The cost to pick-up debris from Hurricane Helene in Columbia County could reach $80 or $100 million.
That information came from County Manager Scott Johnson during the Board of Commissioners meeting on Tuesday, Dec. 3, when asked for an update on how the clean-up is going. He added that the not to exceed amount was going to increase to $50 million.
“That is a tremendous amount of money. We are anticipating getting an advance funding from FEMA due to the work of (EMA director) Shawn (Granato) and the folks at EMA, (Deputy County Manager) Mr. (Glenn) Kennedy, the finance folks,” Johnson said. “We are looking to get some money back, approximately $23 million next week. We still have the majority of the portion of the $30 million I set aside, so I’m comfortable with the $50 million.”
But it is looking like that amount will increase past the $50 million with the county spending approximately $2.5 million a week on the clean-up.
“I’m not happy to report that it looks like we’re going to be closer to $80 or $100 million in debris clean-up in this county,” Johnson said. “Fortunately, we had all of our paperwork in place, we are fully reimbursable for that. FEMA is going to continue to work with us and continue to reimburse us.”
To date, Johnson said over 1.3 million cubic yards of debris has been picked up throughout the county and there’s plenty more to go.
Other business in the meeting
In other business, the commissioners approved three rezoning requests during the meeting. The first was a major planned residential development (PRD revision for several properties off Baker Place Road. This is a development that work began on in 2020, but changes have been made to avoid the wetlands nearby. These changes include the number of units on a property and having the carports match the houses to add to the outdoor space. The rezoning was approved 4-1 with District 1 Commissioner Connie Melear voting against.
The request to rezone 272 acres off Horizon South Parkway and Gateway Boulevard was also approved 4-1 with Melear voting against. The developers want to put a residential and commercial development on the property.
The third request was to rezone property off Horizon South Parkway from R-A (Residential Agricultural) to C-2 (General Commercial) and M-1 (Light Industrial). This request was unanimously approved.
“I voted against two of the three that took a piece of property that was originally meant for bigger lots, bigger homes and had more density on it,” Melear said. “While there’s a lot of growth out in Grovetown and I’m not against growth as it is, but density is not always our friend. That’s something I feel strongly about, not putting a lot of extra density into these developments and these PUDs.”
