.

Melissa Carter-Ray was originally appointed to replace Paul Krebs who had resigned in June 2013. She was then reappointed to a full term beginning in January 2014. Graylan Quarterman was appointed in February to fill a seat that been held by Allen Brown.

When Brown was elected mayor of Hinesville he automatically moved into an ex officio slot and Quarterman was appointed to the seat Brown vacated.

Carter-Ray and Quarterman were both sworn in along with Barrow.

The authority held a public hearing on its tax millage; no one attended the hearing and there were no comments.

The authority’s millage rate is set at 2 mills by the Constitution of Georgia and cannot be changed.