The members of Long County's City Hall council met yesterday to discuss the latest business concerning the city of Ludowici.
The general fund and bank balance sits at $180,582.53 and the water/sewer bank balance sits at $88,268.02. General fund savings is at $342,929.77 along with the SPLOST at $62,306.63.
Mayor Jim Fuller expressed his appreciation in keeping a stable financial track record by keeping the budgets still in the black.
"We're here to be stewards of the city's money," said Fuller.
The first order of business was approving building houses across Paxton Hill right near McClelland Elementary School. This was brought up by Brandon Purcell and Trent Long Engineers. The council made a unanimous motion to approve.
The 2021 Millage Rate was brought up next and the council voted a motion to leave said Millage Rate alone at seven mills.
Barb Parker has resigned from the Library Board and Tammy Goober brought a letter of recommendation for Sherry Long to take over. The motion was approved for a short-term position until June 2022.
The next item was dealing with the recent flooding/sewage leaks that have been plaguing Long County for the last couple of weeks. There has been a huge amount of rain in a number of places throughout Long County.
Mayor Jim Fuller expressed his concern over the situation and understood the complaints of those affected by it, but ultimately he was powerless to do anything until the water systems can adequately stop.
"There's nothing we can do until the water stops," said Mayor Fuller.
The council also declared that any damage to properties is the responsibility of the owner of said properties.
Another important item brought up Mayor Fuller was a huge problem with paper towels and hand towels clogging up motors.
He mentioned that the city is burning through a motor a month. Bottles of cleaning solutions burn up in different lift stations. He acknowledges that some things stored into these stations are an accident, but some are not.
Mayor Fuller would like to implore the citizenry to please stop using these materials and putting it into the sewer systems. If this continues to be a problem, the city may have to charge more for sewage.
"This is one of the biggest problems I've had," declared Mayor Fuller.
He went to further specify that one lift station has had to have motors put in three times and it is not even a year old.
He believes that the city would save so much money by not disposing baby wipes and hand towels into the sewage systems.
Savannah is facing the same problem and has been launching a series of PSAs to counterattack these same issues.
Mayor Fuller also brought up at the meeting that a city employee service truck needs a new transmission, but rather than getting a new transmission, he urges to get a new truck instead.
He believes it's a bad idea to spend more money on a transmission and would rather get a new one considering it is a 15-16 year old truck.