The Columbia County Board of Commissioners ratified several items related to Hurricane Helene.
One item was ratifying was contract amendment number 1 with Ceres Environmental Services for disaster debris management services. County Manager Scott Johnson said the county has had the contract with Ceres for many years, but due to inflation, they requested a 7.5% increase in pricing.
“We felt comfortable with that, especially seeing some of the other contracts around the state of people who did not have a contract,” Johnson said. “The prices they we were negotiating were much higher than we had, even with the 7.5% increase. So that being the case, during the emergency declaration, I signed the amendment to the original contract to allow them to go ahead and move forward and we’re asking the board to go ahead and ratify that tonight.”
Johnson added that as the county moves forward with debris cleanup, the cost to clean the entire county will increase. Due to this, there will be more amendments to the contract.
“I gave them the authority to go to $1 million,” Johnson said. Obviously, we know we’re going to go past that. During the ice storm we went way past that. I’ll be giving the board further updates, but for the contract I’ll be giving them the additional approvals as necessary.”
He added that all the funds are reimbursable by FEMA.
Also ratified was resolution 24-44, which declared a local state of emergency for Hurricane Helene. Johnson said it had already been signed by Chairman Duncan, but needed the rest of the commissioners to sign.
Commissions also approved ratifying a commercial emergency work authorization with ServPro for Savannah Rapids Pavilion, which was damaged during the hurricane.
Commissioners also approved the second reading of ordinance 24-02 to amend Chapter 46 Health and Sanitation, Article V Body Art Section 46-117 client files. Deputy County Manager Matt Schlachter said the Department of Public Health has amended their rules, so the county ordinance must follow those rules.
“This rule changes basically lays out all information about the client that must be maintained by the artist,” Schlachter said. “(It) spells out word for word how they maintain those files, what the files have to include.”
Commissioners also approved a request to pay exempt employees for the hours worked during the office closures due to Hurricane Helene. While non-exempt employees were paid for the inclement weather closure, hours worked and then overtime, exempt (salaried) employees, were not. Because of this, Johnson was requesting they get paid for all the hours they worked during the storm.
“The request is that you pay just hour for hour, the hours the exempt employees worked,” Johnson said. “These are salaried employees, there’s an expectation and I would actually be okay if you didn’t want to pay mine, but for the rest of the staff I would ask that you pay them hour for hour at their normal rate.”
Johnson said that many of the members of the senior staff worked 18-hour days the first few days after Hurricane Helene hit. Later in the week, some worked 12-to-13-hour days. He said he believes the cost would be a little over $200,000 and the funds would be reimbursable. The biggest department would be the fire department at approximately $88,000 and then the water/utility department at approximately $60,000.
“I think the staff has worked very hard,” Commissioner Mike Carraway said. “I was told when is tarted this venture of being a commissioner how wonderful the staff (is). You proved it to me before this event and after this event. You deserve every bit of it and I’m honored to be able to vote in favor of that.”
